Then news that thermostat giant Honeywell has slapped startup Nest with a lawsuit for patent infringement throws an unexpected wrinkle in the landscape of the smart thermostat this year. We ask readers to weigh in on what the lawsuit means for the smart thermostat industry. Read More »
Beacon Power, the federally-backed energy storage company, has found a buyer. Rockland Capital plans to pay $30.5 million for Beacon’s assets, including a 20MW flywheel energy storage plant that that received a $43 million loan guarantee. Read More »
Electric vehicle maker Fisker Automotive announced on Monday that it has halted work on its second electric car called Project Nina at its factory in Delaware, has laid off 26 workers, and is attempting to renegotiate the terms of its loan with the U.S. government. Read More »
The Green IT section of our GigaOM Pro service has been cranking out a lot of rock solid research and long form reports in 2012. Come check out our new 30-page state of solar report, our smart thermostat research and new analysis on batteries. Read More »
A 1 GW solar farm in California whose fate was in limbo for a while is finally moving forward: Solar Millennium has sold it to Solarhybrid, which will change the technology for the project from concentrating solar thermal to photovoltaic panels. Read More »
Thermostat giant Honeywell has slapped startup Nest, and retailer Best Buy, with a lawsuit over patent infringement for smart thermostat technology. I read the lawsuit so you don’t have to and here’s the details you need to know: Read More »
Thermostat giant Honeywell has filed a lawsuit alleging patent infringement by the buzzy Silicon Valley startup Nest, which makes a smart learning thermostat. Read More »
A quiet startup called Greensmith has been building a business out of connecting, controlling and monitoring large batteries installed on the power grid and used for energy storage. Read More »
Enerkem, which develops technology that turns waste into biofuel and has won federal government backing, on Friday filed the S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to raise up to $125 million. Read More »
Solar companies worldwide will remember 2011 as a dark time in their history; the failing of Solyndra symbolizes that market volatility, and 2012 no doubt started with trepidation, writes Ucilia Wang in a comprehensive report on the solar industry in 2012 for GigaOM Pro. Read More »
The failure rate of developers to fulfill their renewable energy contract in California has historically been around 30-40 percent, but that failure rate is expected to come down now that utilities are seeing better prepared and managed projects — and more developers who are in the… Read More »
Watch the Super Bowl ad for GM’s electric Volt, complete with confused aliens. Read More »