How do companies get their massive distributive work forces to innovate and collaborate when they’re thousands of miles apart? For social enterprise company Moxie Software and design firm IDEO, the answer was merging their ideas into a product called Spaces. Read more »
CNN founder, and “Mouth of the South,” Ted Turner said this weekend at the World Climate Summit in Cancun, Mexico, that his jointly owned, 30-MW solar farm in New Mexico is being turned on “right now.” Read more »
The analysts at Pike Research came out with a report this morning that claims that the adoption of cloud computing will lead to a 38 percent reduction in worldwide data center energy use by 2020. I’d like to respectfully disagree with such a simplistic finding. Read more »
For this week’s episode of the Green Overdrive show, we take the Wheego LiFe for a spin at the LA Auto Show. While it costs the same as the Nissan LEAF, it fails to deliver the LEAF’s comfort and performance. Read more »
Despite some of the trials and tribulations of thin film solar firm Solyndra, we’ve been curious to get a look at how they make the tubular panels. Solyndra just released this video, which shows some of the key steps. Read more »
Everyone knows that California was the brightest shining light in the oppressive darkness that descended on the clean energy world on Nov. 2. While clean energy hopes were being snuffed out across the country, California went the right way towards a sustainable energy future. Read more »
The problem with small wind turbines is that they deliver just that: small amounts of power. But startup WindStream Technologies plans to start selling a modular, meter-tall system that can stack like Legos, starting in the first quarter of 2011. Read more »
Cisco is once again the winner of Greenpeace’s list of the greenest IT companies out there. The environmental group released its 4th Cool IT Leaderboard, which ranks gadget makers and Internet companies by a variety of green criteria, at the U.N.’s climate negotiations in Cancun. Read more »
The telco world is finally making some progress on the home automation and energy management front. On the heels of the news that Motorola will buy up smart home startup 4Home, CEPro is reporting that AT&T has acquired Xanboo, a home automation and energy player. Read more »
All hail the open-source scientist. Open collaboration in energy innovation will be a key part of fighting climate change, said Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu in Cancun, Mexico, at a side event to the U.N. negotiations. Read more »
EnerNOC’s predilection for buying it’s way to expansion isn’t waning. This morning the leader in the demand response sector announced that it plans to buy Global Energy Partners, a company in Walnut Creek, Calif., that develops demand response and energy efficiency products for utilities. Read more »
In Cancun, Mexico, amidst the second week of the U.N.’s climate negotiations, Hara announced that it has scored a mother of a deal to help state-run utility Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority save $3 billion over 10 years. Read more »
Grid Net, the smart grid software maker, has officially moved beyond the wireless standard WiMAX and this morning announced that its software now supports the 4G wireless standard LTE (Long Term Evolution), the dominate next-gen wireless standard embraced by U.S. telcos. Read more »
On Saturday night at the World Climate Summit, Richard Branson, delivered a message to the negotiators at the U.N.’s climate change meeting, COP 16, in Cancun, Mexico, which continues this week: “Just do it, for God’s sake. Get off your a**es and get on with it.” Read more »
It’s been a long year and a half since Cleantech Blog published its last Cleantech Blog Power 5 highlighting the top investors in cleantech. . . And the bottom five wild cards. Time for round two. Read more »
There’s a gap between venture capital time lines and the time line that it takes a greentech company to become successful. An oft-discussed topic hits a fever pitch as of late. Read more »
A variety of auto makers are vying for the second car market for electric vehicles, so instead of competing head-to-head with traditional car makers for an internal combustion engine replacement, they’re offering EVs as second and even third cars. Read more »
The first week of the U.N.’s climate change negotiations has kicked off in Cancun, Mexico and not surprisingly, there are low expectations of any meaningful agreement coming out of the talks. What will likely provide some needed optimism will be the greentech and green-leaning business community. Read more »
GE is showing off an electric bus with a dual-battery system that combines a lithium ion battery and a sodium metal halide battery, and which GE says is 20 percent less expensive than a comparable one battery system for an electric bus. Read more »
Google unveiled Google Earth Engine, which combines world satellite imagery, tools and parallel processing power, at the climate negotiations in Cancun, Mexico, this morning. Along with a donation of 20 million CPU hours, the tool will help researchers protect the world’s forests. Read more »
Motorola has touted its plans for the so-called smart home for years, and now it’s planning to acquire its way in with a startup that highlights energy management: 4Home. Will more telcos and service providers get into smart energy, too? Read more »
Volvo’s got a reputation for building some of the safest cars around, and as Lennart Stegland, President of Volvo special vehicles, tells us that applies to electric vehicles, too. Read more »
Could 1.7 billion processor hours put a dent in the fight against climate change? That’s what the DOE is hoping, and this week unveiled a program to donate computing power from two super computers for dozens of projects working on energy innovation. Read more »
We’re thankful for the trend of more energy efficient data centers finally offering a competitive advantage for companies, and so are startups. Wednesday morning, Racktivity, which makes energy efficient gear and software for data centers, announced it has raised funding. Read more »
Google’s former Director of Climate Policy, Dan Reicher, has left the search engine giant to head up Stanford’s new Center for Energy Policy and Finance that will focus on how policy and financing can deliver the future of clean energy infrastructure. Read more »
Cello Energy, the beleaguered infamous biofuel company that’s been hit with fraud allegations, has finally dropped off of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) list of potential cellulosic ethanol suppliers for 2011. I seriously can’t believe the company was on the list for so long. Read more »
Turning nuclear waste into glass — called vitrification — is the generally accepted way of dealing with nuclear waste. But a startup called Kurion emerged from stealth with a plan to modularize that vitrification nuclear waste management process, making it cheaper, faster and more efficient. Read more »
With the news that famed analyst Mary Meeker will be joining venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers as a partner in its digital practice, a big question remains: Will Kleiner be moving farther away from its foray into greentech and closer to its digital roots? Read more »
KleenSpeed, an electric vehicle tech startup that uses the racetrack as a testbed, has launched a $15,000 electric vehicle power system that can be used to convert internal combustion engine cars into EVs. It’s a step closer to its goal of becoming an auto maker. Read more »
Even though the U.N. climate negotiations in Copenhagen last year, COP 15, were a bust, this year’s COP 16, kicking off in Cancun on Monday, could provide some progress to reaching a treaty on how to cut world carbon emissions. Here’s our greetech guide to the talks. Read more »
There were quite a few hurdles for the overall green tech sector in 2010, from a dramatic drop in early stage investments to the consumer smart meter backlash. But there were also quite a few things to be thankful for in greentech — here’s my top 10. Read more »
After months of waiting, the first dozen buyers of GM’s inaugural electric car the Volt are finally getting their cars this week. While we test drove the Volt earlier this year, we revisit the car, which some are calling revolutionary, again at the LA Auto Show. Read more »
Either you love or hate this time of year: Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when shoppers rush to malls to score deals, or Cyber Monday, the online equivalent. Whatever route you take, here’s 7 gift-giving ideas that encourage green tech innovation and lifestyle. Read more »
Last month we pointed out seven projects paving the way for ocean power. Well, here’s an eighth: This morning, Scottish wave energy company Aquamarine Power said it has raised $17.4 million in new funding, including $12.6 million from power giant ABB. Read more »
The DOE has joined the small group of supporters — led by T. Boone Pickens and Honda — of the natural gas car. DOE Secretary Steven Chu announced a $50 million loan for The Vehicle Production Group, which will use the funds to make a 6-passenger natural gas car. Read more »
The key to getting utilities to embrace renewable energy is investment in inexpensive, convenient, and highly efficient utility-scale storage for solar and wind power. The issue remains one of supply and demand: Supply the energy storage solutions without demanding too much of anyone. Read more »
With the launch of Nissan’s LEAF and GM’s Volt this year, the first mainstream electric cars are finally reaching customers in the U.S. But it’s clear that Big Auto as a whole is still in the baby step stage. Read more »
I was going to title this post, “How Not to Launch an Electric Car,” but I thought that might be too harsh. Still, the launch of the two-seater LiFe electric car by the startup Wheego at the L.A. Auto Show last week was pretty unusual. Read more »
Stealthy thin-film solar company Alta Devices has added on yet another high profile investor: GE. A GE spokesperson confirmed with me this morning that GE has made an investment in the 3-year-old Santa Clara, Calif-based Alta Devices, which is also backed by Kleiner Perkins. Read more »
The LA Auto Show, which kicked off on Wednesday and is now open to the public, featured a wave of the next-generation of plug-in cars from big auto makers and startups alike. Here’s a couple dozen more of my photos from the past couple of days: Read more »
