Adding digital intelligence to the power grid is getting all the attention right now from Congress, investors and entrepreneurs, but a next-generation smart grid without energy storage is like a computer without a hard drive: severely limited. Energy stored throughout the grid can provide dispatchable power […] Read more »
Electric vehicle infrastructure company Better Place is planning on using largely standard technology to deliver its electric vehicle dreams: car companies’ plug-in vehicles and basic charging stations. But one of the startup’s key technology differentiators is its battery swap station, and Better Place thinks by sprinkling […] Read more »
The debate over whether the Internet is a power hog or a tool that can deliver energy savings (for example, e-commerce reduces car trips to the store) rages on. Not even experts who crunch the numbers on these issues, like Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory project scientist […] Read more »
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While the Waxman-Markey energy and climate bill is being fiercely debated right now, some form of carbon regulation will be implemented in the U.S. in coming years. That means there will be a massive need for software to manage the process of validating and recording greenhouse […] Read more »
Over the past few months many execs at tech startups, utilities and analyst firms have asked me: Why is Silver Spring Networks getting so much attention? The startup, which has raised over $150 million in funding and adds communications intelligence to the power grid, has managed […] Read more »
Thanks to our Earth2Tech sponsor, Green IT Tools. Download “The Green IT Guide and Toolkit for Sustainable Businesses.” Interested in sponsoring Earth2Tech? Contact Nick Basso and Paul Irving at sales@gigaom.com. Read more »
We’re heading into the summer of energy management tools and companies (like many of these 10) are launching wireless networking gear to help home owners monitor and control energy consumption. This morning we learned of yet another project — this one based on open source. A […] Read more »
In any nascent technology industry, the players that stand to gain and lose the most battle over standards that, done right, will drive innovation for decades to come. But imagine a standards-making process that’s 10 times more complex than that of the computing industry, with a […] Read more »
Energy storage is the ignored stepchild of the smart grid world: It’s received little funding compared to other smart grid technologies and is just starting to get more attention from entrepreneurs. But Northern California utility PG&E says it’s eager to add energy storage capability to its […] Read more »
If you want to have your say on how more than $4 billion in stimulus funds will be spent on the smart grid, well, you’re too late. The Department of Energy’s comment period, which called for input on how it plans to allocate the grant funds, […] Read more »
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Lithium-ion batteries found in consumer electronics and the latest electric vehicles (Tesla’s Roadster and GM’s Volt) have a couple of major hurdles: They can be flammable and unstable, and the higher the energy density, the more volatile the technology. That’s the problem that Mohit Singh, founder […] Read more »
The fact that venture capital investing is down internationally isn’t a real shocker. But in a new Dow Jones VentureSource report, which says that outside the U.S. (Europe, Israel, China and India) VCs put out 50 percent less capital in the first quarter of 2009, there’s […] Read more »
The downturn’s favorite cleantech funding play strikes again: energy efficiency, and particularly information technology-based tools that can cut energy in the industrial and commercial markets. The sector sure wasn’t hot last summer when solar and biofuels were all the rage. This morning, Powerit Solutions, a company […] Read more »
A good portion of the intelligence that will be added to the upcoming smart grid will be wireless — radios, sensors and access points strategically placed throughout the power grid and on our homes that can help manage energy consumption and distribution. Increasingly, utilities and companies […] Read more »
Sometimes the development of technology standards is a smooth, unified process — and sometimes, well, it can cause more catfights than at a Zac Efron DVD-signing. Remember VHS/betamax, HD-DVD/Blu-ray, and the short-range wireless standard called UWB? Well, now that funds from the stimulus package have put […] Read more »
To many, wireless standards are an important part of creating networks that can easily communicate and be built on the cheap. To others, it’s more like a religion. Take Ray Bell, the entrepreneur, former Cisco networking exec and, most recently, founder of San Francisco smart meter […] Read more »
WiMAX might have been coined wireless betamax by phone companies lately, but a serial entrepreneur with a background in network management from Cisco is betting WiMAX is the wireless standard to usher in the smart grid era. That would be Ray Bell, the founder of smart […] Read more »
Robert Rapier, energy blogger and engineering director for Accsys Technologies, has been poring over an interview that Vinod Khosla did recently with Forbes journalist Elizabeth Corcoran at the Milken Institute (Paul Kedrosky’s video clip here). Khosla and Rapier have a long history of arguing over the […] Read more »
Updated: FuelMaker, the beleaguered firm that made natural gas vehicle fueling stations for home users dubbed “Phill,” has finally found a buyer — well, its assets have. American Honda, the U.S. division of Honda, which partly owned the decade-old Toronto-based company, has been trying to sell […] Read more »
If all the electric vehicles that car companies are now promising make it to market — and prove popular — the electricity grid will strain under the weight. So before power plants are built and transmission lines raised to meet the need, the best solution to […] Read more »
[qi:_earth2tech] The success of the future smart grid depends on using the wealth of knowledge created from building out the Internet. Ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe thinks we should study its lessons and apply them carefully, as does Capgemini’s Balaji Natarajan, who’s penned this handy list in […] Read more »
Balaji Natarajan is a senior IT strategist for Capgemini, focusing on smart grid, mobile computing, and unified communications. History is a great teacher. The Internet took decades to evolve and take shape. Now upon us is a more critical challenge: how to build and sustain a […] Read more »
Solar firms have been hit as hard as anyone in the economic downturn as companies and residents have shied away from large purchases like rooftop and backyard solar panel installations. But First Solar, the stock market darling that is the leader in the thin-film solar space, […] Read more »
The notion of virtualization in the computing industry — using software to better utilize computers and thus require less of them — has been around for over a decade, and VMware was one of the pioneers of adding virtualization to data centers. But in the face […] Read more »
The massive market opportunity of the smart grid, invigorated by stimulus funds and new energy efficiency rules, is clear — but how are venture capitalists deciding which early stage smart grid startups to back? Well, one way would be for a VC to look into which […] Read more »
It seems like just yesterday that President Barack Obama took the oath of office on a bitterly cold January morning, but here we are exactly 100 days later. So what does the cleantech community have to show for the president it worked so ardently to get […] Read more »
When the CEO of the world’s No. 1 turbine maker, Vestas, said earlier this year that the global downturn was slashing demand for its products, it seemed like only a matter of time before the company would respond with cuts. The rest of the wind industry […] Read more »
Despite the skepticism about companies going “carbon neutral” — particularly if firms rely on renewable energy credits, which can be controversial and hard to verify — companies and organizations that are purchasing green power should be lauded. The system isn’t perfect but hey, they’re making a […] Read more »
Utilities and meter makers are quick to point out how smart meters can reduce consumers’ energy bills, but the motivation behind rolling out smart meters isn’t necessarily first and foremost to help the consumer: It’s to help the utility, and as a result can be a […] Read more »
“60 Minutes” aired a pretty blah piece on Sunday night on the problems of capturing carbon from coal plants. While the story interviewed a lot of the big names in both the coal and the renewable energy industries, including Duke Energy’s Jim Rogers, NASA’s James Hanson, […] Read more »
There are two types of ideas out there. The baby-shaking-iPhone-game type (bad). And the add-cherry-syrup-to-Coca-Cola kind (good). Here’s a really good idea that Google can use that could make a serious dent in climate change: add carbon emissions data to Google Maps, so users looking for […] Read more »
The race is heating up among companies looking to bring you tools that sit atop your electricity meter to help you cut energy consumption in your home. Many of them are working with utilities on services for smart meter rollouts; some are building high-end dashboards that […] Read more »
The more than $4 billion allocated in the stimulus package for the smart grid will deliver a massive boost for information technology companies and utilities that want to add intelligence to the power grid. But the funds need to be spent in an effective way in […] Read more »
The debate over whether to use licensed or unlicensed wireless spectrum for mobile services has largely been limited to phone companies and wireless geeks (like me, in a former life). Licensed spectrum includes airwaves owned and regulated, like a cell phone firm, while unlicensed spectrum, like […] Read more »
In a cell phone market marked by fickle subscribers and competition from low-cost carriers, T-Mobile, the fourth-largest cell phone company in the U.S., has become the latest to tap the smart grid. This morning T-Mobile announced that it has developed a durable, tiny SIM card that […] Read more »
How can T-Mobile, the fourth-largest cell phone carrier in the U.S., generate business in the face of dropping net additional subscribers and competition from low-cost cell phone companies? Get into the smart grid. Like AT&T and Verizon, T-Mobile is hoping to leverage its already built-out wireless […] Read more »
The single most important thing someone can do to reduce carbon emissions, beyond having a vote in Congress or a seat at the table in the upcoming Copenhagen talks, is to help prove the economics of fighting climate change, the 42nd U.S. President Bill Clinton told […] Read more »
While San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (now candidate for California Governor) let slip that San Francisco was working on an environment-focused map at our Green:Net conference last month, the project is officially being announced today (yup, Earth Day). Developed by Cisco and San Francisco’s Department of […] Read more »
We’re partial to just joining up with Grist and saying, screw Earth Day, but since it’s unavoidably happening across the globe on Wednesday, we’ve decided to use the occasion to reflect on the state of greentech. We have a lot to cheer about in this moment […] Read more »
Earlier this year solar thermal startup Ausra cited a lack of financing as the reason for scaling back its plans to build massive solar power plants. The Mountain View, Calif.-based startup, which California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger once called “one of the best companies in California and […] Read more »
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