The solar industry is just starting to understand the benefits of distributed solar inverters — the devices that convert direct current (DC) to grid-usable alternating current (AC). While most solar panels use a centralized inverter, inverter-maker Enphase Energy says slapping a cell phone-sized distributed inverter on […] Read more »
Is Austin-based thin-film solar startup HelioVolt getting close to producing its solar material made of Copper Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGS)? Sounds like it — the company just sent out invites for a “ribbon-cutting ceremony” for its factory on the morning of Friday, Oct. 24, followed by […] Read more »
When Google’s energy guru Bill Weihl told us that the search engine giant has been looking at renewable energy options for data centers like solar thermal, wind and geothermal, we had no idea the company was considering the deep blue, too. Well, according to a patent […] Read more »
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In case you were wondering how T. Boone Pickens was going to break the home distribution bottleneck in his plan to get the U.S. to power its vehicles with natural gas, here’s one possible answer: Natural gas vehicle distribution company Clean Energy Fuels (CLNE), of which […] Read more »
[qi:_earth2tech] Here’s another one for Stacey’s list of the top 10 mobile applications launching at Demo — but this one’s greener than the rest. Irish company Mapflow is showing off an iPhone version of its Avego service (called Sharelift in the DEMO info), which pulls satellite […] Read more »
What would a commuter carpooling service that actually tapped into the real-time transparency and flexibility of the Internet look like? Well, a lot like high-tech hitch-hiking, and possibly a lot more popular and effective at getting single occupancy vehicles out of morning traffic. At least that’s […] Read more »
When it comes to getting U.S. federal government funding to deliver clean technology innovation and save us from the energy and global warming crisis, how much is enough ? Dan Kammen, director of UC Berkeley’s Renewable Energy Labs, touched on that subject at both the Cleantech […] Read more »
Basketball’s Phoenix Suns are living up to their name — the Suns, Arizona utility APS and the City of Phoenix say they are planning to install a solar power system at the team’s home stadium, US Airways Center. Construction is set to begin next spring, with […] Read more »
Echoing the sentiments of the crowd at the Republican National Convention chanting, “Drill, baby, drill,” Republican presidential candidate John McCain said, “We will drill new wells offshore, and we’ll drill them now,” in his acceptance speech on Thursday night. McCain also used the subject of offshore […] Read more »
Duke Energy is calling for solar companies to bid on its planned $100 million distributed rooftop solar project in North Carolina. The power company says interested parties can check out this section of its web site and click on “North Carolina Solar Distributed Generation Program” to […] Read more »
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The presidential and vice presidential candidates have been laying out their energy policies at their respective party’s conventions over the past two weeks, but they’ve largely left out the details in acceptance speeches. So Calcars.org, the group following all things plug-in-vehicle-related, has compiled the candidates’ positions […] Read more »
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s speech accepting the Republican vice presidential nomination on Wednesday night conveyed her support for the type of energy policy you’d expect from someone who has expressed doubts over mankind’s role in climate change. During the speech she largely focused on increasing domestic […] Read more »
The wind-turbine manufacturing leader Vestas gave the the Democratic National Convention a gusty green-power presence. What do the Republicans have at their event? Wind energy bragging rights. The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) announced this morning in Minneapolis at the RNC that the U.S. has installed […] Read more »
Smart meter wireless startup Eka Systems has been steadily adding large hardware makers to its list of partners. Last month we spotted a deal to use Eka’s wireless mesh networking in Landis+Gyr’s residential smart meter system. This morning Eka says it has scored a deal with […] Read more »
With the mayors of San Francisco and New York calling for wind turbines to be placed throughout their cities, urban wind has been getting a closer look — particularly from investors. Quiet Revolution, a London-based small wind turbine maker, says it has raised £7 million ($12.49 […] Read more »
Just what you wanted to hear on a holiday: Thanks to a lack of political action, the controversial practice of geoengineering, or intentionally modifying the global environment, may be the only way to combat climate change in a necessary time frame, according to a group of […] Read more »
CIA Director-turned-venture-capitalist Jim Woolsey (who is advising John McCain on energy issues) says that our power grid is so vulnerable to cyber-hacking that 10- or 11-year-old hackers could get through. In an interview on the Blog Talk Radio Show, Woolsey said: “The systems that operate now […] Read more »
Despite rising controversy over a proposed $2.3 billion biomass plant in East Texas, the Austin city council unanimously approved the contract on Thursday, the local Statesman reports. Under the terms of the contract,Nacogdoches Power will construct and operate a 100-megawatt plant, which will burn woody wastes, […] Read more »
The idea behind Optony, a year-old startup that is working on combining thin film solar cells with a solar concentrating system, is to merge two of the solar industry’s low-cost options to produce solar power prices that rival grid parity. At least that’s the theory — […] Read more »
No wonder cleantech investors are standing behind Obama in droves. In his monumental speech accepting the Democratic nomination for president at the Democratic National Convention, Barack Obama pledged that the U.S. will end its dependence on oil from the Middle East within the next 10 years. […] Read more »
This week’s Democratic National Convention could go down in history as the one with the most mentions of green and clean technology. In attendance were members of the newly formed group Cleantech for Obama, which was created to help rally the cleantech community behind Barack Obama, […] Read more »
First Solar competitor AVA Solar says it has raised a round of $104 million to produce its thin film solar photovoltaics. The news comes on the heels of the massive $300 million round announced this week by thin film solar startup Nanosolar. Solar funding is hotter than the lights at the Pepsi Center this week. Read more »
Thin-film solar maker Nanosolar was already one of the more well-funded startups in cleantech with at least $150 million behind it. But this morning Nanosolar’s CEO Martin Roscheisen writes on the company blog that Nanosolar has raised $300 million in an oversubscribed equity financing round, which […] Read more »
[qi:_earth2tech] U.S. Utilities are increasingly adding solar to their power portfolios as a way to meet state mandates that call for a percentage of renewable power. So far we’ve counted more than 30 utility-scale — we’re saying one megawatt or greater — solar projects that are […] Read more »
Everyday activities — commuting to work, walking the dog, grocery shopping — could one day help keep your cell phone charged, thanks to an emerging technology that converts regular motion into power. And while motion-harvesting mobiles might not become a blockbuster hit in industrialized nations, they could fill a real need in developing nations where the power grid is woefully lacking. Read more »
When we compiled our list of cleantech investors who are backing Barack Obama, Nancy Floyd, an early investor who founded Nth Power, was the lone woman in the group — in May she gave $2,300, which is the max donation for the general election. But she […] Read more »
The world’s largest wind-turbine maker, Vestas, is using the so-called ‘greenest convention ever’ to make noise about its expansion plans in Colorado and across the United States. At the Democratic National Convention, in front of a 131-foot wind turbine blade from a local Vestas factory, company […] Read more »
Compared to his colleagues at the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) — a $500 million academic and industry collaboration to fight carbon emissions with bio-energy — Mitchell Altschuler’s job could sound a little dry. While EBI’s researchers out of the labs of UC Berkeley, the University of […] Read more »
The increasingly loud rumors that California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D) got in early on the IPO of T. Boone Pickens’s natural gas vehicle distribution company, Clean Energy Fuels, have turned out to be true, according to the Wall Street Journal this morning. The WSJ reporter (and […] Read more »
In June we showed you these photos of startup M2E Power’s motion-powered external cell-phone charger, which could be on sale as early as next year. Monday morning, the Boise, Idaho-based company is officially announcing that device, which can provide an hour of talk time for some […] Read more »
The future of federal energy policy is looking bright — Barack Obama chose Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden as his vice president this weekend. Biden has a three-decade senate record that includes a solid history of establishing climate change and energy policies. As Chairman of the Senate […] Read more »
Greenbox, a startup founded by the creators of Flash, is trying to recreate the success of their online ecosystem for graphics and media — but this time for the power that flows into your home. This week, after Flash-founders Jonathan Gay and Robert Tatsumi have spent […] Read more »
The Economist is bringing the traditional Oxford-style debate online and shining a light on energy, asking the question “Conservation or innovation?” The formal statement up for debate is this: “We can solve our energy problems with existing technologies today, without the need for breakthrough innovations.” I […] Read more »
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is calling for ideas for renewable power for the city, including offshore wind, wind turbines on skyscrapers, hydropower from the Hudson and East Rivers, geothermal and increased solar. Bloomberg made an announcement for a Request for Expressions of Interest at the […] Read more »
The Flash-creators behind Greenbox’s energy monitoring software have announced their first utility pilot project. The San Bruno, Calif.-based startup says it is partnering with smart-grid startup Silver Spring Networks on an energy management project for Oklahoma utility Oklahoma Gas and Electric. It’s the first progress we’ve […] Read more »
The 42nd U.S. President, Bill Clinton, delivered a top 10 laundry list of actions that the U.S. government should take to help solve the energy crisis during a speech to kick off the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas on Monday night. Along with the […] Read more »
Clean Energy Fuels, the natural gas vehicle distribution company where Pickens is the director and largest shareholder, said it has purchased Dallas Clean Energy (DCE) for $19.1 million. Read more »
The lobbying arm of coal-reliant companies that are calling for “cleaner coal” jumped up to a sizable $4.65 million for this year, according to recent data from the Center for Responsive Politics. The figures for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) lobbying group previously […] Read more »
It wasn’t all that long ago that Clark Foam and its founder, surf pioneer Grubby Clark, finally surrendered in a long-running battle with the EPA and shuttered its doors in a hail of bad words, pronouncements that the end of surfing was upon us, accusations of […] Read more »
PG&E’s massive 800 MW solar deal isn’t just good for Cali’s carbon emissions, the solar industry and the planet — its good for SunPower’s stock, too. SunPower is going to supply solar power to PG&E. Read more »
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