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green building

Soladigm Grabs $30M For Self-Tinting Glass

Stealthy startup Soladigm has landed $30 million to help build a factory to start churning out its self-tinting glass in 2012. It’s in a race with rival Sage Electrochromics, which just got $80 million for its factory. Read More »

Sage Gains $80M from French Construction Giant

In a move that could help smart window tech reach economies of scale, this morning French construction giant Saint-Gobain announced that it has made an $80 million strategic investment into Sage Electrochromics, a company that makes “electrochromic windows,” which can dynamically block light. Read More »

 
 

Serious Materials Launches Energy Software

Green building materials startup Serious Materials is best known for selling its eco-drywall and energy efficient windows. But quietly over the past several months the company has jumped into the energy management software market with a software-as-a-service product that enables building owners to reduce energy consumption. Read More »

The Walmart Effect on Thin Film Solar

When Walmart decides to invest in emerging green technologies it offers considerable validation. That’s certainly the intention behind Walmart’s announcement that it will pay for solar electricity from installations that use thin film solar panels from MiaSole and First Solar and are installed by SolarCity. Read More »

Intel has taken up a patriotic cause this year, paying special attention to promising U.S.-based companies. The company announced four software and chip companies that have collectively received over $30 million from its Intel Capital Invest in America Technology Fund, including an energy software maker. Read More »

Will ZigBee Rule Networked Lighting?

Stealthy startup Daintree Networks wants to take a slightly different tack than its competitors — deliver ZigBee-based, interoperable lighting controls to market by partnering directly with the incumbents. Will the big boys be interested? Read More »

Sonic Solutions added a new feature to its RoxioNow digital video platform, allowing companies like Blockbuster and Best Buy to deliver videos to mobile devices. By teaming up with Widevine, RoxioNow will now be able to deliver videos to iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry devices. Read More »

Searching for Soladigm's Secret Sauce

Soladigm has emerged as a startup to watch in the smart window space, yet not much is known about its technology. Turns out, the 3-year-old startup, which announced its first commercial factory plan in Mississippi last week, has been amassing both technologies and patents. Read More »

Phones with video chat capability have been out in Europe for years, but getting the ability on two of the biggest smartphone platforms will expose the feature to millions who have no idea such video calls are possible. A new comprehensive report details this upcoming boom. Read More »

Announcing Our Green:Net Launchpad 10 Winners

One of my favorite parts of last year’s Green:Net event was the launchpad section, where 10 companies that are using information technology to fight climate change launch themselves or new products. So I’m excited to announce this year’s 10 winners of the Green:Net2010 Launchpad. Read More »

25 Cities That Have Gone Gaga for Green Building

Just nine metropolitan areas in the U.S. at the end of 2009 could boast the presence of more than 100 commercial and industrial buildings earning the Energy Star label for energy efficiency, according to the just-released list of the EPA’s top 25 cities for Energy Star … Read More »

While the number isn’t official (Apple isn’t exactly free and easy with its sales figures), one analyst is saying that although its early yet to tell, it looks like the iPad is on track to break some pretty significant records in terms of order volume. Amateur … Read More »

More Must Reads

Home Star, the White House-backed plan to provide billions of dollars in incentives for home energy retrofits, now has a sibling — this one focused on larger buildings. Two U.S. senators introduced a bill yesterday that would provide up to $6 billion in rebates … Read More »

Green buildings are still far from typical across the U.S., but signs are mounting that mainstream homebuilders are starting to take energy efficiency and other green features a lot more seriously. The latest evidence came earlier this week when KB Home, one of the top five U.S. … Read More »

Tools and services for improving a home’s energy efficiency — things like Energy Star appliances, home energy audits and green roofing materials — often lack the glitz and gadget-appeal of solar panels and other highly visible signs that a homeowner has “gone green.” But according to … Read More »

If you spend any time reading about indoor air quality and green building materials, you quickly encounter concerns about particleboard — the pressed wood products that the Environmental Protection Agency says are the most significant source of formaldehyde in homes. Startup e2e Materials, a … Read More »

Just two weeks into the new year, California government authorities are helping to bolster one of our four green building trends to watch in 2010: the tightening of green building regulations. Earlier this week, a California state commission voted unanimously to approve the nation’s first … Read More »

Do makers of low-cost, energy saving windows with high-tech smarts have well, a window of opportunity? A growing number of startups and investors seem to think so. Switch Materials, a developer of energy saving windows based in Burnaby, British Columbia, has just raised $7.5 million … Read More »

The market for new construction is still struggling to pick itself up, but the growing trend of green building promises a sort of renaissance for the centuries-old industry. That’s the hope, anyways, and if you believe (as we do, though with a healthy pinch of … Read More »

While the debate over how — or if — consumers will want to manage their home energy consumption makes a lot of headlines, commercial buildings suck up 18 percent of the total energy consumption in the U.S. and represent one of the biggest opportunities for … Read More »

Water scarcity is becoming a hot-button issue in the U.S. (and globally), with water managers in 36 states saying they expect freshwater shortages hitting their states by early in the next decade. But the coming shortages could present opportunities for entrepreneurs and investors to develop … Read More »

The White House wants to see the home energy retrofit market surge, and a new report announced today predicts a growing appetite for energy-efficient heaters, air conditioners and roofing materials, part of a larger trend in the growth of green home renovations. Overall, the … Read More »

Building materials typically don’t arise as examples of high technology. In the green building sector, energy management systems and building-integrated renewable power generation have drawn much of the attention from tech-oriented innovators, with less activity around green building materials. But the authors of a Read More »

ZETA Communities, a San Francisco-based green prefab builder, has been quietly developing an energy management system that it says will be ready to be installed in all the startup’s projects starting next year. The system, called zTherm, automatically opens vents, draws heat from thermal mass, and takes … Read More »

For companies looking to sell energy efficiency tools, green building products and alt-fuel vehicles, a new scorecard from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy could offer a roadmap to markets with some of the friendliest policies in the U.S. This year’s scorecard, which Read More »

The White House believes it’s found the political version of a double whammy in the home energy efficiency retrofit market. There are about 130 million homes in the U.S. and a sizable chunk of them are good candidates for energy-saving projects, like air-duct sealing, insulation … Read More »

Green building geeks now have a more powerful tool for developing next-gen building designs with minimal environmental impact. Software engineers at the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory launched this week an update of their plug-in for SketchUp, Google’s open-source 3D building modeling … Read More »

Michelle Kaufmann has been called the high priestess of green “prefab” design. The architect, who worked for Frank Gehry early in her career, was one of the first to make a persuasive case that prefabricated design — which saves time and reduces waste compared with conventional … Read More »

Venture capitalists often speak of green building as a promising sector, but few have actually invested in companies developing innovative building materials. Beyond Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Serious Materials, most cleantech junkies would probably struggle to name more than one or two other venture-backed green building outfits. But a … Read More »

Standard-household-sized LED bulbs have long raised a common complaint: They don’t dim easily. Yeah, some can be dimmed by controlling the current instead of the voltage, or by making them flicker at high speeds undetectable by the human eye, but homeowners can’t just plug them … Read More »

Highlighting the increased interest in green construction this year, green-building materials company Serious Materials announced on Tuesday that it has raised $60 million in its third round of funding. The round represents one of the largest U.S. venture-capital deals –- and the largest energy-efficiency deal –- … Read More »

The growth of the green building market has been widely celebrated recently, spurred largely by government policies and rising recognition that such structures are more economical to operate. The forces behind the industry are so strong now that research firm McGraw-Hill Construction predicts green buildings will … Read More »

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — that $787 billion behemoth of a bill that was signed into law in February and was meant to stimulate the U.S. economy — so far seems to have had a beneficial but lackluster impact on the home energy … Read More »

As recently as two years ago, home energy retrofits might have been called esoteric territory best left to well-off eco-enthusiasts. But today, with increased attention and funding from the federal government and growing  consumer interest, energy retrofits will soon become more common as people look … Read More »

I have been following the digital textbook world for some time. As an avid e-book fan, I can see the tremendous benefits that digital versions of textbooks can provide students. These benefits include ease-of-use, advanced capabilities like search, and possibly financial benefits, too. The word this … Read More »

If group purchasing of solar systems reduces costs, the same should be true for home energy retrofits. We’ve learned that two San Francisco-based startups, building retrofit firm Sustainable Spaces and community organizer 1 Block Off the Grid, have launched a pilot program in the … Read More »

Notebook stands are a dime a dozen, and they come in all shapes and sizes. It’s unusual, however, when one appears that can be used in many different configurations while sporting high-quality aluminum construction. A new stand from a Brazilian inventor is definitely well constructed and … Read More »

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu has inspired hand-wringing among some companies and trade groups in recent months with calls for the international community to take a “very collaborative” approach to improving energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This morning, the Department of Energy offered … Read More »

Information technology isn’t just aiding the green building sector in terms of energy management tools — it also can play a role in designing certified green structures. Brattleboro, Vt.-based BuildingGreen, a green building publisher and products cataloger, on Wednesday launched an online software package … Read More »

Back when explorers were setting out from Spain, England and Portugal with instructions to find God, gold and glory, maps were a strategic asset. Even today, the in-depth mapping and visual information provided by Google Maps and Street View is a source of concern to the Pentagon … Read More »

Broadband obviously isn’t a growth engine anymore, but it’s underpinning the growth of new communications services such as IPTV. A report commissioned by The Broadband Forum shows that television delivered via broadband is up 63 percent globally. Meanwhile, broadband growth has slowed to the … Read More »

On its earnings conference call today, Verizon says it still hopes to have LTE commercially available by the first half of 2010. Verizon President and COO Denny Strigl gave the time frame, and didn’t indicate that the four-month delay in accessing the 700 MHz … Read More »

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