Using chip and hard disc drive manufacturing processes, startup Gridtential is rethinking the simple lead acid battery to be able to store more energy and be lower cost. The company just got a seed round from The Roda Group to move closer to commercialization. Read more »
SunReports has launched a Facebook app that displays how much power your home solar system is generating. Monitoring solar systems can make sure solar panels are working right, while solar installers are hoping that showing off solar systems via social networks will lead to more sales. Read more »
Can solar power inverters talk to the smart grid, to help make them a benefit rather than a burden to utilities? Here’s a new standard that could help solar and smart grid get along. Read more »
Intermittent solar power systems could cause lots of grid instability, unless utilities can communicate with them in some kind of common language using a set of common commands. Here’s a list of those top commands, and how they may emerge as industry standards. Read more »
American solar companies say China doesn’t play fair, and that makes it difficult to compete at home and abroad. Here is our 4-step attack plan for what companies can do to get ready for their own fight. Read more »
Inverter maker Power-One has bought venture-backed Fat Spaniel Technologies, adding to a list of renewable energy acquisitions this year. The deal is necessary for Fat Spaniel which has endured a tough market. Read more »
It should come as no surprise that the recently launched California incentive program to promote solar water heaters has led to a boom. SunReports, for one, on Wednesday unveiled a package of monitoring device and service for solar hot water systems designed for business customers. Read more »
Intel’s Chairman Craig Barrett said today that he will step down in May. After 35 years with the company, seven of them as the CEO and almost almost four as chair, Barrett is announcing his departure at a time when the chipmaker is slashing manufacturing, recently […] Read more »
The VentureWire Technology Showcase will spotlight more than 125 early- and later-stage start-ups from the U.S., Asia and Europe, all vetted by VentureWire readers, Dow Jones editors and the folks at the Euro Tech Showcase and the Institute for Industry Information, as industry stand-outs in Advertising, […] Read more »
Residential solar installer SolarCity is looking to differentiate itself from the herd of other installers serving homeowners in the West with its SolarGuard 2.0, an upgrade to its online monitoring service, and Canopy, a new panel mounting system. The Foster City, Calif.-based startup showed off the […] Read more »
Smart energy has become a household term, but smart energy technology still has a long road ahead before it actually reaches most U.S. households. However, the residential market is ripe with opportunities (and challenges) for both established and new technology innovators to revolutionize the ways in which we use energy. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
As covered both here and on our parent blog GigaOM, Amazon’s S3 storage service had a bad day yesterday. (So, by the way, did their Simple Queue System, but an outage in that service is less noticeable to most web users). How bad? Read more »
