On the GreenBeat: $4.5 million for Ice Energy, Google could be building a “highway to nowhere”

Here’s the cleantech news GreenBeat is following today:

Financial services company TIAA-CREF announced it will put $50 million venture capital investments in energy efficient and green building technologies. The cash will be invested alongside VC investments made by cleantech investment firm Good Energies in a partnership between the two companies. So far, the partnership has invested $4.5 million in Ice Energy, which makes energy-efficient cooling systems. Side note: Good Energies also took a stake equal to Google’s in the Atlantic wind project announced last week.

Brazilian energy giant Petrobras will team with Danish enzyme maker Novozymes to create advanced biofuels, Reuters reports.

Demand for solar in the U.S. is growing, but financing is still scarce for big, billion-dollar projects that would be needed for the industry to catch up with the growth seen in places like Germany, the New York Times writes.

Could Google be building a “highway to nowhere“? NPR tackled the question over the weekend, pointing out that cross-state transmission lines — like the billion-dollar Atlantic seaboard offshore wind transmission project that Google is investing in — have to go through a “regulatory quagmire,” earning approval from state, federal and regional entities. The project aims to spur the development of offshore wind farms by first investing in transmission capacity, but it could be stalled by requirements that transmission-builders prove demand for the energy it will transmit — or by the failure of offshore wind farms built to service the line.

Wind-farm developer First Wind Holdings will raise up to $312 million from its initial public offering, selling 12 million shares between $24 and $26 each, Dow Jones Newswires reports. Of the amount raised, $98 million will go towards debt service.

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