Toronto-based wind and solar developer SkyPower Corp. filed for court protection from creditors last week because it simply couldn’t service its massive debt. The company is more than $250 million in debt, and it has defaulted on a $214 million chunk of that. The money was used to purchase 134 GE wind turbines for future projects, and Lehman — as majority owner — had been helping SkyPower financially. But after the investment banking giant went bankrupt, that support faded and SkyPower was left in a tough spot. The company is now hoping to orchestrate a sale of its assets — i.e. its development pipeline, its existing operational projects, and its stockpile of wind turbines — so it can satisify its German lender and continue on its development path.

Let’s hope the company can work it out. SkyPower is almost finished building a 9 megawatt solar farm north of Kingston that, when complete, will be the biggest in Canada. It also recently won a 20-year power-purchase contract with the Ontario Power Authority for a planned 64.5 megawatt wind farm in Prince Edward County, a couple hours east of Toronto. The company has a number of other solar and wind projects at various stages of development. It would be a shame to see these projects affected.

Ontario Power Generation released its second-quarter earnings on Friday and, little surprise, the province’s largest power generator saw its output drop by 19 per cent compared to a year earlier. A similar plunge was seen in the first quarter. Some of this drop has to do with conservation, good weather, and increased supply from private supplier of wind and gas-fired generation, but a big chunk has to do with the recession and its impact on a manufacturing-heavy province like Ontario.

But there is a silver lining. Ontario Power Generation saw its fossil-fuel generation, mostly coal, fall by a whopping two-thirds. It means that during the second quarter 91 per cent of electricity generated by OPG was free of greenhouse gases and other smog-causing emissions, thanks to our hydroelectric and nuclear fleet.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could hold the line on emissions as the economy recovers? (more…)

MIT Technology Review has a story, written by moi, about the $9.5 million in DOE funding that went to Toxco Ltd., the California-based battery recycler that is pretty much the only major game in town when it comes to recycling a full range of lithium-based batteries, at least in North America. The company’s lithium-ion recycling facility is based in Trail, British Columbia, but Toxco plans to use the DOE funding to establish a lithium recycling capability at its existing Ohio plant. When complete, it will be the first facility in the United States capable of recycling plug-in hybrid and all-electric car batteries.

But here’s the tricky part: plug-in vehicles that use lithium-ion chemistries are just now beginning to enter the market, and slowly. We’re not likely to see any kind of meaningful volume until about 2012. And then there’s a 10-year wait before most of these batteries get to a point where they need to be recycled. This long delay makes it difficult for a startup to enter the recycling business, so Toxco has an edge because it can simply scale up as volume builds.

Now, there’s a big debate in the industry about whether we’ll have enough lithium carbonate to supply what’s expected to be a massive market over the next decade. If you believe we’ll run into supply problems, then recycling is a pretty good thing to have as a way to reduce dependence on foreign lithium suppliers, such as Russia, China, and Bolivia. But even if there’s plentyof lithium to supply the market for the next few decades (after all, the amount of lithium used in an electric car battery is quite small), we still need to recycle the batteries if we truly want these cars to be “green.” So Toxco is in a very good position.

Nearly two years ago Magna Marque, a subsidiary of Magna International, quietly acquired a small company in Quebec called EPS Energy Propulsion Systems Inc., maker of the BionX e-bike kit. Manfred Gingl, founder and president of Magna Marque and former CEO of parent company Magna International, had a personal interest in bicycle technology and realized the market for e-bikes would be huge. Today, I have a story in the Toronto Star (sidebar here) that for the first time gives readers an inside look at what Magna is up to and how it plans to be a leading supplier of electric propulsion systems for bicycles and other mobile products, from paddle boats to three-wheeled urban vehicles. The company, quite simply, wants to be the Shimano of e-bikes. It already has supply agreements with Trek and is in serious talks with other bicycle manufacturers.

Aurora, Ont.-based Magna, of course, isn’t doing very well with its traditional business. It saw sales plummet 45 per cent in its most recent quarter, reported yesterday, and swung to a $205 million loss. The company, however, is gradually positioning itself as a leading supplier of drive trains and other components for the emerging electric car market, and has a partnership with Ford and other players to follow through with that vision. But Gingl’s view is that the e-bike opportunity will come faster than the electric car market, and the two nicely complement each other. Magna Marque can leverage battery and motor development taking place for the electric-car side of Magna’s business, giving it an edge over other competitors in the e-bike market.

The BionX system itself is, in my own view, quite impressive. I currently have a demo bike at home and enjoy the ride immensely. (more…)

I have a story in today’s Toronto Star about the leak nearly three weeks ago of a 38-minute telephone interview with EEStor founder and CEO Dick Weir. As others in the blogosphere have speculated, the audio recording that appeared on Yahoo Video (apologies, but in the story I incorrectly say it was on YouTube) was in fact a recording of a conference call between Dick Weir, representatives of ZENN, and representatives of Paradigm Capital and at least one of their institutional investor clients. Paradigm, which was co-leading a recent equity offering for ZENN, facilitated the call.

The president of Paradigm confirmed what happened but said it’s not known how the recording made it onto the Internet. ZENN, meanwhile, is arguing that the information within the interview is not material or was disclosed previously, so while the leak is embarrassing it’s not breaking any rules. Of course, I’m sure many of you out there who have heard the recording or read the script would beg to differ. It will be interesting to see how this controversy unfolds, and whether financial regulators in Canada decide to look into it further.