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ev

The smart grid industry’s focus is now shifting to the true purpose of the smart grid movement: applications that will improve the efficiency, reliability and versatility of the electric grid. This report analyzes six key smart grid application trends that will help shape the industry landscape in the years to come: distribution automation, data analytics, demand response, carbon management, home energy management and electric vehicles. The applications that prevail in this new arena will define the smart grid experience for industrial, commercial and residential customers. Along the way, new business opportunities that arise from these applications will become available for the providers of software, systems, devices and services, and enhance customer awareness and control of energy consumption. Companies mentioned in this report include Echelon, Google, EnerNOC, ZigBee and Microsoft. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »

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gigaompromasterimagecloud

Two markets stand out above all else when looking at the first quarter of 2011: infrastructure as a service (IaaS) — the epitome of cloud computing — and big data. Amazon Web Services continues to lead the IaaS space in terms of customers and innovation, while Rackspace, buoyed by momentum around OpenStack, will be its primary competitor for mainstream customers. In the big data space, there are so many players and terms floating about it’s difficult for outsiders to get a handle on who’s who and what’s what, though such activity validates the technologies. Other developments this quarter included HP’s impending presence in the cloud computing and big data spaces and the realization that Intel won’t be left to die if low-power servers based on x86 processors catch on like the buzz late last year suggests they will. Additional companies mentioned in this report include VMware, Microsoft, Cloudera, SeaMicro and Facebook. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »

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wind power

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 »

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facebookdatacenter

Data centers are becoming greener across the board, and the latest proof of this came from Facebook. Here’s a list of 10 innovations from entrepreneurs and engineers that are leading to more energy efficient, and less carbon intensive, data centers. Learn more at Green:Net 2011! Read more »

By
carousolar

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 »

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4917385326_14f4bdfffe_z

Cleantech is losing its mojo to upstarts peddling coupons. These days, it’s not hard to find tech companies, investors and market analysts comparing cleantech to Groupon, which generated a lot of buzz when it turned down a reportedly $5-6 billion offer from Google late last year. Read more »

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powergrid25

One of the early problems with the cleantech sector was that many of the big public companies that offered exits for innovative cleantech startups hadn’t yet matured into aggressive acquirers. But I think the power gear firms have finally woken up to purchasing innovation. Read more »

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2752029321_9e6975510a_z

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 »

By
carousolar

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 »

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SustainX1

A startup building the next-generation of compressed air energy storage, SustainX, has raised a new round of funding from investors including GE. The funds will help the company start construction on a 1 MW compressed air energy storage project with its first customer AES. Read more »

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SustainX1

Utility scale energy storage doesn’t get the type of attention as, solar or electric cars — particularly a tech as dry as compressed air energy storage. But startups are innovating in this area, and two in particular are moving ever closer to commercialization: SustainX and General Compression. Read more »

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RidgeBlaster

There’s a lot of reasons why most homes in America do not have their own wind turbines: high costs, permitting, and aesthetics. But there’s a wave of entrepreneurs trying to change that, including James Post, who developed the SmartWind RidgeBlaster and submitted it to GE’s challenge. Read more »

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Solar Frontier Kunitomi factory 1

While many Silicon Valley thin-film solar companies have finally moved into commercial production, here comes Solar Frontier, a division of Japanese oil refiner Showa Shell, who has leapt over everyone to open a near-gigawatt factory and has drawn customers such as GE. Read more »

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WTS1

GE, one of the leading suppliers of wind turbines in the world, has acquired a company that makes tall wind turbine technology: Wind Tower Systems. The companies announced the deal on Friday, but didn’t disclose the financial terms. Read more »

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tendril-vision6

While energy management startup Tendril announced a partnership and web services this week, the company also quietly confirmed with me that it won’t be selling its sleek “Vision” energy dashboard. It’s the beginning of the end of the stand alone high-end home energy device. Read more »

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DataCenterRacks

General Electric is grabbing a piece of the booming data center energy business, with a $520 million offer for Lineage Power Holdings, a provider of gear for the $20 billion-per-year data center and telecom power conversion industry. Read more »

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LG_thinq_appliances

LG entered the smart appliance fray in a big way this week, unveiling its line of Thinq appliances meant to save energy and communicate with owners and utilities via wireless networks. Hopefully, the connected appliances won’t follow the path of LG’s discontinued DIOS Internet fridge. Read more »

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GEduelbatterybus

GE is showing off an electric bus with a dual-battery system that combines a lithium ion battery and a sodium metal halide battery, and which GE says is 20 percent less expensive than a comparable one battery system for an electric bus. Read more »

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Echelon_Duke_SmartMeter

Despite some setbacks, the U.S. smart meter push is continuing at a stimulus-fueled pace. Pike Research reported Monday that more than 90 U.S. utilities have 57.9 million smart meters planned and on the way.That’s 7.9 million more than eMeter counted up. Read more »

By
Sun-NASA

Stealthy thin-film solar company Alta Devices has added on yet another high profile investor: GE. A GE spokesperson confirmed with me this morning that GE has made an investment in the 3-year-old Santa Clara, Calif-based Alta Devices, which is also backed by Kleiner Perkins. Read more »

By
2011 Chevrolet Volt

GE plans to buy 25,000 electric vehicles, which would be the largest single purchase of electric vehicles to date. The move is an example of how corporations often times play a crucial role in being the early adopters of new green technology long before consumers. Read more »

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HomePlugAlliance-PLC

Powerline communications — sending data over the same wiring and power lines that carry electricity — could be set to capture increasing market share from wireless in the smart grid space. Here’s why. Read more »

By
powergrid28

GE is stretching out further along the network of the smart grid. This morning, GE said it has acquired Australian company Opal Software, which makes software and services for smart grid network testing and management. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Read more »

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Power lines against bright sun

Consert uses Verizon’s 3G network to curb consumption of individual home’s HVAC systems, water heaters, and pool pumps and aggregates those savings — which they claim come to between 10 and 15 percent — to offer utilities the equivalent of a “virtual peaker plant.” Read more »

By
solarfarm

Where can solar startups find opportunities when their playground is increasingly dominated by giants from other industries? That’s a question that some Silicon Valley solar company executives and investors have pondered for some time now. The answers are software and services. Read more »

By
Intelenergy1

Intel has made no secret of its ambition for a fat slice of the home energy management market, but here’s the chip maker’s official play: a hardware design blueprint based on its Atom chip for any manufacturer that wants to build and sell home energy monitoring devices. Read more »

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