Ford’s $550M Electric Focus Factory: Ford plans to invest $550 million retooling a truck and SUV plant in Wayne, Mich. to build subcompact cars, including an electric version of the Ford Focus developed in partnership with Magna International. — Detroit Free Press Carbon Cap/Tax Throwdown:Is all […] Read more »
Transit buses may seem an unlikely sector to ever warrant the term “hot,” but a growing number of startups working on next-gen hybrid and electric vehicle technology are looking to buses as a way to weather the downturn and capitalize on shifts in the global economy. […] Read more »
For Deeya Energy, good things come in threes. The Fremont, Calif.-based startup, which is working on energy storage technology for three applications — replacing diesel generators, stockpiling renewable energy, and stabilizing the electric grid — has just closed a third round of financing. The oversubscribed $30 […] Read more »
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Uncle Sam, Hybrid Car Salesman: Soon the Obama administration and whoever is running GM and Chrysler will have to confront the challenge of how to sell the cars they want America to buy, given that demand for hybrid sales has plummeted. — Wall Street Journal Gaga […] Read more »
Chinese automakers have a strategic reason to move quickly toward electric cars: the legacy car companies in North America, Europe and Japan haven’t yet mastered the technology. According to a new forecast from research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, that’s part of why China-based Chery, […] Read more »
3TIER began with immodest ambitions, dubbing its plan to measure and map the planet’s total wind, solar and hydro power potential the “REmapping the World” initiative. Back in October 3TIER showed off a slick high-resolution map of solar resources in the Western Hemisphere displayed using Google […] Read more »
EPA Ethanol Rule on the Way: The U.S. EPA is slated to release a draft of the updated Renewable Fuels Standard this week that will set the course for how emissions from biofuels production and use are measured — and test the Obama administration’s approach to […] Read more »
General Motors’ European subsidiary, Opel, is up for grabs. It says it needs $4.3 billion to survive the downturn, and private equity investors, along with Italian automaker Fiat SpA and parts maker Magna International — the Canadian company whose supply contract with electric sportscar startup Tesla […] Read more »
With $24.6 million in venture capital and a technology that the Department of Energy found impressive enough to award a $3 million grant to help speed its deployment, 2-year-old Skyline Solar isn’t off to a bad start. According to co-founder and CEO Bob MacDonald, the startup […] Read more »
Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm has made a big push in recent months to lure battery makers to her state with hundreds of millions of dollars in tax credits and other incentives. Granholm is betting that millions more in stimulus dollars allocated for batteries — and thousands […] Read more »
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China Mulls Carbon Tax: Government researchers in China are expected to issue preliminary proposals for a carbon tax within a month. Yes, carbon tax. In china. — Reuters Gov. Palin Rejects Stimulus Bucks for Energy: — Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has rejected stimulus funds for the […] Read more »
The hours-old tie-up between Italy’s Fiat Auto and Chrysler, which finally toppled over the brink and filed for Chapter 11 today, is no Renault-Nissan. As we noted earlier this year when Chrysler chief Bob Nardelli (who’s now stepping down) announced Fiat’s 35 percent equity interest in […] Read more »
It’s been around for a decade, but Zipcar, the country’s largest car-sharing company, didn’t start to hit its stride until about two years ago, when it began focusing on college campuses around the country in the hopes of keeping students on as subscribers once they graduate […] Read more »
Renewable Energy Standards Hullabaloo: For all the excitement over a national clean energy mandates, actually putting one in place won’t much change the future energy mix—or the cost of electricity, according to a new analysis from the Energy Information Administration. — WSJ’s Environmental Capital Musk on […] Read more »
Chrysler isn’t the only automaker facing bankruptcy. Electric truck and SUV startup Phoenix Motorcars has filed for Chapter 11 (hat tip AutoblogGreen) and will have its day in court today — bankruptcy court, that is. The Ontario, Calif.-based company, backed by Dubai-based investor Al Yousuf, is […] Read more »
San Diego, Calif., has one very high-profile player in the algae game — Sapphire Energy, which counts Bill Gates and the Rockefeller family among its backers and has the ambitious goal of producing a million gallons of algae-based diesel and jet fuel per year by 2011. […] Read more »
Tesla Model S Test Drive: The first person outside of the company to drive Tesla’s Model S concept car says the vehicle is “just barely ambulatory — more like a glorified golf cart than a harbinger of tomorrow tech.” — LA Times Segway Maker’s Next Step: […] Read more »
Evidently teamwork was just a little too blah for the mayors of San Francisco and Portland, Ore. While last month the governors of California, Oregon and Washington said they wanted to build a “B.C. to Baja green highway,” with alternative fuel and charging stations along the […] Read more »
Location-based services, at last, are beginning to hit their stride after years of promise. Last year, the number of applications using geolocation to enhance their functionality skyrocketed as Apple rolled out its iPhone, and the research firm RNCOS recently forecast that the global LBS market would ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Policymakers and academics agree: Capturing greenhouse gas emissions and shoving them permanently underground is a nice idea, in theory, but it needs more research. Some of the loudest advocates of cleaner coal technology (exhibit A: Duke Energy) haven’t been putting up the cash to actually develop […] Read more »
NEA Clears $2B With Latest Fund: New Enterprise Associates, which has backed Bloom Energy, Gridpoint and Serious Materials, has just added another $1 billion to its 13th fund, bringing the total to $2.15 billion. — VentureBeat Musk on Letterman: Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk is scheduled […] Read more »
An issue near and dear to Silicon Valley — financing for high-risk clean energy projects in the midst of a recession — took center stage on Capitol Hill this morning, as the Senate Committee on Natural Resources delved into the nitty gritty of proposed changes to […] Read more »
Bureaucracy’s a pain. But Energy Secretary Steven Chu seems to have found a way around it, launching a high-risk, $415 million clean energy research program just over a month after his task force told him it would take a year to get the program up and […] Read more »
Where’s the Beef, GM?: General Motors outlined a revised viability plan today, including plans to keep development of the Chevy Volt on track — but it neglected to address the federal auto task force’s criticism that the Volt is expensive eye-candy, not a mass market solution […] Read more »
Quercus Trust has just made yet another plug-in play. The stealthy private equity investor — whose quiet cleantech investments include plug-in hybrid propulsion startup Odyne and ultracapacitor developer Graphene Energy — led a $12 million round of Series A investment in ETV Motors, a year-old electric […] Read more »
With Congress now waist deep in the climate and energy bill proposed by Chairman Henry Waxman and Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey last month, running against the clock to push through a version by year’s end — if not by Memorial Day — we think it’s time […] Read more »
Wiggle Room for U.S. on Climate Pact: A spokesperson for the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat said today that “there is a bit of leeway” for countries like the U.S. to come up with ideas for a UN climate pact after the April 24 deadline. — […] Read more »
Starting next week, the meaning of “green building,” at least in a technical sense, will change depending on where you live. On Monday, the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) will launch the third version of its LEED rating system for green buildings, and […] Read more »
The California Air Resources Board, that thorn in the sides of automakers and the Bush-era EPA, has just approved the country’s first mandate for low-carbon fuels. The new rule, which won a landslide 9-1 victory yesterday at the state agency, will require producers, refiners, importers and […] Read more »
Despite what much of the coal industry likes to say about “clean coal,” capturing and storing carbon emissions from coal power plants remains an experimental technology that’s unproven at commercial scale. Powerspan Corp., however, has just pocketed $50 million in new financing from a heavy-hitting group […] Read more »
Lately, when Google.org has gotten involved with the workings of Capitol Hill, it has called for transparency and open standards, and promoted its PowerMeter tool. Today Dan Reicher, Google.org’s director of climate and energy initiatives, put another Google initiative — that of enhanced geothermal systems — […] Read more »
Did we mention that energy management tools are suddenly sexy in the downturn? The worse the market gets, the hotter technologies that can save energy look. So in the midst of hard times for cleantech sectors, EPS Corp., an 8-year-old startup making an energy efficiency tool […] Read more »
Automakers, by and large, are willing to accept the idea of charging infrastructure for plug-in vehicles. Those that have hopped onto the plug-in wave, such as General Motors with its extended-range electric Volt, and Nissan, which showed off an EV prototype in Tennessee earlier yesterday, say […] Read more »
Earth Day, in recent years, has become a frenzied media event for all things labeled green. But there is a signal amid the noise. Want to find it? Check out these 20 headlines on today’s energy, climate and cleantech policy announcements, plus helpful context and analysis […] Read more »
Last year the businesses of energy storage company Ener1 was closely tied with electric vehicle maker Think. When Think hit the financial skids late last year and was denied government aid, Ener1, whose subsidiary EnerDel has a $70 million battery supply contract with Think, swooped in […] Read more »
Just as grid parity is the holy grail for the solar industry, price parity with conventional mass-market vehicles is the holy grail for today’s plug-in car makers. Startups like Fisker Automotive, whose CEO Henrik Fisker spoke on a panel today at the Fortune Brainstorm Green conference […] Read more »
We can’t say it’s terribly slick, but Bright Automotive’s first concept vehicle — unveiled this morning at an event in Washington, D.C. — could do the job for commercial and government fleets. That’s where the startup envisions its plug-in hybrid model making inroads in less than […] Read more »
Greener Utilities: According to a new analysis from the DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, more than 850 utilities across the U.S. now offer green power programs, with wind making up the biggest chunk of renewables. Utilities in Texas, Oregon and California ranked among the top ten […] Read more »
First it was personal computers — that’s where Moore’s Law, which dictates that the number of transistors on a chip doubles every 24 months, made its mark as a tech industry maxim that could turn geeks into millionaires. Then came the next version, with cell phones […] Read more »
“One thing I’ll tell you for sure: our ability to forecast has been just horrible,” Bill Ford, the executive chairman of Ford Motor Co. said late Monday in an onstage interview at the Fortune Brainstorm Green conference. While the company has brought in a legion of […] Read more »
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