Cleantech — Cleantech | GigaOM

Cleantech

Why Peter Gleick is the “Milken Moment” for climate change

While naysayers try to “muddy the waters” on scientific evidence, trillions of investment dollars are forging ahead to solve our climate issue with market driven solutions. Read More »

A big lesson from climate science for entrepreneurs

Jonathan Koomey’s first essay in a series of four this week that highlights, and excerpts from, his upcoming book, “Cold Cash, Cool Climate,” which discusses how entrepreneurs and investors can profit from tackling climate change, one of this century’s greatest challenges. Read More »

 
 

Looks like the global rise in extreme weather events (cough, Irene) hasn’t been enough to make Americans more concerned about the issue of climate change. But extreme weather has been causing certain regions, particularly with dry, hot climates, to worry more about climate change. Read More »

Al Gore is turning to the intersection of digital media and extreme weather to launch a new social movement around fighting climate change, called the Climate Reality Project. The 24-hour live stream event will feature how extreme weather has affected people’s everyday lives. Read More »

I’ve been waiting for some kind of social network or web movement that would galvanize people around sustainability and green. Is the intersection between extreme weather and digital media the spark that could help deliver that green web movement? Read More »

Renewable energy advocates like to say their causes are bi-partisan because they are fighting for cleaner energy and job creation. Not for many Republicans. In fact, some already are working hard to weaken regulations for adding more solar, wind and others. Read More »

The U.S. could attract $342 billion in clean power project investments over the next decade if it adopts aggressive energy policies, said a report from the Pew Charitable Trusts. Meanwhile, solar and wind advocates are fighting to keep a popular federal grant program. Read More »

God and global warming: A coalition of religious groups is lobbying against a federal bill that would delay an Environmental Protection Agency program to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. What would Jesus do? Read More »

Cali’s Cap-and-Trade Moves Forward in Tough Economy

Today marks the first day of a 45-day period for the public to comment on a program to force polluters to cap their carbon emissions starting in 2012, and the proposed rules will give away lots of free permits rather than auctioning them. Read More »

Two weeks from now, voters will decide which federal and state politicians to keep and which to send packing. Here is a list of hot issues and challenges facing cleantech advocates as they lobby for their favorite causes in the coming year. Read More »

Murkowski Resolution Fails: Humdingers from the Debate

A move to block the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, led by Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, failed Thursday afternoon. After hours of debate, the Senate rejected the resolution with a final tally of 47-53. Read More »

Cali Puts Kibosh on "Cool Cars" to Save In-Car Electronics

In California, an effort to reduce carbon emissions came into conflict with the function of certain electronic devices — and the state’s Air Resources Board (ARB) has come down in favor of the electronics. ARB announced Thursday that the so-called Cool Cars rulemaking will now “cease.” Read More »

More Must Reads

In times of national need, history has shown that countries can innovate fast — with enough funding. The government has been able to say “Deliver the goods now, we need them, quickly,” and has seen successful results, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said in a talk today … Read More »

Duke Energy Jumps for Juwi’s 14MW Solar Project: “Power company Duke Energy said its commercial business unit, Duke Energy Generation Services (DEGS), agreed to buy a 14 megawatt Blue Wing Solar Project from Juwi Solar.” — Reuters UN’s Rajendra Pachauri Staying Put: “The chairman of the … Read More »

Google China and Climate Change: “Google’s potential pullout from China over cyberattacks has climate change activists watching the scandal’s effect on U.S.-China relations that are crucial to progress on global warming….For now, environmentalists and other experts say they don’t see a threat to bilateral work on climate change … Read More »

Meet the Climate Killers: Tim Dickinson argues 17 “polluters and deniers” are derailing efforts to curb climate change. Investor Warren Buffett tops the list for bad-mouthing climate legislation and pouring billions of dollars into the country’s biggest climate polluter and top coal hauler. – Rolling Stone … Read More »

NEA Closes Biggest Fund Since 2007: New Enterprise Associates said today it has closed a fund with nearly $2.5 billion in committed capital — the largest single fund raised since 2007. The VC firm began making investments from the fund in May and has already made … Read More »

Reva’s Low-Volume EV Scheme: Reva Electric Car Co., the Indian automaker developing an electric vehicle with General Motors, plans to set up four overseas automaking ventures that may be profitable building as few as 5,000-10,000 cars a year. — Edmunds Green Car Advisor So Long Copenhagen, … Read More »

Meet Qinetiq: A British defense technology company, Qinetiq, is testing a new type of lithium-ion battery based on lithium-ion iron-sulfide chemistry for hybrids and electric vehicles that could be substantially cheaper and more powerful than existing batteries. — Technology Review Tioga, SunDurance Bag NJ Solar Schools … Read More »

With large sums of cash rolling out of federal coffers to help reduce vehicle emissions, and major policy decisions coming down the pike for how those emissions will be regulated, you’d hope that the government has a tool for assessing how new policies and changes in … Read More »

Munich Re Calls for Climate Action: German reinsurer Munich Re warned today that a lack of big earthquakes and hurricanes this year should not lead to complacency about climate change. — Financial Times Concerns About Hong Kong Water Security: A series of droughts in China has … Read More »

The number of businesses and interest groups lobbying Congress on climate change issues ballooned in 2009. While greentech investors still make up a relatively small portion of the climate lobby, they’re upping the ante on Capitol Hill as the Senate considers climate legislation, according to a Read More »

Greenwash or Real Deal?: “Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tells Copenhagen that Iran, a fossil fuel giant, wants to dive into renewable energy and stitch cooperative links with other developing nations to develop non-fossil fuel energy,” including solar and wind. — WSJ’s Environmental Capital Road Ahead for … Read More »

Obama Nobel Speech: Climate Action Needed for Peace: “In accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo today, President Obama touched briefly on the issue of climate change, lumping it in with a laundry list of ‘soft’ issues like economic security, food security, and education.” — Read More »

GE Chief Calls for Swift, Certain Climate Policy: “What’s most important for the U.S. is that we go from Copenhagen, go into 2010, and have the courage to act on clean energy,” General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt told a conference on renewable energy at Clemson University … Read More »

Almost a decade after launching the world’s first carbon fund, the World Bank said it has learned a series of lessons about the regulation, oversight and scaling process of the carbon funds and greenhouse reduction projects that it has overseen. The World Bank, which spoke about … Read More »

As global leaders settled in this week to negotiate a climate agreement in Copenhagen — at the U.N. summit that the VP of the Chamber of Commerce’s intellectual property center has called “the IP battle of the year” — the Obama administration took a … Read More »

EPA Finalizes Endangerment Finding: The EPA said today “that greenhouse gases (GHGs) threaten the public health and welfare of the American people. EPA also finds that GHG emissions from on-road vehicles contribute to that threat,” paving the way for the agency to regulate emissions rather than … Read More »

Over 5,000 miles away from the Bay Area and Silicon Valley, where tech entrepreneurs often have an undying faith in the free market, world leaders will be meeting to make major policy decisions over the next two weeks that will determine not only how the world … Read More »

Three carbon capture and sequestration projects valued at a total of $3.18 billion have scored $979 million in stimulus funds, according to a release from the Department of Energy. In all, the three projects — each a commercial-scale demonstration of a heretofore experimental technology … Read More »

Calling Dibs on Cleantech: “Just as the rise of the Internet spawned battles over technology rights and patents, the clean tech revolution has the industry hunkered down behind armies of lawyers fighting over intellectual property rights.” Now UC Berkeley has released a report on the battle … Read More »

Definite GOP Votes for Climate Bill: “There are definite Republican votes,” for the Senate’s climate legislation, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said today, “and we hope to grow that over the next weeks and months.” — The Hill’s E2-Wire Lockheed Martin Backs MIT Greentech Research: Lockheed Martin … Read More »

New Data Center to Help Heat Helsinki Homes: Finland’s Helsngen Energia plans to build a “relatively efficient” data center underneath a cathedral and channel the waste heat into water pipes that snake through homes around Helsinki. — Greentech Media Nissan Aims to Double Battery Capacity by … Read More »

Obama Heading to Copenhagen: The White House announced today that President Obama will attend the UN climate talks next month in Copenhagen “and commit the U.S. to a short-term emission reduction target ‘in the range of 17 percent’ below 2005 levels, providing new momentum for negotiations … Read More »

Best Parts of the New Smart Grid Stimulus Awards: Smart grid analyst Jesse Berst sees three high points in the latest round of stimulus funding awards for smart grid projects: roughly 30 percent of the money went to long-overlooked utility-scale energy storage, much of the money … Read More »

Time for Contingent Climate Commitments: Should the Obama administration get out ahead of Congress, pledging to set greenhouse gas emission reduction targets that 67 senators may not be willing to ratify? — Grist GM Marketing Volt to…Middle Schoolers?: “On November 30th, hundreds of middle school students … Read More »

“Oil is finite, but information is infinite,” Google CEO Eric Schmidt said a year ago in a talk for the New America Foundation. Fortunately, we have online tools to organize and manage that information, sometimes in the interest of reducing oil consumption, as well as … Read More »

Selling the Smart Grid to Average Joe: Smart grid analyst Jesse Berst examines how the Electrification Roadmap released this week by a coalition of heavyweight CEOs could be an inflection point for the smart grid. “Electric transportation is something the public wants; it will take a … Read More »

Army Orders Recycled-Plastic Bridge: “Axion International Holdings has won a $957,000 contract to provide the U.S. Army with two bridges made from a thermoplastic composite and recycled plastic.” — CNET’s Planetary Gear Reinventing the Interstate: Op-ed contributor Karrie Jacobs argues for invention of new uses for … Read More »

Something’s gotta give. In a time of uncertainty about the future supply and demand for fossil fuels, a surge of activity in energy technology and the prospect of stricter emission regulations barreling down the pike, the global market for transportation fuels is poised for disruption. According to … Read More »

Meet the Tesla Roadster Sport: Model updates to the Tesla Roadster for 2010, including push button controls and a touch screen for checking battery statistics, make “the previous generation car seem like something hacked together in a garage.” — CNET’s Car Tech China Solar Snaps Up … Read More »

Green Consumer Habits in the Recession: American consumers, with their tendency to make green purchasing choices based on personal self-interest, have more in common with their counterparts in developing economies than one might ever have imagined. — Joel Makower’s Two Steps Forward Building the EV Ecosystem: … Read More »

Terms Set for Panasonic’s Sanyo Takeover: Panasonic said today it plans to make a tender offer for a majority stake in smaller rival Sanyo after negotiating with regulators for approval of a $4.45 billion deal that would transform Panasonic into a cleantech powerhouse with business in … Read More »

Fisker Automotive Picks EU Distributor: Plug-in hybrid car startup Fisker Automotive has picked a large distributor to sell its vehicles in Europe and is looking for similar deals in China. The European retailer will be announced tomorrow. — Reuters Ampulse Raises $8M: Ampulse Corp., which is … Read More »

Welcome to the Technosphere: “Having mastered indoor ski slopes and mass desalination, Dubai just unveiled its massive Technosphere, a biological bubble oddly similar to Disney’s Epcot Center (or the Death Star), meant to simulate future climates and test sustainable technology.” — VentureBeat Winners and Losers of … Read More »

loading external resource
Click to log in with: Not you?
Comment as guest:
By continuing you are agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Submitting comment...
results