The first generation of Chevy Volt extended-range electric cars, at the center of General Motors’ financial viability plan, has yet to hit showrooms. But that (along with its financial troubles) hasn’t kept GM from working on generations two and three, the company said in a call […] Read more »
Drill, Maybe, Drill: As the Obama administration outlines its energy plans, it’s caught between oil companies calling for follow-through on Obama’s pledge to support some expansion of offshore oil drilling, and environmental groups, who want a drilling ban to be reinstated. — New York Times Cash […] Read more »
Energy baron T. Boone Pickens has been loud and clear with his message about fuels for commercial fleet vehicles and heavy-duty trucks: Natural gas is the way to go. “A battery will not move an 18-wheeler,” he’s wont to say. But the Pickens Plan isn’t just […] Read more »
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A breakthrough that could propel electric cars to the mass market — that’s the buzz about a recent study out of MIT. Here’s the gist of the research, published in the journal Nature: Scientists Byoungwoo Kang and Gerbrand Ceder tweaked the surface structure of lithium ion […] Read more »
Take the salt or waste out of undrinkable water, and what do you get? The product of a market poised to swell to 54 trillion liters per year by 2020 – triple the global desalinated water supply in 2008. According to a new report from Lux Research, […] Read more »
Toyota Feels the Heat from Honda on Hybrids: Toyota may cut the price of its Prius down to $19,250 in Japan to match Honda’s new Insight Hybrid. — Bloomberg Feds Figure Out Permitting for Ocean Energy Projects: Two federal agencies have finally ended a turf war […] Read more »
The President of the United States doesn’t often tour garages. But this week, President Barack Obama plans to stop in at a plug-in hybrid and electric car test lab in Pomona, Calif., which includes the so-called “garage of the future” — a grid-connected, solar-powered green car […] Read more »
The notion of maverick Silicon Valley automakers rising up to take down Motor City — a popular one in the early days of electric sports car startup Tesla Motors — was never entirely accurate. Fisker Automotive, Think and others making a serious go at developing electric […] Read more »
Chu on OPEC: Energy Secretary Steven Chu said yesterday he was “pleased” that OPEC had decided against further cuts in oil production. He also urged continued focus on ending dependence on foreign oil and “investing in new clean energy sources that will put Americans to work […] Read more »
Making an entire country or U.S. state carbon neutral would “rock the world,” at least according to former President Bill Clinton. He suggested that move (along with 10 specific policy points) in a speech at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas last summer. Since […] Read more »
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Now that green jobs Advocate in Chief Van Jones has a direct line to the White House (he joined the administration this week as an adviser) and the billions of dollars allocated in the stimulus package with a promise to create millions of jobs are starting […] Read more »
Military applications for clean technology have caught our eye in the past — from mobile fuel-cell systems designed for the battlefield to the massive solar installation at Nevada’s Nellis Air Force Base. Yesterday, in a call with shareholders, energy storage company Ener1 said it, too, has […] Read more »
Oil Demand Set to Drop: Today the International Energy Agency lowered its estimate for 2009 global oil demand, saying demand will drop for two years in a row for the first time since 1982-1983. — Associated Press Feed-in Tariff Pitfalls: Feed-in tariffs have enabled Germany and […] Read more »
The Ontario Power Authority bolted ahead of its North American neighbors in creating a feed-in tariff for renewable energy back in 2007 — basically agreeing to buy clean energy from its customers at a set rate over a certain period of time. But the Canadian province’s […] Read more »
Innovative smart grid technology and ambitious new solar farms can be a lot more thrilling than power line regulation, but it’s the nitty gritty of that third piece that could have a significant effect on how, when and where clean energy projects and smart grid tech […] Read more »
Going Gets Tougher for Newbies: Despite the long-term promise of clean energy, a new report from Clean Edge forecasts revenues will “remain level or decrease slightly” until global credit markets are restored and investor confidence returns, with the hardest hits being dealt to new technologies and […] Read more »
“Ideal” is not a word often associated with the U.S. auto industry these days. But the chief executive of Norway-based electric car maker Think sees potential for it to move in that direction with electric vehicles. “The U.S. is quickly overtaking Europe as an attractive market […] Read more »
A four-month-old coalition of mega corporations calling for policies to spur clean energy development and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. by the end of the year has just added three more heavyweights to its ranks: Gap, eBay and Symantec. Ceres, a network of investors, […] Read more »
Shell, Codexis Getting Cozy: Royal Dutch Shell has taken a bigger stake in biofuel technology company Codexis, aiming to commercialize next-generation biofuels by 2013 and grabbing a second seat on the Codexis board. — VentureBeat Van Jones to Advise White House on Green Jobs: Van Jones, […] Read more »
Venture capital firms based in Israel have another dry year ahead of them. While deals between Israel’s VCs and cleantech startups picked up momentum in recent years, especially in the solar power and water-tech sectors, they’re in for a slowdown: Israeli venture capital funds are expected […] Read more »
What a tangled web the federal government has woven with the FutureGen project. Last week, we wrote about a new show of support from Energy Secretary Steven Chu for the scuttled public-private initiative to build a cleaner coal plant with experimental technology for capturing and storing […] Read more »
A shakeout may be underway for the solar sector, but one manufacturer, Norway-based NorSun, has just made a deal that could help carry it through the downturn. The company has raised 1.15 billion NOK (about $163 million) to expand its production of silicon wafers and ingots […] Read more »
The Senate passed a catch-all $410 billion spending bill Tuesday that’s packed with appropriations for 12 cabinet departments and lower federal agencies. Several hefty investments for clean energy, climate science and energy efficiency made their way into the act, with multimillion-dollar increases on the way for […] Read more »
The way Bright Automotive CEO John Waters tells it, General Motors forgot any lessons learned from its first foray into electric vehicles. Waters, who headed up design for GM’s initial EV-1 project, is skeptical that a hulking steel platform like GM’s Chevy Volt can be economical. […] Read more »
EPA Reveals Emission Reporting Plan: The U.S. EPA proposed a comprehensive system for reporting greenhouse gas emissions today. The new rule would cover some 13,000 facilities, affect automakers, fossil fuel suppliers and heavy industry and go into effect next year. — Reuters Tesla: Trust Us, It’s […] Read more »
Some six months ago, the venture capital community saw 2009′s cleantech investments as having about as many storm clouds as Sand Hill Road in July — which is to say, very few. With the economic downturn, though, the outlook has changed, as a growing portion of […] Read more »
Electric car makers and clean energy developers can’t take all the credit for a battery boom, but they have earned a nod from analysts for their potential to boost an industry already on the rise. According to new research from SBI Reports, the market for rechargeable […] Read more »
Alt-Fuel Freeway: The governors of California, Oregon and Washington are considering a plan to make Interstate 5 a “green freeway,” installing batter charging and swap stations, plus biodiesel, ethanol, hydrogen and compressed natural gas fuel pumps along the West Coast route from Canada to Mexico. — […] Read more »
Energy Secretary Steven Chu has made it clear from Day 1 that he intends to get long-delayed loans out the door ASAP. Now he has knocked out one of the obstacles he saw creating drag for the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing incentive program: a set of […] Read more »
Hoping to dust itself off after the global credit crunch forced it to halt production a few months ago, Norwegian car maker Think is gunning to launch the all-electric City in the U.S. by next year. Think has long intended to bring its vehicles stateside, starting […] Read more »
As lawmakers in Washington, D.C., gear up for a battle over climate legislation, the mayors of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose on the other coast have joined hands to coordinate city policies for clean energy, greenhouse gas emissions, water use and waste, and to generally […] Read more »
Six months ago, Element Partners Managing Partner David Lincoln heard a persistent question about cleantech investment, according to a Philadelphia Business Journal report: Was cleantech in the midst of a bubble? Excitement over growth in the industry had started to jack up the cost of investments. […] Read more »
FutureGen, a planned 275 MW cleaner coal demo project, essentially bit the dust last year when the Bush administration pulled funding. But with support from top officials in the new administration, the effort to build a coal-fired power plant equipped with experimental carbon capture technology has […] Read more »
This sounds familiar: An alternative-fuel luxury sports car startup promises to get affordable green cars into production for the mass market — if the Department of Energy comes through with a loan. Back in November, the startup was Tesla Motors: CEO Elon Musk said Tesla could […] Read more »
Better Place Founder and CEO Shai Agassi’s vision of building out charging infrastructure and battery-swapping stations for electric vehicles was never going to be easy to implement. But turmoil in the world’s financial markets and mounting deficits in government budgets have raised new hurdles for the […] Read more »
Ford Sees EV-Filled Future: Ford Motor Co expects electric vehicles to represent a “major portion” of its lineup within 10-12 years, according to CEO Alan Mulally. — Reuters Mitsubishi Moves Into Solar: Mitsubishi Corp. has bought a 34 percent stake in the world’s largest photovoltaic power […] Read more »
A dig through biofuel maker Changing World Technologies’ SEC filings earlier this week (prompted by a report from southwest Missouri’s Carthage Press) revealed the signs of a company teetering on the brink. Yesterday CWT confirmed our take on the company’s dire situation, announcing late in the […] Read more »
When the editors of GreenBiz.com released their first State of Green Business report, they included a simple question about jobs (as noted in an interesting Gristmill post): How many jobs are being created through all of the kinds of activities measured in this report? The answer: […] Read more »
For automakers, this year’s annual industry trade shows have been exercises in restraint. Their challenge? Flaunt the shiniest, greenest, fastest and most futuristic vehicles in their lineups, all while appearing frugal in a way befitting the gloomy state of the both industry and the global economy. […] Read more »
Cleantech Deep Dive: The first report in a thorough three-part series on how companies are navigating this make-or-break period for cleantech looks at why startups that look a little like Google may be the big winners. — CNET’s Green Tech Green Dreams Dashed: The 2007 climate […] Read more »
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