Buying IT services should be the opposite of how you buy produce: “No you don’t want to consume your IT locally. Trust us,” says Google’s Peter Magnusson. That’s because products like Google’s platform as a service App Engine are energy efficient and carbon neutral. Read more »
Yesterday’s toilet is like your parent’s phone line system: wired, and expensive. The next-generation bathroom for the next billion people in the developing world will be “wireless,” and water-free. Read more »
Like Apple is doing in North Carolina, Facebook is adding on a smaller data center at its facility in Prineville, Oregon. The new building won’t add jobs to the region, but represents Facebook’s rapid infrastructure build out. Read more »
Because battery chemistry is such a hard problem, it’s pretty natural that we’re turning to the power of analytics, big data, cloud computing and all those other fun IT buzz words to solve it. Read more »
Electric car maker Fisker Automotive is bringing on a new CEO, Tony Posawatz, who will replace former CEO Tom LaSorda. LaSorda came on to replace founder Henrik Fisker as CEO about 6 months ago. Posawatz was previously at GM where he worked on the Volt. Read more »
KiOR, a next-gen biofuel startup backed by Khosla Ventures, says it will turn on its first factory next month and will churn out diesel and gasoline made from biomass (plant waste, wood, etc) before the end of the year. Read more »
Facebook probably has about 180,000 servers out there for its 900 million plus user base. That’s dramatic growth from an estimated 30,000 three years ago. Read more »
Electric car maker Tesla Motors faces one of the toughest times in its history in the fourth quarter of this year. The company’s got to ramp up production of its Model S to be able to deliver thousands of the cars, and make no mistakes. Read more »
While the massive blackouts in India are focusing attention on the opportunities for clean power in India, the country already has many solar projects under way. Here are some of the most notable and promising efforts. Read more »
This is what it feels like inside Ivanpah, the world’s largest solar thermal farm under construction. We drive along the solar mirror fields, take an elevator to the top of one of the 450-foot towers, and peek inside the assembly building at. Read more »
Here’s five ways that next-generation solar technologies can survive and even thrive in the difficult solar manufacturing market. Read more »
GoodGuide, a startup with a ranking system for consumer products based on environmental, health, and social data, has been acquired by a business division of Underwriters Laboratories. Read more »
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Despite raising $500 million in funding for its thin film solar panel technology, Miasole is restructuring and laying off around 200 people, according to a report. Read more »
Organizations that support smart grid roll-outs have simply not demonstrated that their efforts will benefit the causes that consumers support. So what to do? Look to the guys that make soap. Read more »
Suffering battery maker A123 Systems has found a lifeline in Chinese auto giant Wanxiang. Wanxiang will invest up to $450 million in A123 which could see it own up to 80 percent of the company. Read more »
Fresh off of visiting the Ivanpah solar plant this morning, Bill Clinton sings the praise of energy efficiency, solar, waste to energy and overall clean power at Harry Reid’s 5th annual National Clean Energy Summit. Read more »
Walmart will be getting battery storage combined with its solar panels, courtesy of SolarCity. It’s a big deal because battery grid storage has been prohibitively expensive and is still in an early stage. Read more »
500 Startups gets its first international accelerator. Dave McClure’s investment group joins with a Mexican accelerator called Mexican VC. Mexico has a growing population of new Internet and mobile hungry consumers, and the country has less of an investing bubble compared to Brazil. Read more »
A smart grid software startup raises $15 million from Japanese conglomerate Mitsui. Read more »
From nine stories up the 450 foot tower at the Ivanpah solar thermal farm, the tens of thousands of mirrors look like metallic chiclets, and the workers like Doozers walking amongst them. The first of its kind solar site is in a full construction boom. Read more »
Bloom Energy, a Valley startup that makes fuel cells, says it’s about half way to reaching profitability, and is doubling its installed units and revenues every six months. How long until the company makes it to break even? Read more »
While some venture capitalists are moving away from funding cleantech startups, NEA — one of the oldest and most established VC firms out there — plans to stay in energy tech investing for the long haul and will continue to invest in new energy innovators. Read more »
It looks like Apple has already started building out both its ground breaking fuel cell project and its massive solar farm at its data center in North Carolina, according to these new aerial photos from Wired. Read more »
Peer to peer car sharing is hot for investors, recently drawing interest from the funds of Eric Schmidt, Ashton Kutcher and Marissa Mayer, as well as Google, GM and Zipcar. But the sector is still emerging and has a lot of growing pains to go through. Read more »
The U.S. government continues to give small grants to early stage next-generation battery technology in an effort to boost innovation in the U.S., and provide energy storage for electric cars and the power grid. Read more »
Biochemical and biofuel companies can no longer rest assured that they can raise money going public. Genomatica has ditched its plans for an IPO, and opted to raise private funding. Solix Biofuels has also raised a new round of private funding. Read more »
In India, like in the United States, the power sector is the single largest user of water – more than agriculture. Presuming that India could solve its power problems and build more coal, they would run out of fresh water even faster. Read more »
Silver Spring Networks is beefing up its energy data software services for utilities by focusing on real time access via software-as-a-service and the cloud. Read more »
GridPoint, which has raised a lot of money, and has changed its strategy many times of its nine year lifetime, has closed another round of $23 million according to a filing. Read more »
Facebook on Wednesday unveiled detailed numbers about the energy consumption, and carbon emissions, of its data center and operations in 2011. The move represents a greater push for transparency and an effort to help manage energy-related costs, not to mention some solid marketing. Read more »
Remember back in 2008 when Tesla decided to move the production of its Model S electric car from New Mexico to California? Well, so does the developer that was going to build the facility — they’re suing Tesla for breach of contract and fraud. Read more »
The worst blackout in a decade hit Northern India on Monday forcing 370 million people to go without power. While blackouts are a huge problem for the country, they’re a massive opportunity for next-generation energy technologies like clean power, and the smart grid. Read more »
The blurring of transmission and distribution sections of the power grid presents numerous challenges and opportunities for innovation and outreach. The smart grid can solve this missing link. Read more »
Cheap, abundant, natural gas in the U.S. is remaking the American energy landscape. Can turning it into chemicals make one startup – and its new investors, which include Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen – filthy rich? Read more »
It all started with a breakfast buffet and some leftover French toast. That was when Dan Blake, the CEO of composting soil startup EcoScraps, says he realized he wanted to make a business off of collecting food waste and turning it into something useful. Read more »
Proving that the venture model is working for at least a few select brand name venture capitalists, NEA announced on Wednesday that it’s closed a massive $2.6 billion new fund. The firm describes the fund as “one of the largest venture funds ever raised.” Read more »
A twelve-year-old company that makes wireless security and energy management systems called Alarm.com has just closed a round of $136 million in equity according to a filing. The company confirmed the round with me, but wouldn’t disclose any more details. Read more »
BMW’s venture fund, BMW i Ventures, has invested in electric car charging company Coulomb Technologies, according to a release. BMW launched its $100 million fund — its first to date — last year to focus on “mobility,” including mobile apps, in car services and auto navigation. Read more »
Following several years of development, demand response has now started transforming wholesale markets — and reducing costs for ratepayers. Read more »
The lithium air battery has long been over hyped — now add a pot of gold to the end of that rainbow. Scientists at the University of Saint Andrews in Scotland have been using gold to make a prototype of a lithium air battery. Read more »
