Huntington Beach-based 808 Renewable Energy Corp. has filed an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise $4 million.
The start-up company seeks to sell 1 million shares of common stock and list on the American Stock Exchange or another trading board, according to a regulatory filing last Friday.
808 is focusing on cogeneration plants, which are small power stations that produce electricity for buildings by capturing steam and exhaust and convert it to electricity for a building’s heating and cooling system.
The plants, which are smaller than those run by a utility, are powered by natural gas and capture heat or exhaust gas that would otherwise be wasted. 808 acquires the plants, equips them with new engines, steam boilers and turbines, and then sells power back to the building operator.
It has spent at least $10 million buying and retrofitting power plants. Two of those deals are in Orange County at 3200 Park Center Drive in Costa Mesa and 333 S. Anita Drive in Orange.
808 is targeting functional, combined heat and power plants because they “rely on proven technology, are smaller in size and cost and provide a quicker path to revenue and earnings than newly developed projects,” the company said in regulatory filings.
808 had revenue of about $650,000 in 2011, up 170% from a year earlier.
It has lost about $10.5 million since being established in 2009.
The company faces some tough hurdles in the clean technology sector, which has seen a rash of negative headlines in the past year. Investments targeting the loosely-defined sector in the last 12 months have typically funded profitable companies or segments that lacked significant start-up capital.
808 had about $57,500 in working capital at the end of 2011, according to SEC filings.
In July the Business Journal reported the company raised nearly $470,000 in venture capital, but 808 didn’t disclose how it planned to use the proceeds.
