More cleantech Stories

Not everyone’s feeling the biofuel backlash, especially when it comes to cellulosic ethanol — biofuels made from non-food crops and plants. This morning, Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based energy crop company Ceres announced it has raised $75 million through a late-stage financing round led by private equity firm […] Read more »

We gave portable consumer fuel cell developer MTI Micro a bit of a hard time in a post this week about how long the technology was taking to get to market — it’s slated for commercialization in 2009. MTI’s CEO Peng Lim and VP of Corporate […] Read more »

John Doerr, the high-profile Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner, closed Silicon Valley Projections 2008, a sold-out forum on responses to climate change, with a call for greater participation by the government in driving greentech forward. “More than anything else, we need the political will among […] Read more »

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Howard Berke, the co-founder and executive chairman of the board for solar polymer company Konarka, stepped down from his role as CEO in June, but we still found him out manning the company booth at the Solar Power 2007 convention this week. We chatted with him […] Read more »

The rumors that the thin film solar startup Miasolé had been out fund raising are confirmed this morning. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company has raised another $50 million in series D funding that included six new but unnamed investors, according to VentureWire, (via PE Hub). Miasole […] Read more »

You know all eyes are on cleantech investments when Wired runs a tagline on its cover: “Silicon Valley Goes Crazy for Cleantech.” Well, Ernst & Young and Dow Jones VentureOne sent out some research this morning with more data on the subject: global venture capital investments […] Read more »

MIT gets a Little BP: British Petroleum (BP) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced a research partnership to explore energy conversion technologies, including the conversion of coal to electricity while minimizing carbon dioxide emissions – release. Nuclear in Texas: For the first time in […] Read more »

Like that date that kept you waiting while you nervously fixed your hair, the Tesla Roadster is officially late. Customers — among them San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom — will now have to wait until 2008 before the $98,000 electric hotrod is ready to leave the […] Read more »

If media mogul and environmentalist Ted Turner -– who’s often called the largest individual land owner in North America -– placed a few square miles of solar across his New Mexico ranches he could, in theory, generate 4 GW of power. Well, that was the half-joking […] Read more »

As we pointed out earlier in our Google Pedal Power Challenge post, look no further than your own legs for solutions to save the planet. Channel your inner hamster and get pedaling. Today’s egg McMuffin could power tomorrow’s revolution. Commute Not since the age of Fred […] Read more »

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Was it only last year when biofuels held such delirious promise? Ethanol from de-juiced sugarcane offered Brazil the prized goal of energy independence. The U.S. government offered the farming industries billions in subsidies in hopes of achieving the same. Ethanol IPOs like Aventine and Verasun went […] Read more »

Expansion VC Expands for $$$: Expansion Capital Partners announced today that the firm exceeded $100 million in the final closing of their second Clean Technology Fund — release. H20 Investment: Stonybrook Water Purification secured $500,000 of a $4.1 million Series A round, from Battery Ventures, TianDI […] Read more »

Wal-Mart’s (WMT) eco initiatives are controversial, to say the least. Though the megachain continues to think up new ways to focus on green. Today, the company announced a partnership with nonprofit org the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) to measure the amount of energy used to make […] Read more »

The flood gates are opening up for water technology investments, the Wall Street Journal says this morning. Calling the water industry “one of the hottest areas for investors,” the article says that while investors struggled to fund water technology in the past, concerns over water supplies, […] Read more »

Google’s (GOOG) been getting geared up over greentech like plug-in hybrids, solar, more eco-friendly data centers, and now . . . pedal power? The search engine giant says it’s partnering with bike company Specialized and ad firm Goodby Silverstein & Partners on a contest called the […] Read more »

Apparently $100 million in funding isn’t enough for thin film startup Nanosolar. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company has been awarded $20 million from the Department of Energy, which includes $9.5 million through October 2008. Whoa, how much money does the company need? Nanosolar says the funding […] Read more »

MTI Microfuel Cells put out a triumphant press release last week about fuel cell technology. The cause for celebration was not an actual product, as their “award-winning,” Mobion fuel cell won’t see the market until likely 2009. Instead, they announced that the US Department of Transportation, […] Read more »

The key to cracking the code for cellulosic ethanol — biofuel made from non-food crops and plant byproducts — could be under development in a university lab near you. While researchers have spent years trying to figure out how to effectively produce the alt-fuel, universities across […] Read more »

Robert Fishman spent the last seven years managing power plants for natural gas company Calpine (CPNLQ). Now he’s stoked on solar — last week he became the new CEO for solar thermal start-up Ausra. Ausra builds solar thermal systems that use mirrors and lenses to focus […] Read more »

The sun shined on us this week (at least near E2T headquarters) and investments, deals and partnerships in the solar industry were bright too. Wha’ppened? Here’s the solar primer of the week. Oh yeah, and expect even more solar news from us when Solar Power 2007 […] Read more »

Following the fuel cell market is a little like watching grass grow — you know there’s progress being made, but sometimes it’s really hard to tell. Folsom, Calif.-based Jadoo Power is one fuel cell startup that has been making a few changes as of late. In […] Read more »

Controversial so-called ‘clean coal’ technology just got a triple-digit investment — GreatPoint Energy, a company that converts dirty coal into cleaner-burning natural gas, has raised $100 million in a Series C funding, a company spokesperson told us. The Cambridge, Mass.-based company said it will officially announce […] Read more »

New CEO for Ausra: Solar start-up hires Robert Fishman from traditional power-producer Calpine as CEO – San Jose Mercury News. Intel’s Linux Energy Boost: An Intel open-source project called LessWatts.org wants to improve the power efficiency of the Linux operating system – PC World. Solar Water […] Read more »

Leave it to Intel (INTC) to try to rain on AMD’s (AMD) parade. Less than two weeks after AMD sang out praises of its new chip’s power efficiency with the launch of its “Barcelona” quad-core processor, Intel is showing off its latest innovation in chip architecture […] Read more »

For Apple (AAPL) co-founder Steve Wozniak, well-designed computers are like green buildings: it’s all about efficiency. That was one of the messages that came from Wozniak during an onstage interview at the West Coast Green conference in San Francisco on Thursday. Think Wozniak and green, and […] Read more »

Ask a die-hard altpower fan if they’ve ever seen a functional wind turbine in the urban jungle, and chances are, the answer is no. Today we bring you some exclusive footage of this rare species. This Skystream 3.7, built by Altira-backed Southwest Wind Power, sits atop […] Read more »

We already brought you an early glimpse of the West Coast Green conference’s eco picture opp — the earth-friendly prefabricated home that was assembled in downtown San Francisco this week. The green building industry is growing so fast that both the architect and builder behind the […] Read more »

T Boone Pickens, Still Going: I absolutely love stories about this Texas oil billionaire. Best quote: “I like to be associated with younger people. It keeps the motor running at a high rate of speed.” Close contender: “I’m afraid I’ll die,” when asked why he won’t […] Read more »

Salmon Sperm Key to Green Electronics?: Professor Andrew Steckl at the University of Cincinnati is looking into the ways salmon DNA (taken from salmon sperm) intensifies the properties of light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The release notes that “Skeckl evaluated the source of materials with an eye to […] Read more »

While thin-film solar investments are all the rage, we haven’t seen much funding recently for companies working on the more mature cadmium telluride (CdTe) technology. Newer and competing material copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) is the focus of VC-heavy players Nanosolar, Miasole, Heliovolt, and others, while […] Read more »

We’ve been getting a little tired of comparing web-based carbon calculators — how many different ways can we feel guilty for driving too much? So we were interested to check out ChooseRenewable’s “MyWatts Renewables Estimator,” which offers a free service to evaluate whether — based on […] Read more »

There seems to be a growing number of us who diligently recycle, compost and shop organic, yet still cling to our old, non-hybrid cars like security blankets. Fear not: Eco-friendly car parts and manufacturing processes that look beyond the gas tank will soon bring hope to […] Read more »

Solar Cash: Solar Power Partners, which sells solar services raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Globespan Capital Partners — release. Traffic=Fuel Waster: If you haven’t noticed, traffic congestion in our nation’s cities is getting worse. A new report notes that the problem, besides […] Read more »

Venture firms, particularly Khosla Ventures, can’t get enough of biofuels. Amyris Biotechnologies, an Emeryville-based synthetic biology start-up that develops a fermentation process to produce biofuels, just landed the first part of $70 million in VC backing from DAG Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, and TPG Ventures, […] Read more »

Flywheel technology doesn’t have the wow-factor of electric cars or solar panels in the cleantech world. Listen to the description: spinning discs that store energy of motion and can replace lead acid batteries in backup power systems. Investors are paying attention, though. Chatsworth, Calif.-based flywheel maker […] Read more »

It’s a depressing reality that no matter how diligently you recycle, compost and repurpose, a huge amount of your trash still ends up baking in the sun in a landfill. The EPA estimates that U.S. residents and businesses produce more than 245 million pounds of MSW […] Read more »

AMD (AMD) and Intel (INTC) might haggle over the power efficiencies of their chips, but we didn’t expect to hear about Intel developing anything close to a green consumer gadget. Huh. ZDNet writes about a presentation by Intel research VP Andrew Chien on an internal project […] Read more »

Looking for more green home investments? While we were checking out Michelle Kaufmann’s prefab eco pad this weekend, we got a chance to chat with the CEO and founder of the building company behind the mkLotus, XtremeHome’s Tim Schmidt. Based in Oroville, Calif., Schmidt’s XtremeHomes produces […] Read more »

EnerNOC (ENOC), a company that sells demand response and energy management services to commercial and industrial customers, is trying to stay on top of its game. On Monday, the company said it has snapped up Stamford, Conn.-based startup MDEnergy, adding to its portfolio of energy management […] Read more »

Efficient Toner: Xerox will open a $60 million energy efficient manufacturing plant to produce a toner that takes about 25 percent less energy per pound compared to conventional toner — GreenBiz. Red, White and Biofuels: The US is the “fastest expanding market in the world” for […] Read more »

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