Cleantech people, money and deals: 2 - 6 Feb. 2009

Who made an executive move, garnered some much-needed funding, announced earnings or inked a business deal in cleantech this week? Following are some of the highlights:

• Trans-India Acquisition Corporation is liquidating and is calling off plans to acquire an 80-percent, $375 million stake in Solar Semiconductor;
• US four-star General Wesley Clark was named this week as a co-chairman of Growth Energy, a new ethanol industry group that’s “committed to the promise of agriculture and growing America’s economy through cleaner, greener energy”;
• Clipper Windpower, a wind-turbine manufacturer with offices in the US and UK, cut some 90 jobs in January as production fell by between 15 and 20 percent, Reuters reports;
• Massachusetts-based Evergreen Solar this week announced fourth-quarter 2008 revenues of $44.2 million (US), up from $22.1 million in the third quarter of last year;
• Power-One Inc., a provider of power conversion and management systems, reported that fourth-quarter 2008 sales declined by 1.5 percent over the previous year, with total net sales of $130.4 million;
• HelioVolt, a Texas-based producer of solar thin-film, announced this week that founder and CEO B.J. Stanbery will move to the position of chief strategy officer and board chairman, Earth2Tech reports;
• Startup AORA Energy, based in Israel, has raised $5 million in funding to build a solar thermal plant in the south of Israel, the Cleantech Group reports;
• Troy Runge, research director at the Kimberly-Clark Corporation, will become director of the Wisconsin Bioenergy Initiative based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison;
• Photovoltaics contractor Borrego Solar this week announced it had secured $14 million (US) in venture financing that will support the company’s geographic expansion.