As automakers struggle to reinvent themselves amid falling demand, shifting regulations and, in the case of Detroit’s Big Three, decades of accumulated overhead, we’re seeing old lines between industries redrawn. In fact, it’s a web of alliances among automakers, utilities, insurers and nimble technology companies that ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Add this one to the string of hurdles General Motors faces on the road to a profitable Chevy Volt: Deploying public charging stations. While startups Better Place and Coulomb Technologies are building business models around dotting city streets with charge points for electric vehicles, GM sees […] Read more »
Last time General Motors revised its turnaround plan — after Congress soundly rejected draft No. 1 — the company said $7.7 billion in low-interest loans from the Department of Energy would help it make headway on cleaner cars. That’s how much the beleaguered automaker was planning […] Read more »
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Big Blue is taking to the seas, air and highways with tools for reducing the environmental impact — and cost — of shipping cargo. In partnership with Kyoto, Japan-based sensor equipment maker Omron Corp., IBM today unveiled a set of tools to help companies gather — […] Read more »
The three grid musketeers are at it again. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, energy magnate T. Boone Pickens and Center for American Progress Action Fund President and Chief Executive John Podesta kicked off a new policy push today, calling for the Obama administration to invest in […] Read more »
Coal: 1, Fish: 0: Overruling an appeals court decision that cost cannot be used to decide which technology will best minimize environmental impacts, the Supreme Court ruled today that the government can use cost-benefit analysis in deciding whether to order power plants to install upgrades that […] Read more »
If the clouds that hovered around the solar sector over the last few months have started to clear, they haven’t moved fast enough to prevent layoffs at two solar giants recently. GE Solar and BP Solar have axed more than 700 jobs. The deepest cuts are […] Read more »
Open standards for the new networked vehicle may come sooner than we thought. The U.S. Council for Automotive Research, an alliance of Detroit’s Big Three, has just issued new standards for high-voltage wiring and connectors in hybrid and electric vehicles — a move that could eventually […] Read more »
In a word, the draft energy bill unveiled yesterday by House Democrats, is “terrific.” That’s according to Erik Straser, who leads cleantech investment for Mohr Davidow Ventures. “Who knows if this will resemble what actually gets passed,” he said, “but we actually have a roadmap here […] Read more »
Clean energy, cap-and-trade, energy efficiency and green jobs — those are the four policy areas that the House Energy and Commerce Committee aims to work on in the coming months with a new bill unveiled today in draft form. Committee chairman Henry Waxman and Edward Markey, […] Read more »
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Attack of the Algae-Eaters: Shrimplike animals have devoured 159 square miles of artificially stimulated algae meant to capture carbon dioxide — casting serious doubt on ocean fertilization as a climate-control tool. — National Geographic On Their Marks: Malaysian automaker Proton and startup Detroit Electric plan to […] Read more »
In his first day at the helm of General Motors, Fritz Henderson wants to deliver one message: We’ll get the job done. Henderson repeated that pledge, in various ways, at a press conference this morning, saying that the automaker aims to quickly reinvent itself as a […] Read more »
Before unveiling the concept version of its Model S sedan, an $57,400 electric car that Tesla Motors wants to build using loans from the Department of Energy, the startup said the Model S battery would be designed to handle rapid charging. Last week, at the Model […] Read more »
Sunset for Solar?: Solar companies and investors who planned for silicon that was scarce and high-priced must adjust their business models for a glut that looms larger than most anyone expected. First Solar and other low-cost panel makers now face growing pressure on margins. — Barrons […] Read more »
Rick Wagoner — the 31-year General Motors veteran who worked his way up to CEO in 2000, allowed the company to drop its early lead in hybrid technology, pulled the plug on the EV-1 electric car development program, steered the company during an era of SUVs […] Read more »
Just hours after his auto task force announced that it had rejected General Motors and Chrysler’s turnaround plans, President Barack Obama stepped up to the White House podium to explain the task force decision, reassure the communities hardest hit by auto industry layoffs, and set the […] Read more »
Updated: A critical week lies ahead for the U.S. auto industry and GM’s Chevy Volt: On Monday, President Barack Obama is scheduled to reveal the next chapter in the government’s bailout plan, announcing the first recommendations from his auto task force, which test drove GM’s plug-in […] Read more »
For anyone who’s ever borrowed a car through Zipcar or San Francisco’s City CarShare program, and then grumbled over the fact that the meter runs until you return it to Point A, when you want to stay at Point B (been there, done that), prepare for […] Read more »
If you have your eye on a 50 MPG gen-3 Prius hybrid or a 150 MPG plug-in Volt, the new CAFE standards won’t seem like much. But the Department of Transportation’s plan to require automakers’ car and truck lineups to have an average fuel efficiency of […] Read more »
Back in January, when we reported on the slew of electric cars rolling out at the Detroit Auto Show, we questioned whether the EV renaissance had really arrived. While electric cars had seized center stage, hybrid vehicles were much closer to having a significant impact on […] Read more »
Today’s the big day: The Apple-esque unveiling of Tesla Motors’ latest concept car: a $57,400 electric sedan called the Model S. Tesla just pulled the sheets off two prototypes — one silver and one white — at the Los Angeles headquarters of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s […] Read more »
Tesla Motors’ Model S sedan has had a long and bumpy ride. On Thursday afternoon, the all-electric car with the $57,400 price tag will be unveiled in prototype at a launch party to be held at the Southern California headquarters of CEO Elon Musk’s other startup, […] Read more »
Bigger in Texas: The state senate in Texas is considering so many proposals to boost state incentives for solar power this week that the entire legislative session has been dubbed the “solar session.” The state aims to ramp up solar production and dominate the sector. –NYT’s […] Read more »
What can software do for mass transit? It can help cut delays, increase uptime, reduce emissions and slash fuel costs, according to IBM, which has just unveiled a new “smart rail” project in China. The company has already rolled out software for high-speed rail projects in […] Read more »
The winner of the LaunchPad event was Wattbot while the audience liked FarmsReach. For details on each presenter, see below: Visible Energy: The company unveiled its first product today, the UFO Powerstrip Launch: It has an iPhone interface and provides real-time feedback on energy use. You […] Read more »
Nissan Motor Co. and the Renault-Nissan Alliance, which signed on last year to supply cars and batteries for the Better Place network planned for Israel, has made yet another move to electrify the vehicle market. But if Nissan’s latest play — a partnership with Sempra Energy […] Read more »
President Barack Obama isn’t the only one who thinks cleantech entrepreneurs have a big role to play in rebuilding the U.S. economy. Redpoint Ventures seems to agree — and it’s betting that a deeper understanding of technologies for clean energy generation, storage and efficiency will help […] Read more »
Toshiba Delays Fuel Cell Launch: Toshiba said today it will not begin selling its first fuel cell product — a battery charger that produces electricity from a reaction between methanol, water and air — before the end of this month, as planned. The launch is now […] Read more »
President Obama last week visited an electric vehicle R&D lab in California where he called on battery developers to step up and innovate. Today, back at the White House, the President once again reached out to cleantech entrepreneurs, this time at an event dubbed “Investing In […] Read more »
In the midst of a solar shakeout, lending for utility-scale solar projects could plunge by as much as 17 percent, to 10 billion euros (about $13.5 billion) this year, according to a recent note from Commerzbank AG cited in Bloomberg today. Sven Hansen, chief investment officer […] Read more »
If “massive” is the first word that comes to mind in describing a supposedly green home, chances are you have an oxymoron on your hands. So before Google cofounder Larry Page gets too far with his plans to build a two-story, 6,000-square-foot, four-bedroom, GreenPoint-rated house next […] Read more »
Department of Energy chief Steven Chu wasn’t kidding about accelerating the agency’s loan guarantee program. The DOE today offered Fremont, Calif.-based thin-film solar startup Solyndra a $535 million loan guarantee to help finance a new manufacturing plant for cylindrical solar panels in California. This is the […] Read more »
Layoffs continue to blow through the wind industry, even despite recent government efforts to build up the sector and spur green job growth. Acciona Windpower’s workforce has taken the latest hit. The company, a subsidiary of Spain’s Acciona Energia, announced yesterday that it will cut 65 […] Read more »
Not What It Sounds Like: Porsche has gone solar. No, not by slapping solar panels on cars, but by installing its first U.S. solar array at a California logistics facility. — Fast Company Building a Better Subsidy: For the first time, clean energy developers can choose […] Read more »
We hear a different version of the same story every day: The budgets of U.S. consumers and businesses are under massive strain, and unemployment is climbing. But a new report from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy says a national efficiency standard could fatten up those […] Read more »
Earlier this year, the nonprofit policy group Next 10 released a report on how energy efficiency and clean technology has provided stimulus for California’s economy — lending a fresh set of data to back up something we’ve noted more than once: The U.S. might do well […] Read more »
What U.S. lawmakers are hoping to do with part of the $787 billion stimulus package, organizers of this year’s Clean Tech Open want to do with a million bucks: create green jobs. Adapting their annual competition to the current economy, organizers this year are calling on […] Read more »
China “Absolutely Opposed” to Chu’s Tariff Idea: China’s top negotiator for climate treaties has called a U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s recent suggestion to consider new duties on imports from countries that don’t try to limit their carbon emissions “an excuse to impose trade restrictions.” — […] Read more »
Back in January, Tesla Motors had plans, by most reports, to start producing 30 all-electric luxury Roadsters per week by this “spring.” Here we are on the season’s doorstep, and word has come in a newsletter from Tesla CEO Elon Musk that the startup now expects […] Read more »
Less than six months after Michigan lost one high-profile R&D center for alternative-fuel vehicles (that of Tesla Motors, shuttered last fall), the state has wooed another: Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz Hybrid subsidiary plans to build a $9.9 million R&D facility in southeast Michigan for propulsion systems that […] Read more »
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