Now that Silicon Valley’s own electric car company, Tesla, is planning on delivering the Roadster at least a year behind schedule, the company is doing some serious PR work in the WSJ this morning, with both an article and a video interview with co-founder and former […] Read more »
If Al Gore is the Nobel Peace Prize-winning embodiment of technology and the environment, the growing masses of eco-bloggers — bloggers waxing on all things earth-friendly — represent the intersection of broadband and the environmental movement. At no other time has the barrier to blogging and […] Read more »
Written by Alistair Croll, vice president of product management and co-founder of Coradiant Virtualization and on-demand computing are giving companies new reasons to worry about code efficiency. Once upon a time, lousy coding didn’t matter. Coder Joel and I could write the same app, and while […] Read more »
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They’re on the cover of both this month’s National Geographic and Wired. They were mentioned in the State of the Union address. They’re raising hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital. And they’re on video. Yep, we’re talking about biofuels. Check out these biofuel video […] Read more »
There’s no individual that exemplifies the merging of the environmental movement and the technology industry more than former Vice President Al Gore. By now everyone’s seen his Academy Award-winning plea to fight climate change, and he’s a senior adviser to Google (GOOG), an Apple (AAPL) board […] Read more »
BP‘s new chief executive, Tony Hayward, announced a major business restructuring this week that could result in the company’s clean energy initiatives getting pushed to the back burner. Calling it “a fundamental shift” in the way the oil giant does business, Hayward said BP’s gas power […] Read more »
Vinod Khosla, the 52-year venture capitalist and founder of Khosla Ventures and Sun Microsystems, is leading Silicon Valley’s biofuel gold rush. Controversial to some (corn ethanol critics) and put on a pedestal by others (venture investors that follow his lead), he’s made at least 10 biofuel […] Read more »
SmartSpark Energy Raises $$$: Solar inverter technology (converts DC to AC) is the next place for investment, a VC told me recently. He looks to be right, and SmartSpark Energy said it raised an undisclosed round from Battery Ventures — release. Solar Decathlon Starts Tomorrow: Twenty […] Read more »
The division of the U.S. government’s National Security Space Office known as “Dream Works” (no joke) has formulated a vision for a space-based solar system that would capture sunlight with satellite solar arrays and beam it down to Earth. In a report released yesterday, the NSSO […] Read more »
In the race to produce cheaper solar cells using new manufacturing methods and materials, solar startups have been requiring more and more money to get their products to market. Over the past few months, Konarka, Miasolé, HelioVolt, and Nanosolar have all raised funding in an effort […] Read more »
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Perhaps it’s because their conservative base is wary of the environmental issue, or maybe it’s because they don’t want to sound like tax-and-spend liberals, but the Republicans are quieter than the Democrats when it comes to exact figures for funding clean technologies. However, the major Republican […] Read more »
Unless you’re as clued in as Ms. Teen South Carolina, you’ve noticed that corporations are increasingly focused on lowering energy consumption, reducing carbon emissions and touting their general eco-friendliness. Less obvious is that the startups that are in the business of enabling this green trend – […] Read more »
Biodiesel Plant’s New Tech: Benefuel and Seymour Biofuels will build a biodiesel refinery based on solid catalyst that can convert low-grade fats and vegetable oils into biodiesel — Seattle PI. Shell Shilling for Clean Coal: Shell is looking to license its coal gasification technology — Reuters. […] Read more »
We don’t want to kick corn-based ethanol while it’s down, but in another sign that the ethanol boom is coming to an end, Monsanto (MON) CEO Hugh Grant is predicting a slight decline in corn plantings for 2008. This follows a 2007 crop season in which […] Read more »
Where do we tackle the dirty-burning coal dilemma — in the power plant or in the ground? (Or how about neither and we just go with clean energy?) Luca Technologies is betting on the ground, and the Golden, Colo.-based startup that works with naturally-occurring microbes in […] Read more »
Amidst all the inflated rhetoric about the war in Iraq, health care and new taxes, you’ll be forgiven if you’ve had trouble separating one candidate from the next on environmental technology issues. But one of these people might become the next president, and billions in funding […] Read more »
If you can measure it, you can manage it. When the “it” is temperature, even small differences allow you to manage a host of things. Space Instruments, a small San Diego company, has a high-resolution infrared sensing system that helps fight forest fires, contain oil spills, […] Read more »
About half of the electricity Americans consume comes from coal, and China’s economic boom is being fueled by the dirty-burning stuff. So while we’d prefer an end to all coal, technologies to capture and store the carbon emissions from coal plants will just have to help […] Read more »
Sun Microsystems (JAVA) today announced the first servers that deliver the compute power of up to 64 individual systems on a single server. The company says the performance is six times better, on a per-watt basis, vs. competing products. The servers use Sun’s Solaris Operating System […] Read more »
When corporations say they are going “carbon neutral,” they often focus first on cutting energy consumption within their own office buildings or data centers — a positive step, but one that often doesn’t look at the more far-reaching effect of their supply chains. So it’s a […] Read more »
Craig Venter, the high-profile genetic researcher and cleantech entrepreneur, is possibly weeks away from announcing that he and a group of scientists have created the first new artificial life form on Earth, according to the Guardian. As in, today I made: a) brownies, b) a blog […] Read more »
Outsourcing IT Saves Energy: Outsourcing IT and datacenter functions can mean an energy savings of up to 40 percent, according to IDC — Business Green Blog. Clipper to Make a Big Ol’ Wind Turbine: Clipper Windpower said today that it plans to develop a 7.5 megawatt […] Read more »
Compared to cleantech funds like Braemar’s $250 million or Expansion’s $100 million, a low double-digit fundraising might not turn too many heads. But Greenhouse Capital Partners, which says today it has closed $11 million for a fund that will focus between half and three quarters of […] Read more »
For two dollars, you could enjoy a hearty bottle of Trader Joe’s famous Two Buck Chuck, but it would hardly save the planet. Thanks to a group of clever MIT students, you may soon be able to take that lowly two bucks and do just that. […] Read more »
Back in February, BP Plc (BP) and UC Berkeley proposed a deal that could provide $500 million for research aimed at using genetic engineering to increase biofuel yields. The partnership was hailed by BP Group Chief Executive John Browne as “creat[ing] the discipline of energy biosciences.” […] Read more »
First there’s uber investor Vinod Khosla with his burgeoning clean tech portfolio. Then father of the Ethernet, Bob Metcalfe joined the party. Now we have FON founder Martin Varvasky getting interested in solar farms. I guess with telecom operators deciding the fate of all telecom-related start-ups, […] Read more »
Now that corn-based ethanol is looking more and more unsustainable — and is the latest media punching bag — it’s time to make way for the next generation of biofuel startups. LS9, a San Carlos, Calif-based start-up that touts itself as a “renewable petroleum company” plans […] Read more »
The bulb as we know it is dying a flickering death. OK, so that’s a tad dramatic but states and even entire continents are considering plans to ban the incandescent bulb. Here’s yet another sign: General Electric (GE) said late yesterday it will restructure its lighting […] Read more »
When PG&E (PCG) and electric car startup Tesla said last month that they plan to research “smart charging” for electric plug-in vehicles — where the rate that a plug-in vehicle charges from the grid can be controlled remotely by a utility — we checked in with […] Read more »
Roughly 22 percent of the electricity consumed in the U.S. goes toward lighting, according to the Department of Energy. With such a big market, companies big and small are working on developing and selling energy-efficient lighting. Durham, N.C.-based Cree (CREE), maker of light-emitting diodes (LEDs), sells […] Read more »
While a lot of cleantech regulatory innovation clearly needs to come from the highest levels of government, local authorities are proving to be catalysts for the industry as well. The DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Clean Cities Program work with local governments to […] Read more »
Tampa Electric Ditches Clean Coal: The Florida utility says its going to drop plans to use so-called “clean coal” technology — InsideGreenTech. Solar Servers: Business 2.0 checks out green server-farm company AISO.net — affordable Internet services online — Business 2.0. Sustainable Silicon Valley: The coalition of […] Read more »
Braemar Energy Ventures, a New York-based venture capital firm devoted to investing in early-to-mid-stage energy startups, has closed a second fund with $250 million in capital commitments, according to PE Hub. Formed in 2002, nine of Braemar’s prior portfolio companies, including energy management firm EnerNOC (ENOC), […] Read more »
Investing in cleantech — with subsectors that range from energy to IT to water — takes a good deal of focus. NGEN Partner’s Robert Koch knows it and he’s currently concentrating on solar startups and electric vehicle companies. Focus also breeds enthusiasm. When talking about the […] Read more »
In the world of cleantech, women can be few and far between. Nancy Floyd, founder and managing director of cleantech VC firm Nth Power, knows this firsthand. Since founding Nth Power in 1993, she has sat on more than 15 boards — and only one of […] Read more »
Solar in Japan, Model of Government Support: NPR has a radio piece on how Japan has helped create a market for solar through government support, and reports on a solar-filled Kobe neighborhood — NPR. EnerNOC Boosts So Cal Edison Deal: EnerNoc announced a contract to provide […] Read more »
Engineered Eggshell Fuel: Don’t feel like walking on eggshells? — how about driving on them. Ohio State University researchers have found a way to turn discarded chicken eggshells into hydrogen fuel. The process uses eggshells to “soak up” carbon dioxide from a reaction that produces the […] Read more »
Most greentech watchers have lost their sense of wonder over the fact that pond scum, a.k.a. algae, could be one of the most efficient ways to make biofuels for our cars. These tiny chemical factories can turn sunlight and nutrients into fuel with an efficiency unrivaled […] Read more »
Wind energy developer EverPower Renewables says it has closed a $55 million financing commitment from Swiss cleantech investment firm Good Energies. This is the second deal of the week for Good Energies; it put more cash into thin film solar company Konarka. It also marks the […] Read more »
Bob Metcalfe, the father of Ethernet and founder of 3Com (COMS), says the history of the Internet is a “rich vein to mine” when it comes to building the next generation of energy technology. He should know — he’s been researching network and information technologies for […] Read more »
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