US-based clean energy company Boulder Wind Power (BWP) closed a series B round of funding totalling $35m yesterday, with US-based mining corporation Molycorp among the investors.
BWP raised $8m in February in a round led by venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA). As well as providing BWP’s initial seed financing in 2009, NEA also contributed to the series B round.
Mark Smith, chief executive of Molycorp, said: Boulder Wind Power’s innovative technology promises to dramatically accelerate the global deployment of high-efficiency, advanced wind turbines. By effectively solving the dysprosium supply problem for the wind turbine industry, this technology removes a major hurdle to the expansion of permanent magnet generator wind turbines across global markets."
Smith added: "This investment also furthers Molycorp’s ‘mine-to-magnets’ business strategy, and our commitment to manufacturing value-added ‘green energy materials,’ by providing us with potentially large markets for the magnetic rare earth materials we will produce."
BWP’s wind turbines operate by using a unique system of rare earth magnets to cut wind energy production costs. As the western hemisphere’s largest producer of rare earth oxides, Molycorp’s involvement with the company will also grant BWP a reliable source to the materials it needs.