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 »
California regulators have made significant changes to a state incentive program that will impact electric customers who use technology such as fuel cells. The changes could have a big impact on Bloom Energy, which has been a major beneficiary of the SGIP. Read more »
Solyndra’s woes continue. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is searching Solyndra’s headquarters this morning, though it declined to say what it’s looking for. Read more »
The sale season is on for solar. SpectraWatt, which filed for bankruptcy last month, plans to hold a live auction of its silicon solar factory equipment on Sept. 28. Others will follow. Read more »
The largest residential rooftop in the U.S. history is coming. Energy Secretary Steve Chu announced its arrival on Wednesday with a partial guarantee of a $344 million loan to put solar panels on military housing and other buildings over the next five years. Read more »
While an uproar has arisen over the loan guarantees for solar from the U.S. Department of Energy (namely the one for Solyndra), another federal agency has also been making hundreds of millions of dollars worth of loans and loan guarantees to support the U.S. solar industry. Read more »
Solar silicon and cell maker Calisolar has ditched a $275 million federal loan guarantee to build a factory in Ohio, but the company still has a manufacturing plan. It says it has secured a $75.25 million package from Mississippi to locate its factory there. Read more »
Solar technology startup Solyndra, which has raised more than $1.5 billion in private and government funds, has suspended manufacturing and laid off 1,100 full-time and temporary employees. We conducted a survey and asked GigaOM readers for their views on the fallout of Solyndra’s decision to file for bankruptcy and what the future holds for the company. This research examines the survey’s results. It also includes an analysis of Solyndra’s struggles over the past two years to move into mass production, and to do it amidst difficult and volatile economic conditions. Companies mentioned in this report include Evergreen Solar, First Solar and SpectraWatt. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The solar factory shutdown trend continues with the announcement by Germany-based SolarWorld on Friday that it will shutter one of its factories in the United States to cut costs. Read more »
Fisker Automotive, which finally began delivering its first plug-in electric hybrid car this summer, has begun promoting its second model in earnest as well. The company announced Thursday that its next car, dubbed “Project Nina,” will come with engines and other parts by BMW. Read more »
Solyndra just became a high-profile casualty of the youthful solar industry as Solyndra failed to compete successfully against larger solar rivals in a global market that depends heavily on government subsidies. Here’s what went wrong. Read more »
After getting a $535 million federal loan guarantee for building a factory, solar thin-film startup Solyndra is going out of business. Solyndra has also raised close to a billion dollars in equity and loans and said it will file Chapter 11. Read more »
China is poised to become a giant solar and wind energy producer, and that will open opportunities for energy storage technology developers. ZBB announced its foray into China on Tuesday and more American companies are sure to follow. Read more »
Infinia, a solar startup which is using Stirling engines to produce solar power, is looking to raise $25 million in funding, and has closed $6 million of that round according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Read more »
Corporate venture capital plays a key role in the startup world, including the cleantech sector. In his Today in Green IT post, the curator of our research service, Adam Lesser, highlighted the role of corporate venture capital and pointed to an article in the Detroit Free Press […] Read more »
A few dozen teams of smart college students from around the world will compete in a 1,800-mile race in Australia with their own solar-powered cars. Check out the cool designs! Read more »
Japan has long supported solar energy development, but the nuclear disaster this spring pushed it to expand its clean power supplies. That effort reached a milestone on Friday when its lawmakers approved a program that will require its utilities to buy renewable electricity at government-set prices under long-term contracts. Read more »
Smartphones are increasingly becoming the remote controls of our lives. Car owners can use theirs to check on the battery level and driving range and adjust the climate control system. An MIT project explores new ways to use smartphones to help drivers cut fuel costs. Read more »
It’s always fascinating to see how dictators spend big money on their hobbies while letting their people live in poverty. The takeover of Moammar Gadhafi compound this week unveiled a private side of the Libyan leader, and among the finds was an electric car by Fiat. Read more »
We’ve heard of bullish forecasts for electric cars, but we also have seen reports about the coming of an oversupply of lithium-ion batteries. Managing the supply and demand can be tough for any industry, but it might be extra difficult for the new, electric car market. Read more »
The team approach is becoming popular in the electric car development space. General Motors and LG Group announced Thursday a plan to co-develop electric vehicles in order to speed up their deployment. Read more »
Peddling home energy management gear and software successfully is harder than it seems, and big companies such as Microsoft and Cisco are ditching this market. EnergyHub is staying and on Thursday announced a $14.5 million round to help it sell products and services to consumers. Read more »
What has to happen for the solar industry to recover from the slump? That’s been on the minds of manufacturers, service providers and investors in recent months as solar panels were piling up in warehouses and prices were falling faster than a Russian rocket. Read more »
Solar companies haven’t fared well so far this year, so it’s not surprisingly that Applied Materials, which makes factory equipment for solar, also has seen drops in sales. The company reported on Wednesday a 12-percent fall in sales between its two most recent quarters. Read more »
Turning renewable materials such as plants into useful chemicals seems a great idea, particularly when these green chemicals can replace compounds made from crude oil and natural gas. Genomatica, which filed for an initial public offering on Wednesday, certainly hopes investors will agree. Read more »
Honing the right message about the benefits of clean power is harder than it looks. That’s the theme for Today in Green IT — our daily look at what the curator of our research service, Adam Lesser, has been reading and thinking about. Read more »
Green chemical developer Genomatica has filed for an initial public offering to seek up to $100 million, according to its government filing on Wednesday. The company engineers processes to create chemical from renewable sources for making a variety of products, from clothing to auto parts. Read more »
A controversy has emerged at the California Energy Commission over whether the commission should have authority to issue permits for photovoltaic power plants – projects that use solar panels. Tomorrow, the commission will consider a developer’s request for the commission to do just that. Read more »
A year ago, California and federal regulators were busy reviewing and signing off on giant solar farms. Now, the pace has slowed considerably as fewer projects are up for review and uncertainty over federal subsidy programs loom. Read more »
Yet another massive solar thermal farm in the California desert is ditching the thermal part and opting for solar panels. Solar Trust, which has been developing a 1 GW solar farm in California, announced it will use panels instead and give up $2.1B of federal help. Read more »
The U.S. military has stepped up efforts to invest and use more cleantech at its bases and battlefields, including renewable electricity, energy storage and a host of energy efficiency technologies. Here is a list of plans and projects underway. Read more »
To promote biofuel production, the U.S. government is becoming both the investor and customer. The White House announced Tuesday a $510 million investment to speed up biofuel production for the military and beyond. Read more »
Will electric vehicles provide a big market for lithium-ion batteries? A report by IHS on Monday says yes and predicts that carmakers will take over laptop manufacturers as the biggest customers of lithium-ion batteries by 2015. Read more »
What can you do when profits are hard to come by and your targeted market hasn’t taken off? For Ascent Solar Technologies, that means selling a stake of the company and licensing its technology to a Chinese conglomerate. Read more »
More solar panels are sprouting from the rooftops these days, along with an increasing number of equipment models and installers. Yet there is no good consumer guide to help people compare shop and avoid scams. The time has come to create one. Read more »
Freshly minted as a public company, biofuel producer KiOR reported Thursday that it brought in no revenues and widened its losses for the second quarter. It also faced questions about raising money for a processing plant when the economy is still struggling. Read more »
In the first half of 2011, a variety of cleantech firms both filed for IPOs and made their debuts on the public markets. But in the wake of the market sell-off this week, that IPO window could be swiftly shutting. Read more »
Declining solar incentives in key markets such as Italy and Germany have disrupted sales for many solar companies, and SunPower in particular has been hit quite hard. On Tuesday the company posted second-quarter losses and promised to speed up plans to reduce costs. Read more »
As more solar farms arise in the sunny corners of the U.S., it’s inevitable that solar developers will have to play ball with environmentalists. First Solar and SunPower announced an agreement with the environmental groups to add thousands of acres near their projects for wildlife protection. Read more »
