Former VP Al Gore has gone all cleantech VC, so why can’t a presidential candidate use a cleantech venture fund as a platform for election? Illinois Senator Barack Obama said on Wednesday that, if elected, he would create a ‘Clean Technologies Deployment Venture Capital Fund’ backed […] Read more »
J. Craig Venter says he expects biology to largely replace what has been created by the oil industry. If anyone can comfortably make a statement like that to a room full of venture capitalists, it’s Venter. The genomics guru, who has had his own genome sequenced […] Read more »
Gore NOT Donating VC Stock Options: From the AP, “The donation does not include stock options. Typically, a tiny fraction of a venture capitalist’s compensation is salary; the vast majority of wealth comes from sale of stock options when the companies the firm invests in are […] Read more »
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Biofuels, specifically corn-based ethanol, are being blamed for everything from rising food prices and famine to the degradation of land for biocrops (allowing Canada to breathe a sigh of relief). A lot of these critiques are spot on, but when complex politics are involved, it can […] Read more »
Fat Spaniel Raises $3M More: VentureWire says solar management software and hardware startup Fat Spaniel has raised a $3 million bridge round, and raising $20 million for a Series B round — VentureBeat via VentureWire. Canadian Fund Props Up Hybrid Rail: One of Canada’s largest pension […] Read more »
He has the Nobel Peace Prize and an Academy Award for his eco-work, what more could the former Vice President do for green technology? Ah yes, help a Silicon Valley venture firm invest in it. The word is out this morning that Al Gore will join […] Read more »
A lot of oil companies are dead set against bioplastics, according to Trellis Earth CEO Bill Collins. Since plastics are largely made out of petroleum, many of the oil companies that own bioplastic IP won’t bring the plant-based technology to market, Collins contends. And that creates […] Read more »
Witness the jockeying between rival chipmakers Intel (INTC) and AMD (AMD) over whose chips are more energy-efficient, and it’s clear that power-saving chips are the future of the semiconductor industry. Intel is set to show off its latest line of 45-nanometer processors — code-named Penryn — […] Read more »
Wind energy company Iberdrola Renovables is slated to raise between $5.8 billion and $7.3 billion through its IPO on the Madrid Stock Exchange next month in what The Wall Street Journal calls “the world’s largest renewable-energy flotation.” Numbers like that are enough to make any energy […] Read more »
Wal-Mart’s Current and Former Green Guru Speak: TreeHugger interviews former Wal-Mart sustainability leader Andy Ruben, and the man that has replaced him Matt Kissler — TreeHugger. NYT’s Business of Green: If you have a chunk of time on your hands (the weekend?) read over the New […] Read more »
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Whether it is made using enzymes or thermochemicals, ethanol, the biofuel that has swiftly become a hot-button political issue, requires many steps to produce. And for each step of the process there are startups attempting to develop innovative technologies that bring down the cost of production. […] Read more »
Ballard has found a buyer. The nearly three-decades-old forefather of the fuel cell industry, Ballard Power Systems (BLDP), says it has agreed to sell its automotive fuel cell business to Daimler (DAI) and Ford (F). Earlier this week the Vancouver, B.C.-based hydrogen fuel cell developer confirmed […] Read more »
First Solar Soars: “First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR) is trading so well after-earnings that it might be thought of as “First Stellar,” with shares up 14% at $190.00 in after-hours trading — MarketWatch. Applied Invests in Plextronics: Plextronics, a Pittsburgh, Pa.-based startup developing organic semiconductors for thin film […] Read more »
Plastic production accounts for 4 percent of U.S. energy consumption, and plastic goods generate millions of tons of waste in landfills across the country each year. Talk about bad for the environment. With such an obvious need for greener plastics, it’s no wonder startups and industrial […] Read more »
Massachusetts Going Biofuel-Friendly: A Massachusetts legislative package proposes mandates and incentives to promote biofuels — Boston.com. Energy Star Computer Update: The EPA says the next generation of Energy Star computers offers over $1 billion in energy savings, and already has 500 newly qualified product models already […] Read more »
Silicon Valley’s electric car startup Tesla has a roster of celebrity customers that have signed up to buy the $100,000 eye-candy feel-good vehicle — George Clooney, Matt Damon, Gavin Newsom. The latest star customer to blog about a recent test drive is everybody’s favorite Red Hot […] Read more »
When Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates had solar panels installed on his home three years ago, he was fortunate enough to be able to pay for them, up front, in cash. Most aren’t so well-off. The up-front capital costs of residential solar — around $15,000 to $20,000 […] Read more »
Companies working on cellulosic ethanol — biofuel made from non-food crops and plant waste — have been racing to be the first to build a commercial plant in the U.S. This morning Khosla-backed startup Range Fuels said it has officially “broken ground” on its plant in […] Read more »
LED Startup Lights Up Financing: LED Lighting Fixtures, (LLF) which unsurprisingly makes light fixtures for LED light sources, says it has raised $16.5 million in equity financing led by Digital Power Capital — release. As Oil Price Rises, Clean Energy Costs Creeping Up Too?: That’s not […] Read more »
The solar thermal startup Ausra only started talking publicly in September, but already the Khosla and Kleiner Perkins-backed Silicon Valley company is one of the more high-profile cleantech startups around. This morning, Ausra provided additional details about a planned solar thermal power plant in California and […] Read more »
It might elicit protests from the college crowd, but university and corporate research partnerships are a lifeline for emerging innovation in the cleantech industry. There was two more of these big academia/big industry cleantech unions this week. This morning BP and Arizona State University, as well […] Read more »
Unlike the “green guerillas,” IBM believes in the power of financial markets to help fight climate change — and bring in customers. This morning, Big Blue said it will offer customers “energy efficiency certificates” in exchange for reducing the energy consumption of their data centers. Participants […] Read more »
The burgeoning carbon trading industry is getting prominent enough to have its very own “greenwash guerillas.” These two eco-activists briefly take over the podium at a New York carbon trading conference, offer attendees a “Deed to the Sky,” and declare carbon trading a scam. OK, so […] Read more »
Golden Soybeans: A team of researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia have discovered how to make gold nanoparticles chemical-free by using only gold salts, soybeans and water — Eureka Alert. TeleSoft Taps Energy Software: VC firm TeleSoft Partners says it has acquired a majority interest in […] Read more »
We were wondering when Vinod Khosla would divulge information about his latest biofuel play, KiOR. The first time we heard about the company was when the venture capitalist briefly mentioned the company’s name during a speech earlier this month. At that time he described the startup […] Read more »
We already covered the news that Sunnyvale,Calif.-based Serious Materials was in the process of raising a whopping $50 million Series B round. Well the company confirmed today that it has closed that $50 million investment, which was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Foundation Capital and […] Read more »
Atraverda Raises $21.4M: Atraverda, a materials-based startup that uses a conductive ceramic technology to reduce lead in batteries, announced it has closed a Series B financing round of $21.4 million — release. Green Wood Label Systems Under Fire: The Forest Stewardship Council says some companies using […] Read more »
The green initiatives roll out of Google so fast and furiously, we have a hard time keeping track of them all: a massive corporate solar system, more renewable energy plans on the way, and hybrid car investments, to name just a few. This morning Googlers launched […] Read more »
Everyone from Google’s “green energy czar” to Vinod Khosla to several well-funded startups are looking at solar thermal as one way to offer massive amounts of utility-scale clean energy. But what about solar thermal on a smaller scale — even on rooftops? Honolulu-based Sopogy thinks there […] Read more »
Google Hearts Renewables: The Googlers have the largest corporate installation of solar around, but they want more renewables and intend to generate 50 megawatts of electricity from clean sources by 2012 — CNET. Power Plant Mercury Under Fire: “In 2005, about 500 electricity-generating power plants emitted […] Read more »
We just watched the winners of this year’s California Cleantech Open accept their awards. Perhaps the best indicator of the importance of this competition is the success of last year’s recipients — solar startup GreenVolts, for example, said this evening that it’s raised $10 million in […] Read more »
What better way to find up-and-coming cleantech startups than to follow a business plan competition for just-out-of-the-lab companies with little funding. Tonight, the California Cleantech Open announced six winners in the categories of “Air,Water and Waste,” “Energy Efficiency,” “Green Building,” “Renewables,” “Smart Power,” and “Transportation.” We […] Read more »
EnerNOC (ENOC), which sells demand response and energy management services to commercial and industrial customers, was one of the rare successful exits in the cleantech world — the Boston-based company went public earlier this year, netting nearly $100 million. Today, the company filed to offer 4 […] Read more »
Shai Agassi, the entrepreneur who, at one time, was expected to take over the CEO role at SAP, said today that he has formed “Project Better Place,” a venture focusing on electric vehicles, and is raising an initial $200 million to fund the project. When Agassi […] Read more »
EarthLink (ENLK), the beleaguered Atlanta-based Internet service provider, is scoring a big fat zero out of two when it comes to capital-intensive technology bets. Earlier this year, the former dial-up darling started pulling back on its MuniFi business and CEO Rolla Huff said EarthLink had repositioned […] Read more »
Creating more energy-efficient consumer electronics starts at the chip level. CamSemi, a fabless semiconductor startup based in the UK, is designing energy-saving integrated circuits for the power supply consumer electronics market. The five-year-old company this week raised a Series C round of $26 million from 3i […] Read more »
Carbon Under the Lone Star: Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin will undertake a 10-year, $38 million project to study injecting and storing carbon dioxide underground — GreenCarCongress. GreatPoint’s Biomass Plant: The cleaner coal company backed with $100 million in venture funding is building […] Read more »
Not a week can go by without a declaration of the growth of cleantech investing. Here’s the latest from today: The Cleantech Network says venture capitalists in North America invested close to $1.3 billion in cleantech startups in the third quarter, a 50 percent increase over […] Read more »
The world will need to add the equivalent of two more Saudi Arabia’s to meet even the most conservative fuel consumption estimates over the next two decades, according to Donald Paul, CTO of Chevron (CVX). And that kind of scale is what startups need to keep […] Read more »
When it comes to finding a successful exit for your cleantech startup, good luck finding a buyer willing to pay the price you want. That was the consensus of investors at the Dow Jones Alternative Energy Conference this week. The cleantech industry is too young for […] Read more »
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