Energy giant Siemens is leaving the solar market after investing heavily in solar technology and power plant construction. The decision is bad news for startups looking for corporate VCs. Read more »
SolarCity started off as an installer of small solar electric systems on residential and commercial rooftops. It’s since moved into new lines of businesses, including the construction of solar farms for utilities. Read more »
Indoor mapping and location services will create a new world of advertising and social networking services, but no technologies have proven the winners yet. A Massachusetts startup has come up with an idea of combining digital lighting with smart phones to make that world a reality. Read more »
A regional winner of the Cleantech Open hopes to win over investors with an idea of designing factory equipment to make super efficient solar cells. But given the dark clouds that hang over the solar manufacturing business, the startup will need more than luck. Read more »
SunPower was hoping this year would be better than last, but the company is forcing to do what many of its rivals have done: cut production and employees in order to reduce costs and survive. Read more »
Solyndra may not be a player in the solar market anymore, but it’s making new headlines with its latest lawsuit against Chinese companies, which it says have colluded to sell solar panels at below cost and drive competitors out of business. Read more »
The U.S. Department of Commerce upped penalties against Chinese solar cell makers in a decision Wednesday but didn’t side with the petitioners to impose tariffs on Chinese solar panels as well. Read more »
It’s been nearly two years since First Solar announced its first deal in India. The company has made good progress in this emerging market, and it announced another, 50MW deal Monday. What it really wants to do, though, is to develop projects in India. Read more »
SolarCity filed to go public in April, but we are only now getting a glimpse of its IPO plan. The company is proposing to raise roughly $201 million and join the NASDAQ family. Read more »
The U.S. government is close to finalize its rulings on a trade complaint against Chinese solar manufactures. So far, what many thought would be the fall outs from the trade complaint haven’t materialized. Read more »
After making a public appeal for investors, MiaSole has found a suitor in Hanergy, a large renewable energy company in China that just bought another solar equipment maker in Germany. The $30M sales prices of MiaSole shows how cheap solar manufacturing assets can be picked up. Read more »
Renewable energy proponents haven’t always considered the natural gas industry an ally. But a natural gas lobby hopes to change that by pitching an idea that it says will benefit both sides. Read more »
LED lighting, though, expensive, is supposed to reduce energy use and electric bills for its owner over time. Startup Digital Lumens is looking at doing more than selling its smart LED lighting equipment — it plans to sell it as a service, too. Read more »
Silicon Valley solar startup, SoloPower, is turning on its first large-scale factory in Oregon at a time when many solar manufacturers have crashed and burned. The factory will pave the way for the company to use a $197 million federal loan guarantee to expand its factory. Read more »
An Australian startup lines up $5.2 million in venture capital to push its inaugural product: a coating that reduces reflection so that more sunlight can stay inside solar cells to generate electricity. Read more »
Smith Electric Vehicles was hoping to raise capital through an initial public offering, but called off that plan and will turn to private capital instead. It’s the latest cleantech company that hasn’t been able to go public in 2012. Read more »
A Japanese consortium of government groups and tech companies teams up with a New Mexico utility and a federal lab for a smart grid demonstration project to figure out how to integrate solar electricity and energy storage into an electric grid. Read more »
The Danish Design Center in Copenhagen is featuring an exhibit that explores ways to reduce waste and use more sustainable materials for some of the common things we use. Turns out big corporations are some of the leading thinkers on these eco materials. Read more »
A Texas startup is offering energy data analytics for free to reel in potential paying customers who own or manage buildings and want to reduce their energy use. But “free” will only get you so far. Read more »
Amid a solar market with an oversupply of solar panels, Silevo, a California company with a factory in China, is working on expanding its production and convincing customers that its novel hybrid silicon technology is worth their investments. Read more »
New venture-backed startup QBotix has unveiled its unusual solar technology: robots that tilt solar panels to follow the sun. Read more »
The feds finalized the new fuel efficiency standard for passenger cars and trucks in a bid to reduce oil consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Here’s what you need to know about it. Read more »
Over the past year, BrightSource Energy has touted the importance of using energy storage for its solar power plants. And no wonder. California regulators are looking at approving three of five deals between BrightSource and a utility partly because they will benefit from using energy storage. Read more »
The office and factory building that represents the failure of Solyndra and its financial backers, including the federal government, may finally be put to productive use again now that Seagate Technology reportedly has agreed to buy it. Read more »
Researchers at national laboratories are turning to the sea for a rich source of uranium for nuclear power generation, and they have come up with a super sponge material to do just that. Read more »
Finding new and profitable ways to recycle the trash it collects has guided the investment strategy of Waste Management, which recently put money into a startup that can turn some of the garbage into sugars for making plastic and other products. Read more »
The more sunlight a solar cell can convert into electricity, the cheaper the solar power. Companies like IBM are turning to new materials to try to break efficiency barriers for solar cells. Read more »
How to connect and influence consumers’ energy use habits with big volumes of smart grid data? Making data interesting, of course. But that’s easier said than done. DJ Patil, a data scientist extraordinaire at Greylock Partners and previously at LinkedIn, doled out some tips. Read more »
SunPower, which makes solar panels and develops power generation projects, has seen quick growth of its residential solar lease program since its launch last year. The surge reflects the growing popularity of solar leases in California and elsewhere. Read more »
What’s new with venture-backed solar thin film maker HelioVolt? The company has stayed fairly quiet since a big funding announcement last fall and is taking part in a small project in its hometown of Austin, Texas. Read more »
California is moving ahead with what could be a precedent-setting mandate to require its utilities to invest in energy storage systems and services, which are meant to complement the growing amount of wind and solar electricity flowing into the grid. Read more »
Things are looking up for First Solar, at least for now, as the company announced Wednesday a big jump in sales and profits for the second quarter and touted itself as a sought-after power project developer. Read more »
California’s three large utilities are building out clean power, like solar, at a breakneck pace. They’ve got a mandate to hit by 2020, and it’s coming on fast. Read more »
Buying and selling renewable energy credits has helped to build New Jersey into a major solar state. That has enticed a San Francisco startup to start offering a credit trading service, which it launched on Tuesday, to help installers finance residential projects. Read more »
Here is a new mission from Starbucks: how to make energy-efficient coffee. The retailer plans to launch tomorrow a competition that will pit 10 of its stores against one another to see who can cut electricity use the most in 30 days. Read more »
A smart grid needs a good defense against cybersecurity breaches. N-Dimension, which recently raised an A round, says it’s got the software to protect a utility’s operation to fend off data thefts and other attacks. Read more »
Tesla Motors needs to make a profit and is counting on the Model S to get it there. The electric car company began shipping the sedan last month, and it has collected about Model S 12,200 reservations now, compared with roughly 11,500 by the end of June. Read more »
Counting emissions accurately — from carbon dioxide to methane — in the air and soil has long been the domain of academia. But Silicon Valley startup Picarro is hoping to turn that practice into a booming commercial business by wooing the natural gas industry. Read more »
The federal government hopes to ease controversy with the development of a road map that identifies 285,000 acres of public land that will make the best locations for solar energy development in six western states. Read more »
The path to winning over solar customers is through integrating data. San Francisco startup Genability began knitting together a collection of complex electric rates from utilities across the country, and its customers use the data to show how much could be saved by going solar. Read more »
