GE to pour $105M into EMC and VMware’s Pivotal Initiative
photo: Albert Chau
GE said it will use its 10 percent stake in the nascent Pivotal Initiative to bolster its industrial internet push Read more »
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Building energy management systems: overview and forecast
Although there has been a focus on energy efficiency in commercial buildings for some years, the BEMS market can still be considered nascent. The landscape of new entrants, new technologies, and new methodologies is expanding rapidly, and even well-established market leaders are finding new ways to present and market their businesses. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
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The growth and promise of the LED market
LED production has grown tremendously, accompanied by a significant fall in prices that will further propel the sale of this energy-efficient digital-lighting technology. But challenges remain on the road to widespread adoption. Figuring out ways to use power efficiently for lighting will be crucial for a future when the world’s population will likely be much larger. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
GE to IBM: Watch your data, we are coming
photo: Flickr/ Bleucho
General Electric, the massive industrial conglomerate, will not be content to let IT leaders like IBM and Google hog all the glory in the internet of things era. Read more »
Real “touch” screens and tasteful computers: IBM predicts the future
photo: Barb Darrow
IBM’s latest “5 in 5″ list picks technologies the IT giant feels will hit the mainstream in the next 5 years. Its 2012 choices all center on richer data input and output that give computers the ability to taste, smell, touch, and feel. Read more »
Shocker: GE sees huge upside for internet of industrial things
photo: General Electric
General Electric, the mega-conglomerate behind machines from household appliances to jet engines, says there are huge productivity gains to be had by connecting manufacturing and test devices up to the “industrial internet.” Read more »
Smart grid VC funding has been “extremely weak”
Investments by venture capitalists into smart grid companies — or firms that are adding digital intelligence to the power grid — has remained “extremely weak” over at least the last three quarters, according to research firm the Mercom Capital Group. Read more »
Apple’s enterprise inroads extend to GE, local governments
Apple is making strides with enterprise customers, according to a lot of recent surveys, but how does that look on the ground? Two recent examples include a program that’s bringing Macs to corporate heavyweight General Electric, and the ongoing rollout of iPads among local governments. Read more »
First Solar sets record for thin-film solar tech
First Solar has broken its own record. The company announced Tuesday that it’s able to produce a thin-film solar panel that can convert 14.4 percent of the sunlight that hits it into electricity. The new record exceeds the 13.4 percent it achieved last year. Read more »
GE’s smart grid services highlight a move to the cloud
Two recent wins for GE signal not just where GE is headed, but also two important trends for 2012. First, the move to “cloud-based” hosted services is under way in earnest. Second, many of the sector’s biggest players are targeting coops and municipals. Read more »
Behind the scenes of GE’s India energy lab
This weekend in the final leg of my trip to India with Geeks on a Plane, we stopped by GE’s research center in Bangalore. While GE works on a variety of technology at the center, I focused on the energy research that GE is conducting there. Read more »
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The Internet of things: creating tomorrow’s health care
By 2020 it is estimated that 20–50 billion devices will be connected to the Internet. Many of these devices will be collecting health data or will be connected to health and medical devices in the home, the hospital or the wider environment. The Internet of things (IoT), meanwhile, refers to the growth of sensors and things that connect to the Internet via RFID, Bluetooth, ZigBee and satellite. In health care, its growth is likely to open new disruptive business opportunities for services that add value to the data collected. This paper provides a preliminary overview of the landscape of opportunities and drivers in the current health and health care environments and highlights some of the challenges that remain. Companies mentioned in this report include IBM, Arrayent Health, Kaiser Permanente and Ford. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Why some execs think Hadoop ain’t all that
So the big data backlash begins. The Hadoop framework does a lot, but some experts — including those who push non-Hadoop options — say it’s not enough for many specialized apps where a build-your-own Hadoop implementation costs too much to be a real contender. Read more »
Current’s pivot: From broadband to smart grid to overseas
You might remember the name Current, because at one point Google and other investors pumped over $200 million into the company to focus on broadband-over-powerlines. Jump forward six years and Current is now a smart grid company with new investors and focus on Europe and Asia. Read more »
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Solyndra and the future of cleantech investing
When all was said and done, solar panel maker Solyndra raised over a billion dollars, making it No. 2 on the list of companies that have raised the most equity, according to a 2010 list from Dow Jones VentureWire. But unlike Facebook or MetroPCS, two other names on ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
GE shows off uber-green LEED platinum data center
Achieving the ultimate in green building badges — the LEED platinum certification — is pretty rare and is particularly unusual for data centers. But on Thursday GE showed off its new LEED platinum-certified data center in Louisville, Ky. Here are some photos from the green facility. Read more »
Turning a building into a solar honeycomb
Fusing solar technology with buildings is an area that tends to invite creative ideas. An intriguing design caught our attention at Intersolar in San Francisco this week: It’s a solar panel with a honeycomb structure that replaces the glass facades of a building. Read more »
How vehicle-to-grid technology could get past the pilot stage
U.S. startup Nuvve is setting its sights on the vehicle-to-grid (V2G) market with a 30-car project in Denmark that it says will sell plug-in car battery power to help stabilize the grid. Can the model scale? Read more »
Sensus Lands $675M for Star — not Mesh — Smart Grid
Sensus is the only one of the big five smart meter giants using a licensed star network, rather than an unlicensed mesh network, to connect smart meters. Now it has $675 million in debt financing to expand that technology. Read more »
Landis+Gyr at Any Price? Smart Meters’ Second Act
Landis+Gyr is on the auction block, and big smart grid suitors like General Electric, Toshiba and Honeywell ABB are rumored to be interested in paying $2 billlion-plus for the smart meter giant. Strategic buyers could find value by integrating into their own lines of business. Read more »
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Smart Grid Apps: Six Trends That Will Shape Grid Evolution
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 »
Mixed Signals for Q1 Greentech Investment
Greentech investment trends in the first quarter of 2011 either signal a record-setting expansion for the industry in 2011, or retrenchment in the face of economic and political headwinds — depending on how you look at the numbers. Read more »
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Infrastructure Q1: IaaS Comes Down to Earth; Big Data Takes Flight
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 »
Industry Efficiency: GE Buys Converteam for $3.2B
GE’s plan to buy a 90-percent stake in big French electrification and automation player Converteam for $3.2 billion could open up new opportunities to use electricity to replace fossil-fueled power. Read more »
Open Source Smart Grid Goes to China, Courtesy of Honeywell
Honeywell and State Grid Corp. of China plan a big demand response pilot project using OpenADR, marking the first step into the potentially huge Chinese market for the emerging standard for automating demand response. Read more »
Smart Meters: Cheap in the South, but Coasts Will Cost
A study has found that Southern utilities could be able to pay back the costs of smart meters a lot faster and more easily than East and West coast utilities. How do regional grid differences play out in real life? Read more »
The Future of Home Energy: The Cloud & Privacy
The cloud can make home energy management both cheap and powerful. But what if it turns out to run afoul of real — or imagined — privacy concerns? Read more »
Schneider Electric’s Simple Take on Home Energy Management
Schneider Electric launched a bare bones, utility-centric line of home energy management gear on Tuesday, staking its claim to the residential energy market on the premise that homeowners will choose elegant simplicity over flashy high-tech. Read more »
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Green IT’s Q4 Winners: Wind Power, Solar Power, Smart Energy
Greentech marked its best year ever in 2010, and part of that is thanks to the wealth of activity across sectors during the fourth quarter. Global investment in clean energy surged, and while wind power remained the biggest greentech area, solar power saw the fastest growth. The energy efficiency sector appears to have more room for smaller players to make their mark amidst a rapidly maturing market. Meanwhile, China’s stance as a growing greentech giant continued to complicate its relationship with the United States. Companies mentioned in this report include General Electric, Intel, ZigBee, iControl, People Power and EnerNOC. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Southwest Glides Down Path To Fuel Savings
Southwest Airlines is rolling out new fuel-efficient flight-path technology that could save the company up to $60 million a year — and help the global airline industry shave its carbon footprint as well. Read more »
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9 Companies that Pushed the Infrastructure Discussion in 2010
We’ve already covered the trends that began to shape up in the infrastructure market in 2010 and will really materialize in 2011. Several companies played — and will continue to play — a big role in making those trends happen. From Facebook to Cloudera to Microsoft, here ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
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7 Things That Spell Growing Pains for 2011 Greentech
The greentech industry’s 2010 showing wasn’t so bad, especially for a year that saw the world recovering from a once-in-a-generation economic meltdown. But despite this, venture capitalists won’t be investing in the sector like they used to, solar startups won’t see a great growth year in ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
GE: ZigBee Beats Wi-Fi for Low-Energy Homes
General Electric research shows that ZigBee uses less than half the power of Wi-Fi for home energy networking — a fact that cements its likely role as a key enabler of GE’s home energy management devices to come. Read more »
GE’s Utility-First Home Energy Strategy
General Electric has launched a new business around energy-smart household appliances and products. But utilities are its first target customers, not consumers. Read more »
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China’s Smart Grid: Where are the Openings for Innovation?
China is expected to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on grid modernization over the next five years. Where are the openings for Western smart grid investors and ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
How to Crack China’s Smart Grid Market
China plans to spend hundreds of billions of dollars in the next decade on a nationwide smart grid, but where are the opportunities for outside investors and innovators? Read more »
Opower Lands $50M for Home Energy Efficiency
Home energy efficiency startup OPOWER has raised $50 million as it seeks to quadruple its customer base and add new features to its age-old, paper report-based customer outreach. Read more »
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People Power: A Home Energy Tracker in Transition
People Power has made a lot of changes from its start as a would-be home energy management device maker. Now it’s got a platform that could work in homes and offices — an example of how it and other startups may need to change to ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
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Report: Health Care’s Climb To the Cloud
Cloud computing is now entering the health and biomedical arena in ways that may re-configure how we think about health care delivery in the coming years. From patient records to biomedical research to insurance claims, data and the ability to manage large amounts of it is ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Smart Appliances: Slow Growth, Big Influence
Smart appliances are still years away from mass adoption, but they’re going to have a bigger influence on how the smart grid and the energy-smart home get connected, according to Pike Research. Read more »
