First Solar has had enough with subsidized solar markets and will bet its future on sales in countries in which solar companies that can provide low-priced equipment and engineering services will make money and stay in business, company executives said Wednesday. Read more »
While 2011 will be remember as a troubling year for solar manufacturers, it also is a year when major U.S. power companies such as Duke, MidAmerican and Exelon took a plunge into investing and owning solar power plants. Read more »
Tigo Energy, which develops solar electronics to boost power generation from solar cells, said Monday it’s raised a D round of $18 million. The company, which has shipped “hundreds of thousands” of devices, expects to ship more than one million of them in 2012, Tigo CEO […] Read more »
India wants a lot of solar energy, and it’s getting a lot of financial help from the U.S.. The Export-Import Bank has provided a $3.7 million loan to a project developer to build a 2 MW project in India using MiaSole’s thin films. Read more »
Warren Buffet’s power company, MidAmerican Energy Holdings, is jumping into solar power and plans to buy up a massive solar farm from First Solar. The planned 550 MW solar panel farm called Topaz is in San Luis Obispo County in central California. Read more »
The California Energy Commission is scheduled to consider whether to take on the role of licensing photovoltaic power plants, an authority that usually rests with local governments such as counties and cities. The decision could greatly expand its authority to shape the state’s solar energy development. Read more »
Efforts to modernize the U.S. grid in recent years have emerged as a hodgepodge of pilot projects, the installation of new technology and hefty financial backing from the U.S. government and private investors. How to plan for such a change is a daunting task. Read more »
A complaint accusing Chinese solar cell and module manufacturers of flooding the U.S. market with unfairly low-priced goods cleared a hurdle to move forward Friday with a 6-0 vote by the U.S. International Trade Commission. Read more »
Whether you like the Chevy Volt or not, if you are a supporter of electric cars, you should be disheartened by the news that the Volt won’t meet its 2011 sales goal after all. Not hitting the goal will have a greater impact beyond GM. Read more »
The big question for SolarCity when it didn’t secure a federal loan guarantee for an ambitious project a few months back was this: could it carry on with the plan? The answer is yes. SolarCity will get a $350 million loan from Bank of America . Read more »
Morgan Solar, a startup whose technology uses optics to boost solar cells’ power output, said Tuesday it’s lined up $9.8 million to commercialize is technology. Read more »
Concentrating solar photovoltaics use optics to concentrate sunlight onto solar cells to boost energy production. While the tech is still in an early stage, some startups are looking to ramp up, like Fremont, Calif.-based Solaria, which has raised another $30 million. Read more »
With roughly a month to go before a key U.S. solar incentive is set to expire, a familiar phenomenon emerges once again: a rush to install projects. Manufacturers expect to see a big demand, though not necessarily big profits from the boom. Read more »
Enphase Energy wants to raise money from the public market, but given how much the IPO market sucks these days, the solar power conversion gear company is turning to private investors. The company has raised $21.86 million from a fundraising goal of $81.86 million. Read more »
Clean power giant NRG Energy has mostly been building a solar empire based on large centralized solar farms, but it’s keenly interested in the distributed solar market. That explains the company’s announcement that it has bought a project developer Solar Power Partners. Read more »
Sungevity, a venture-backed residential solar service provider, is heading overseas. The company announced Thursday that it’s made an equity investment in a new Dutch company and will license its software and provide engineering services to the startup. Read more »
Federal regulators on Wednesday released a proposed rule for hiking the fuel economy for cars to be sold from 2017 to 2025, and it’s full of incentives for encouraging automakers to use battery-powered and other alternative-fuel technologies. Read more »
The Federal Regulatory Energy Commission recently passed a new rule for frequency regulation to support emerging technologies that can provide quick bursts of power to the grid. We break down what this new rule means and who will benefit. Read more »
It was roughly a year ago when the California Energy Commission approved nine solar farms all within a few months in order to make sure those projects could qualify for a federal program that subsidizes 30 percent of their costs. Where are they now? Read more »
Better Place, which hopes to build an empire of electric car charging and battery swapping stations, said Friday it has closed a $200 million funding that will bring the company’s valuation to $2.2 billion. Read more »
After spending five years to draw up the plan and secure construction permits and a fat federal loan guarantee, Abengoa Solar cleared a final hurdle Thursday when California regulators approved its contract to sell that power to Pacific Gas and Electric. Read more »
Energy efficiency measures both reduce consumption and slow the pace of building power plants. Utilities know that, but how much are they doing to promote the idea? A report looks at 50 U.S. utilities and ranked them by the investments they have made in energy efficiency. Read more »
Paring solar with data centers may not be a novel idea, but you will have a hard time finding companies that rely solely on solar electricity to power their servers. But what if the use of solar could help data center owners save energy? Read more »
A glut of solar panels and crushing prices have made life difficult for solar manufacturers this year, and bad news keeps coming. Longtime solar thin-film maker Energy Conversion Devices, which has factories in Michigan, Canada and Mexico, has suspended manufacturing and will furlough 400 workers. Read more »
Greenpeace has used competition and public shaming to nudge consumer electronics makers to be greener and on Wednesday is releasing its latest version of its green gadget list. Nokia yields the top spot to HP, while Dell and Apple gain ground. Read more »
Seeo raised $15 million earlier this year, and we know how it’s spending some of that money. The startup has moved into a new home and installed a pilot production line that produces 4 megawatt hours of cells per year. Read more »
Is A123 Systems a company that is good at announcing deals but can’t profit from them? After cutting its 2011 sales forecast last Friday, A123 on Monday announced a licensing deal with Japan’’s IHI, which will make a $25 million equity investment in A123. Read more »
India is enjoying great love from solar companies as a result of its solar incentive programs. But rule changes to its national solar program also gives some companies a big advantage — namely First Solar. Read more »
Solar manufacturers have been on supercharged expansion mode over the past five years in order to cut costs and solar prices. But to continue that march at this point is just unwise. First Solar is now putting off bringing online a solar panel factory in Vietnam. Read more »
Remaking office buildings with energy-efficient equipment can cut utility bills and give some green cred. But often, building owners don’t want to pay the large upfront cost. To help fix this problem, Serious Energy is launching a no-money-down program called SeriousCapital. Read more »
As the solar market grows and competition intensifies, technology that can maximize energy harvesting from solar panels will continue to win over investors. The latest example comes from Tigo Energy, which has raised $5 million, according to its government filing Tuesday. Read more »
Solar power and electric cars are an ideal match. Both are tied to the grid, and disruptive technologies, which are in an early market stage and which are trying to reduce costs. Partnerships just make sense. Read more »
Another dark cloud is waiting for solar companies: the decline of government incentives that in the past have pumped the growth of the solar market worldwide. The United Kingdom, for example, plans to halve its subsidies for solar panels in 2012. Read more »
The emergence of the smart grid has raised concerns about cybersecurity among utilities; two-way digital networks are more vulnerable. But according to utility executives, distributed power generation technologies, such as solar, particularly combined with energy storage, could help minimize the impact of an attack. Read more »
Here’s a snapshot of what utilities really think about solar: it’s still too expensive but more consumers are starting to want it (but not necessary willing to pay for it). How can we get more utilities to invest in solar? Read more »
A day after announcing an abrupt departure of its CEO, First Solar has some good news that is helping to stem the rapid dive of its stock: pretty good third quarter earnings. Read more »
Developing biofuels continues to be a bright spot in the cleantech world. Two startups, plant genetic engineering company Chromatin and biofuel producer ZeaChem, announced separately on Tuesday that they have raised new rounds of funding. Read more »
Roughly a month after securing a federal loan to build its first solar farm in the U.S., SolarReserve has raised $27 million in equity, according to a government filing. The company will need the funds to complete the solar power plant and work on additional projects. Read more »
Power electronics that can boost energy production from solar panels has emerged in recent years as a favorite among venture capital investors. On Monday, that trend continues with the announcement that an Israeli startup, SolarEdge, has raised $37 million from VCs. Read more »
Fighting for funding is a perennial, bloody sport for just about every federal agency. But the budget funding cycle is seriously out of whack with the development cycle for clean energy, according to Arun Majumdar, director of the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E). Read more »
