A biofuel startup with some stellar investors is making some big claims about its technology and production costs. But it will have to raise some serious money to prove itself. Read more »
What most people don’t realize is that a chunk of the crude oil that goes into an oil refinery doesn’t end up anywhere near a car’s fuel tank. It ends up making chemicals. Read more »
While wind power is one of the cheapest forms of clean power, it’s also one of the most fickle, and to combat that problem, utilities are experimenting with energy storage, and in particular batteries. Read more »
Oil giant BP has invested in biofuel startup CoolPlanet BioFuels, according to an announcement on Thursday. CoolPlanet BioFuels is the biofuel startup you have never heard of but that has unusually famous investors like GE, Google, NRG Energy and ConocoPhillips. Read more »
Developing biofuels continues to be a bright spot in the cleantech world. Two startups, plant genetic engineering company Chromatin and biofuel producer ZeaChem, announced separately on Tuesday that they have raised new rounds of funding. Read more »
Biofuel and biochemical startup Verdezyne lands investment from British oil giant BP and Dutch biochemicals company DSM — yet another biotech startup teaming up with big boys to bring green fuels and chemicals to bigger scale. Read more »
Aside from the news we covered here, today also brought some interesting nuggets about Verizon’s data center plans, Twitter’s new data format and yet another scale-out storage vendor getting acquired. Further, there’s a lot to be learned from Intel’s huge recession profits and Cloudscaling’s cloud-benchmarking proofpoints. Read more »
BP — yep, the company that’s responsible for spewing millions of gallons of oil into the gulf of Mexico — is simultaneously investing more money into the next-generation of biofuels. This morning BP said it will buy up Verenium’s cellulosic ethanol business for $98.3 million. Read more »
What can Kevin Costner do for the oil-soaked Gulf Coast? His company Ocean Therapy Solutions, which he’s backed to the tune of $24 million, can clean water to 99.9 percent purity, and BP has ordered 32 of the company’s centrifuges so far. Read more »
This week while pondering how BP’s oil spill stacks up against Exxon’s in terms of Google search results, it occurred to me how badly BP is losing the social media war. No bones about it, BP’s online image is in tatters. How bad is it? ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Amid the rubble of the first generation of biofuel projects focused on ethanol derived from corn, a new landscape of biofuel tech has taken shape. As Lux Research puts it in a report released today, the companies range “from backyard brewers to billion-dollar industrial giants,” working […] Read more »
Judging from the flurry of venture-capital deals, big oil company investments, and attention from politicians on startups creating biofuels from algae, it might seem like the world has fallen in love with the technology to power vehicles with pond scum. But after all of the algae […] Read more »
In the rush to grow energy crops for producing alternative fuels, jatropha has often been heralded as the most promising because it can be grown on marginal land. But so far jatropha hasn’t lived up to the hype — requiring too much water and producing too […] Read more »
Exxon isn’t the only big oil firm that’s placing a significant bet on algae fuel. Today BP announced a new joint development agreement with Martek Biosciences to work on making microbial oils for biofuels, with an initial investment of up to $10 million. Martek has been […] Read more »
Broadcast Networks Cut Upfront Ad Prices; estimates peg the decline at 15 to 20 percent off last year, dipping to $7.5 billion, a dollar figure not seen since 2001. (The LA Times) TiVo Gets Rovi’s Data; DVR service will get access to Rovi’s metadata, which includes […] Read more »
Imagine you’re watching a movie via Internet-based VOD, one of those flicks you choose purely for the action scenes. Problem is, the dialogue is horrendous. What do you do? Skip ahead, of course. Such skipping can be a major technical challenge, however, especially if your VOD […] Read more »
The biggest retail chain in the world may not be the working man’s best friend, but Wal-Mart Stores is trying to make friends with the planet, picking Earth Day to say that it’s expanding its rooftop solar program along with partner BP Solar. The move could […] Read more »
With many of the next-generation ethanol makers being forced to drag their heels on plant construction during the downturn, it’s becoming rare to hear about progress on cellulosic ethanol plants. But here’s a small step for a small demo plant: Next-gen ethanol maker ZeaChem says it […] Read more »
Cellulosic ethanol maker Verenium might have an important partner in UK oil giant BP, but it still can’t help the company from the pitfalls of the difficult capital markets. This morning Verenium says that it is moving forward with a previously announced joint venture with BP, […] Read more »
Intel solar spinoff SpectraWatt has put its plans to build a factory in Hillsboro, Ore., on hold after being unable to get enough financing, The Oregonian reported this week. CEO Andrew Wilson told the newspaper that SpectraWatt is searching for an existing building that it could […] Read more »
Smaller Automakers Line Up With Big Three for DOE Loans: A $25 billion auto industry loan program from the Department of Energy is open to any company with a plan to make more fuel-efficient cars. Startups EcoMotors, XP Vehicles, and Tesla Motors have applied under the […] Read more »
Updated: It’s a classic PR play: When you start to look like the bad guy, call out a bigger bad guy. And it seems to be the strategy that the Securities and Exchange Commission — besieged by accusations of lax enforcement before and during the credit […] Read more »
Many of us who have embraced The Web as the place for our stuff have looked to applications like Backpack, Evernote, or Google Notebook as places to store all of the things that we need to get or stay organized. While most apps of this type […] Read more »
London-based oil giant BP has changed its renewable energy tune, moving its investments in wind to the more favorable U.S. onshore market, and dropping plans for wind developments in the UK, China, India and Turkey. Read more »
Verenium has managed to stay at the front of the pack of biofuel producers looking to build cellulosic ethanol plants in the U.S., and this morning has announced backing from a major oil player that could help it progress even more. UK oil giant BP will […] Read more »
I just got off the phone talking to my brother who is an unhappy Sprint customer today. He has a Sprint Mogul Windows Mobile-based smartphone that he is quite happy with. It does everything he needs and as his first Windows Mobile phone has surprised him […] Read more »
The dream of taking the contents of our trash cans and putting them into our fuel tanks has moved one step closer to reality with BlueFire Ethanol’s announcement that they’ve been granted permission to build a waste-to-fuel ethanol plant next to a landfill in Lancaster, Calif. […] Read more »
I was having a lot of trouble getting my iPhone applications to sync with iTunes. I tried doing backups and full syncs to no avail. Finally, in a moment of desperation, I righted clicked on my iPhone and chose the option “Transfer Purchases” and to my […] Read more »
No question I loves me some Firefox in the morning and it seems like it’s been rumored for years that Mozilla has been secretly working on a mobile version of the browser. Firefox Mobile has long been reported to be the light version of the browser […] Read more »
BrightSource Energy, the solar thermal startup that scored one of the industry’s biggest solar power plant deals in April, has just raised a massive $115 million in Series C funding and has added some big new names to its list of investors including Google.org, BP Alternative […] Read more »
Oil giants like BP and Shell often groom themselves through marketing campaigns as being very interested in alternative energies like biofuels, solar and wind power. And they are investing in these areas. But when earnings time comes around, it becomes clear just how puny these initiatives […] Read more »
CrossLoop‘s free secure screen sharing application has always been an extremely handy way to provide remote desktop support, and the opening of their new Help Marketplace adds a whole new layer to their service. By allowing you to build a profile of your skills to share […] Read more »
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is holding its big trade show in Vegas this week, and I’m not sure there’s enough caffeine to help me keep up on all the news — but here’s a round-up, so far, from day one: NAB president David Rehr […] Read more »
There’s a new Web publishing tool on the block that seeks to deliver on the convergence promise between “blogging, social networking, and…American Idol!” So says Sue Heilbronner, president of WEbook that makes its debut today. I spoke with Heilbronner and Melissa Jones, the site’s content manager, […] Read more »
It’s nearing time to retire “the frog”, which is what I affectionately call my Motorola HS810 Bluetooth headset. I call it that because the markings make it look like a little frog… but that’s not why I’m planning to replace it. When it runs out of […] Read more »
Is the mobile browsing activity getting crazy busy or what? No worries because all this competition gives us more choice in the end. The application du jours is NetFront and Access plans to have their Windows Mobile Concept Version available in four short days. They say […] Read more »
Oil giant BP lagged behind its peers when it reported a drop in profits for the latest full-year period, to $20.85 billion from $22 billion in 2006. The drop was blamed on refining outages and rising costs. The oil company was not helped by losing its […] Read more »
First BP quietly demoted its renewables division and decided to invest in dirty tar sands oil production. Now Shell has sold off the majority of its solar business. It’s almost like Big Oil, which has invested hundreds of billions of dollars in its infrastructure, doesn’t really […] Read more »
Sure, this is a topic we’ve explored before from multiple dimensions (see “Yet Another Reason to Build a Case for Telecommuting” and “Challenging Telework Myths“). But here’s your chance to get advice for building a case for telecommuting directly from Chuck Wilsker, the president and CIO […] Read more »
Graffiti is a staple of urban Americana. It’s a sign of social consciousness in cement wastelands and a commentary on the stratification of the inner city. The iconic rattle of the can and the spray of the aerosol are all that’s needed to evoke the vandal-auteur. […] Read more »