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 »
Tech companies so far have stumbled when it comes to getting people to be mindful of their energy use and conserve. But startup Changers thinks it’s come up with a better idea: sell mobile solar chargers and create a social networking around energy credits and shopping. Read more »
Solyndra bankruptcy has helped to fuel resentment toward China for its generous subsidies of Chinese solar companies. That resentment has morphed into petitions filed Wednesday that ask the U.S. government to investigate Chinese companies for allegedly flooding the U.S. market with goods below costs. Read more »
Once upon a time, concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) technology received ridicule for its design and promise to deliver cheaper electricity. But CPV is now attracting new entrants such as SunPower, the long-time maker of traditional solar panels that on Tuesday launched a CPV system. Read more »
This week’s gathering of the solar industry in Dallas at a conference will become a temporary central command for solar energy advocates who see an urgent need to fight back against negative public sentiment about solar that resulted from Solyndra’s federal loan and bankruptcy. Read more »
China has been the epicenter of its own solar manufacturing industry for years but the country has more recently become a destination for U.S. startups setting up their first manufacturing bases in the country as well — like solar maker Sunpreme. Read more »
BrightSource Energy is still building its first solar farm, but the company already is steaming ahead with the third, 810 MW project called Rio Mesa, for which the company said Friday it has applied for approval from the California Energy Commission. Read more »
The solar market has been marked by falling profits and controversial federal government loans this year, but one bright spot is the growth of the residential and small commercial solar sector in which investors are setting up more funds to financial installations. Read more »
General Electric has been plotting a solar empire for several years now, and it has settled on a place for the crown jewel of the plan: a 400 MW factory in Colorado to produce solar panels and compete with the likes of First Solar. Read more »
The world of mini nuclear reactor technology has gotten a big backer. Fluor said Thursday it has bought a majority stake in NuScale Power to bring the startup’s technology to market. Read more »
The courtship between A123 Systems and GM didn’t really work out before, but the two are giving it another try. GM on Wednesday named the lithium-ion battery maker as the supplier for its newly announced all-electric Chevrolet Spark, which is set for launch in 2013. Read more »
Are there still opportunities for tech innovation for solar cells, now that solar panels are rapidly becoming commoditized? California startup Silevo thinks it has a shot with a hybrid solar cell design and a plan to build its first factory in China. Read more »
A massive selloff of stocks back in August raised the possibility of a closing IPO window for cleantech companies. But if you were hoping for a more uplifting prognosis since, then you’re out of luck — at least for the rest of the year. Read more »
Most of the oil giants have made small investments in cleantech and Chevron’s investment arm, Chevron Technology Ventures, was no exception. But Chevron has been moving away from making any cleantech investments, and hasn’t invested in a cleantech startup in two years, according to its President. Read more »
Remember that gigawatt solar farm called Blythe in California that turned down a $2.1 billion federal loan guarantee? That project and 1.25 GW of other solar farm proposals are being sold by Solar Millennium to Solarhybrid, the two German companies said Thursday. Read more »
ArrayPower, which has raised $22 million in venture capital, has engineered a way to to convert solar power by using a new, distributed approach to turn direct current from solar cells into alternating current for feeding the grid. Read more »
China has long been perceived as the must-tackle market for clean power and cleantech, but it’s also become a spigot of private capital for startups that find the marriage of money and market opportunity particularly appealing. Read more »
Biofuels were envisioned to help to make the world a better place, but here comes a National Research Council report on Tuesday that casts doubt on the environmental and economic benefits of biofuels and the U.S.’s ability to meet its own production mandates. Read more »
U.S-listed Chinese public companies are facing growing scrutiny for their accounting practices, and that investigation has extended to cleantech businesses as well. The latest example comes from A-Power Energy Generation Systems, a Chinese wind turbine maker. Read more »
A Department of Energy loan guarantee program that has attracted unwanted attention through its Solyndra deal is ending today, and the DOE is marking the occasion by finalizing billions of dollars of loan guarantees to First Solar, SunPower and Prologis. Read more »
After years of incubation and at least $91.4 million of private capital, silicon cell maker SpectraWatt was sold to Canadian Solar for about $4.95 million during an auction. The sale is a dismal end for the Intel-backed company. Read more »
Figuring out ways to convert solar power efficiently is attracting a lot of public and private dollars these days. Google-backed Transphorm is teaming up with another startup, Enphase Energy, to develop a device using a novel material with financial support from Department of Energy’s ARPA-E. Read more »
Using radio waves to efficiently convert solar power — that’s the idea behind startup Array Converter, which spoke for one of the first times this week at the AlwaysOn GoingGreen conference in San Francisco. Read more »
There is no escaping the dark spell cast by Solyndra’s bankruptcy in cleantech discussions these days. At two cleantech conferences in San Francisco this week, speakers gave their takes on the impact of the Solyndra controversy, from money flows to public perception. Read more »
The realization that many greentech startups need more capital and time than expected to commercialize their technologies has sacked some venture capitalists’ enthusiasm for cleantech. Vinod Khosla has a message for them: chin up! There’s good money to be made and I’m doing just fine. Read more »
Is the clean power industry not doing enough to win political support in the nation’s capital? While Solyndra has gotten flack for its significant lobbying efforts, the reality is that the industry should do more, not less. Read more »
On Friday, the DOE announced the closing of three loan guarantees, but also said solar installer SolarCity won’t be securing a loan guarantee for a military solar housing project. SolarCity said they lost the loan guarantee partly because of an investigation into the Solyndra loan. Read more »
On Thursday JinkoSolar issued a lengthy explanation of an environmental controversy surrounding its solar cell factory in China that led to a massive protest and plummeting share prices. The disclosure raises questions about what and how JinkoSolar should have disclosed this as a public company. Read more »
Solyndra’s bankruptcy has shined a harsh spotlight on a federal loan guarantee program, and that spotlight now includes a company that’s in better financial health than Solyndra. First Solar announced Thursday it won’t get a billion-dollar loan guarantee for a California solar project. Read more »
The future of cleantech may depend more on the work of our military than climate change talks. The Pew Charitable Trusts released a report on Wednesday that showed the U.S. Defense Department’s cleantech investment ballooned 300 percent between 2006 and 2009 to reach $1.2 billion. Read more »
Boston-Power, which once dreamed of building a lithium-ion cell battery factory in the United States, announced Tuesday it has lined up $125 million of investments to shift a big part of its business to China and thin its operation in the U.S. by about 35 percent. Read more »
Solar thin-film startup HelioVolt has lined up Korean conglomerate SK Group as an equity investor as it tries to scale up and move into mass production. SK announced Monday that it’s made an equity investment of $50 million in HelioVolt. Read more »
Solar company JinkoSolar faced a huge, four-day protest against its toxic waste dumping practices at its factory in China over the weekend, during the same time when the company announced its sponsorship of the San Francisco 49ers. Read more »
Silicon Valley solar thin-film startup, Stion, on Friday officially opened the door of its factory in Mississippi, marking a milestone for the company as it seeks to expand production quickly in an increasingly competitive market. Read more »
The U.S. Department of Energy released a report Thursday that aims to help public and private sectors figure out ways to protect the grid against cybersecurity breaches. Here’s 10 ways to deal with cybersecurity in a smart grid world. Read more »
One of the big hurdles in engineering electric cars is to figure out how to effectively monitor and control the battery systems. For Coda, that means buying EnergyCS to beef up its battery management system development and expand into the grid energy storage market. Read more »
Thermoelectric materials hold the promise of turning waste heat into electricity, but they haven’t been widely used because of high costs. Startup Alphabet Energy says it’s solving those problems by using common silicon and has lined up $12 million to finalize its first product. Read more »
Solar silicon maker Calisolar is laying off about 80 employees in its Silicon Valley factory as part of its shift in business focus, the company said on Wednesday. The layoff represents about 23 percent of the company’s labor force globally. Read more »
Amidst intense scrutiny of the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program via the Solyndra scandal, September has still emerged as critical for a series of solar companies that hope to close federal loan guarantees and start construction on solar farms by the end of the month. Read more »
Does the Chinese government want to be a cleantech VC? That seems to be the case as the government announced a plan to invest directly or through venture capital funds in startups that are developing technologies including alternative energy and cars. Read more »
