Here’s 10 questions with former Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham — who led the DOE 2001 to 2005 and was nominated by George W Bush — on his thoughts on the future of energy innovation, nuclear power in the U.S., the energy moves of the current administration: Read more »
A new report says the U.S. needs to spend $12 billion to $16 billion a year on new transmission lines, which could support 130,000 to 250,000 jobs annually. But how to cut through all the red tape? Read more »
Solar companies know what to blame for their weak first quarterly financials this year: Italy and the country’s revision of its solar subsidies. Solar bellwether SunPower this afternoon, announced a quarterly loss of $2.12 million ($0.02 loss per share). Read more »
Swiss power gear company ABB has made another investment in tech that can make data centers more energy-efficient: ABB has acquired controlling interest in Validus DC Systems, a company that makes power systems for data centers that utilize direct current (DC). Read more »
To solve the world’s energy problems and combat a rise in global warming, the solutions need to be dramatic and powerful. And definitely not cute. That’s the blunt assessment of Bill Gates, who dismissed smaller scale technologies like residential solar installations as being “cute” but ineffective. Read more »
California is home to the U.S. solar industry, and it will continue to be. Of the roughly 2 gigawatts of installed domestic solar photovoltaic capacity, half of it is in California. But the industry is spreading out. — to the other coast. Read more »
While many of the next-gen thin film solar companies are in a make-or-break stage of ramping up to high volume production, a good deal of these companies don’t seem to have much trouble finding customers. Nanosolar says its scored a 1 GW deal with European utilities. Read more »
Reuters reports that the beleaguered Japanese utility that owns the nuclear reactors at Fukushima, Tokyo Electric Power Company, plans to start treating contaminated water at its reactors with technology from stealthy startup Kurion, Toshiba, Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy, and Areva. Read more »
Solyndra’s factory is now set to produce 200 MW of its tube-shaped solar panels annually, and the company hopes to boost that to 300 MW by 2013. Ramping that up will take another round of funding. Here are my photos of the factory tour: Read more »
Facebook didn’t exactly meet Greenpeace’s Earth Day challenge, which called for the social network giant to pledge to cut out coal as an energy source for its data centers. But Facebook did respond in a letter, in which the company said it would do more. Read more »
After five years and a $330 million investment, NRG Energy announced early last week that it will no longer fund its nuclear expansion project in Texas. Crane said at Green:Net event on Thursday that failing quickly and cheaply “is something that we have failed to do.” Read more »
The biggest cleantech news of last week hit the wires late afternoon on Friday: Solar thermal developer BrightSource Energy filed for a $250 million IPO. Here’s the nitty-gritty of BrightSource’s financials, PPAs, and partner deals, via BrightSource’s S-1 by the numbers: Read more »
Does a solar electric system add to the sales value of a home? The Berkeley Lawrence National Laboratory decided to answer this question, and the result is a report being issued Thursday that showed that, indeed, solar homes command higher prices. Read more »
Google announced that it has made its second deal via its subsidiary Google Energy, and the search engine giant plans to buy 100 MW of power from a wind farm that’s under construction in Oklahoma. Read more »
Today, at our third-annual Green:Net event, we’re looking at digital energy: how technology can reduce energy consumption and help the environment. The livestream begins at 8:25 PT, and we’ll update this post throughout the day with the liveblogs from the event. Read more »
A group of the Internet’s most recognized brands — from Facebook to Apple to Twitter to Amazon — have received failing grades when it comes to using clean power for their web services, according to a new report unveiled by Greenpeace on Thursday at our Green:Net event. Read more »
On the day before Earth Day (tomorrow!), the place to be is: Green:Net 2011! Our third annual Green:Net event, which focuses on digital energy and how information technology can be used to create a green economy, kicks off tomorrow bright and early. Read more »
NRG Energy says it will be providing no more money for the development of its nuclear expansion project, the South Texas Project units 3&4, and will be recording a first quarter 2011 pretax charge of about $481 million. Read more »
Google’s investments in clean power are now rivaling that of stand alone clean energy investors. The search engine giant has invested $100 million in the world’s largest wind farm under construction in Oregon. With this investment, Google has put more than $350 million into clean power. Read more »
Rare earth mining company Molycorp has made another acquisition, and yes, its shares are even higher than when we last covered the company earlier this month. Molycorp has acquired Santoku America, based in Tolleson, Ariz., from Japanese firm Santoku Corporation, for $17.5 million. Read more »
Turns out Facebook has been eying clean power after all for its new data center. Well, a very small amount of solar compared to the sizable power needs of its data center. According to Data Center Knowledge, Facebook has built a 100 kW solar panel array. Read more »
Greenpeace has hit a new record with its Facebook “unfriend coal” campaign: a Guinness World Record for how many comments a single Facebook post has received in a 24-hour period. Greenpeace will also unveil a report on clean power and the cloud at Green:Net 2011. Read more »
Want to see history in the making? I shot this 30-second video of California Governor Jerry Brown signing a bill into law that requires utilities to source 33 percent of their electricity from clean power by 2020. Read more »
It was a union of sorts between federal, state and industry initiatives, culminating in a day that will be remembered in solar power history. DOE Chief Steven Chu, California Governor Jerry Brown and SunPower executives announced a series of key solar projects. Here’s my photos: Read more »
A rooftop at Santa Clara University is now home to a next-generation solar technology. Specifically the university has commissioned a solar concentrating photovoltaic project — which uses both mirrors to concentrate sunlight and also solar cells — from startup Chromasun. Read more »
On Tuesday afternoon, California Governor Jerry Brown is widely expected to sign a bill into law which says utilities in the state need to produce 33 percent of their electricity from clean sources by the end of 2020. Read more »
Looks like Google’s wind power investments last year aren’t its last clean energy bets. On Thursday afternoon Google announced that it will invest €3.5 million ($5 million USD) into a solar photovoltaic farm in Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany, which is near Berlin. Read more »
The mystery’s over. GE apparently is serious about building a thin film solar business and the New York Times is reporting that GE plans to announce on Thursday that it will build a factory to produce 400 MW worth of thin film solar panels per year. Read more »
Will your local utility one day go the way of dinosaurs? As more home and business owners install solar panels, wind turbines and other electricity and heat generating equipment, the roles of the utilities will change and new business opportunities will rise. Read more »
A quick scan of the top cleantech deals for the near record first quarter, sent cold shivers up my spine. The deals may be getting done, but are we sure investors are making money? Three of the biggest deals represented 17 percent of the quarter’s dollars. Read more »
A solar farm using concentrating solar photovoltaic technology, which combines mirrors and solar PV cells, was just completed in Hanford, Calif. at the Nichols Farms. It’s a 1 MW solar project, using technology from SolFocus, and built by Bechtel. Check out the photos: Read more »
The United Nations has opted to use Microsoft’s green pre-fab “data center in a box” technology for its new office in Nairobi. The technology can reduce the energy costs associated with the data center and will help the U.N. make its new Nairobi office energy neutral. Read more »
Will Facebook rise to Green Peace’s challenge to pledge to cut coal from its data centers by Earth Day on April 22? On the day before Earth Day, on April 21 at Green:Net 2011, Green Peace will discuss its challenge, and unveil some new data. Read more »
Renewable energy is enjoying a rising profile at the expense of nuclear power. But nuclear power producers and technology developers aren’t necessary the losers there. Some of them have been snapping up solar and wind companies and power plant projects, and the trend will continue. Read more »
What would lead a company to walk away from negotiations for a coveted federal loan guarantee, as solar company Suniva did recently? It has to do with the terms of the government deals, the time it takes to obtain one, and the recovery of private markets. Read more »
Power company NRG Energy is bracing itself for the possible situation that Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) could pull out of an investment in NRG’s planned expansion of its South Texas nuclear plant, in the wake of TEPCO’s nuclear disaster in Japan. Read more »
Researchers are already predicting how the nuclear disaster in Japan will affect the nuclear industry. According to Mark Cooper, a senior fellow at Vermont Law School’s Institute for Energy and Environment, construction costs of nuclear reactors are likely to soar for awhile. Read more »
Solar equipment installers and manufacturers have pointed out for some time now the hassles of dealing with disparate permitting rules and costs from one city or county to the next. A new report highlights this challenge in Colorado, where a bill is pending to cap fees. Read more »
Enphase Energy has made a name for itself as a trailblazer of the microinverter market. But keeping that lead won’t be easy, and the company is launching a series of new products that are smaller and lighter and more tailored for different customer types. Read more »
General Electric has shown no lack of ambition to be a big player in the solar energy market, but how well it’s doing developing cadmium-telluride (CdTe)-based technology — and become a major CdTe solar panel makers — remains a bit of a mystery Read more »
