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Proving that the venture model is working for at least a few select brand name venture capitalists, NEA announced on Wednesday that it’s closed a massive $2.6 billion new fund. The firm describes the fund as “one of the largest venture funds ever raised.” Read more »

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Is the greentech industry headed for a breakout year or is it retrenching for hard times to come? The first three months of 2011 provided evidence that could support both assertions, with a big rise in venture capital investment and a big drop-off in global energy financing. Solar power remained the largest green technology sector in terms of venture capital investment, while in the world of electric vehicles, GM’s Chevy Volt hybrid and Nissan’s all-electric Leaf — the first two mainstream plug-in vehicles — hit the showroom floors in significant numbers. Meanwhile the smart grid sector’s relative dearth of VC investment was more than made up for by the massive round of acquisitions. Companies mentioned in this report include NRG Energy, Microsoft, Silver Spring Networks, Tesla and BrightSource Energy. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »

Now Available: GridPoint's Home Energy Management Tool

GridPoint — the smart grid startup that’s raised lots of money and has a lot to prove — has now raised yet even more funding: a $23.6 million round according to a filing. That brings 8-year-old GridPoint’s total financing to over $240 million since its founding. Read more »

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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 »

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There’s been so many acquisitions in the smart grid sector as of late, we’ve been updating the tally every couple of months. Since September there’s been at least six more, so we’re updating our list once again. Read more »

Now Available: GridPoint's Home Energy Management Tool

GridPoint has replaced founding CEO Peter Corsell with a veteran of the software and communications industries. The thrice-reincarnated smart grid startup has $220 million, tons of acquisitions and a lot to prove. Read more »

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Along with eager smart grid acquirers EnerNOC and GridPoint, looks like Honeywell is becoming yet another firm to sell your smart grid startup to. On Thursday, building automation giant Honeywell said it has acquired E-Mon, a thirty-year-old company that sells submetering hardware and software. Read more »

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In the second quarter of 2010, greentech startups scored record venture capital and increased spending despite a weak economy. Solar power retained its lead in greentech venture financing, while global investment for clean energy asset financing fell. China, meanwhile, underscored its rising might in the greentech industry, raising billions of dollars in green energy financing. Read more at GigaOM Pro »

How long should you expect a plug-in car battery — the most expensive part of the vehicle — to last before dwindling storage capacity or other problems leave you longing for a replacement? This question opens a hornet’s nest of vehicle emission regulations. Read more »

Just last week we noted how Cisco had one official smart grid product on the market, which was basically hardened networking gear for utility substations. Yeah, well scratch that. On Tuesday morning Cisco launched its all-out smart grid assault, including a home energy management product. Read more »

Silent Power says it can link solar panels to batteries to make solar light up the night — and it has a pilot project in Sacramento to test out its proposition. Read more »

Smart grid firm GridPoint says it’s scored a deal to provide its energy management system to potentially 2,250 United States Postal Service locations in the U.S. USPS needs all the help it can get when it comes to reducing costs. Read more »

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During the next few years, plug-in hybrid and all electric vehicles will be mass-produced for the first time. The promise of reducing emissions, fuel consumption, and the cost of driving will prompt fleet operators and consumers to purchase more than 800,000 of these vehicles between 2010 and 2015, according to Pike Research’s forecasts. Keeping EVs charged and ready to go will require an infrastructure of equipment for vehicle charging and new IT management system for monitoring, analyzing, and controlling vehicle charging. This report looks at the opportunities for IT companies to solve a variety of challenges for utilities, automakers, consumers and others in the EV ecosystem. Includes market segment forecasts forcustomer information management, smart charging management and data analytics. Read more at GigaOM Pro »

Under the current structure of vehicle ownership and warranties, automakers would suffer from the depreciation of electric vehicle batteries if the devices used to provide certain services for the power grid. But utilities and consumers could benefit. Read more »

Distributech, the once-sleepy power grid trade show, has been transformed into a high-profile smart grid showcase over the past couple of years — this year’s show in Tampa, Fla. is no exception. Here’s 10 things you should pay attention to coming outta Distributech this year. Read more »

Contacts makes your browser “aware” of contact lists and address books you’re using elsewhere on the web, but rather than simply providing a view of these aggregated contacts, the add-on integrates them into form elements, so that names and addresses are auto-completed as you type. Read more »

Smart meters have been undergoing a bit of a consumer backlash lately — and that could open the door for alternative ways to bring energy data to homeowners. Certainly the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the federal entity setting smart grid standards, seems to want […] Read more »

Xcel Energy’s showcase smart grid project in Boulder, Colo. has cost a lot more than originally expected, and the Colorado Public Utility Commission is now asking the utility to prove why it needs its Colorado customers to foot part of the bill. The main culprit for […] Read more »

Every smart grid company, IT firm and software startup seems to have the desire to build a home energy management tool these days. But one we’ve been waiting to see for awhile has just launched: Smart grid player GridPoint says that its home energy management tool, […] Read more »

Top executives from 13 companies including California utility Pacific Gas & Electric, Japanese automaker Nissan, smart grid startup GridPoint, battery maker A123Systems, battery giant Johnson Controls-Saft, and venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, are joining forces this morning as the founding members of a new alliance called […] Read more »

Smart grid firm GridPoint has pretty much the most aggressive acquisition strategy around. This morning the company, which raised raised $120 million towards the end of 2008 to help fund a shopping spree, announced that it has purchased Roanoke, Va.-based energy management company ADMMicro. The acquisition […] Read more »

It’s officially a trend: smart grid companies building or buying software that will manage energy consumption within the home. This morning smart grid networking company Silver Spring Networks announced that it plans to buy Greenbox Technology, a 2-year-old startup founded by the creators of the well-known […] Read more »

If you thought the smart grid was a distant future, in some cities it’s already here. Xcel Energy, which sells electricity and gas in eight western and mid-western states, says its SmartGridCity Project in Boulder, Colo. is now live. At least the smart distribution piece is […] Read more »

A growing number of automakers are readying plug-in vehicles for mass market rollouts within the next 3-5 years. Racing against the clock, some of the first major deployments of smart charging technology — software, networks and devices that can manage vehicle recharging to minimize strain on […] Read more »

By some accounts, the build-out of the smart grid could be the biggest driver of wealth within the decade and create an even larger market than the emergence of the Internet. And now, in the early rollout phase, thousands of startups and large tech vendors are […] Read more »

At a hearing before the House’s Committee on Science and Technology this morning, a group of experts from industry and standards groups provided testimony on the status and goals of the smart grid. The testimony was a lot of the policy jargon you’d expect — an […] Read more »

David Gelbaum’s Quercus Trust is at it again. The quiet venture capital firm, along with frequent co-investor 21Ventures, has just led a second round of investment in startup Advanced Telemetry, which has built a wireless dashboard for monitoring and managing energy consumption. True to form, the […] Read more »

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If you pay attention to the energy sector, then you’ve witnessed the recent parade of home energy management software launched by startups, huge IT firms and veteran electrical meter companies. With firms like Microsoft, Google and, most recently, GE entering the home energy management software space, ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »

A couple weeks ago, we profiled a secretive Canadian company called Lixar SRS whose energy management software had been impressing utilities and IT companies. While the company wouldn’t tell us about their technology or partners, we had heard that the company had been working with Cisco […] Read more »

Google Android handset owners can expect eReader availability in “mid- to late summer,” according to TeleRead. They spoke to Scott Pendergrast of Fictionwise, which is owned by Barnes & Noble. The company’s “eReader everywhere” plans to conquer the handheld world don’t stop with Android, either. It’s […] Read more »

Wireless networking gets all the love in today’s mobile world, but inside the home, wires will still play a key role in delivering entertainment and other content. Your set-top box may sport an Ethernet port, but it still connects to the wall via coaxial cable. Wires […] Read more »

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Some of the largest unresolved questions within today’s nascent smart grid market are to what degree consumers would prefer to actively monitor and control energy usage in their homes, which user interfaces will be preferred for those purposes, and which business models and product capabilities will entice consumers to engage in home energy management while simultaneously assuaging their concerns about privacy, security and control. To investigate these questions and establish a framework for understanding demand dynamics within the EID and DR markets, Pike Research conducted a survey of 1,041 U.S. consumers in April 2009. The results of this survey are analyzed in this report. Read more at GigaOM Pro »

If all the electric vehicles that car companies are now promising make it to market — and prove popular — the electricity grid will strain under the weight. So before power plants are built and transmission lines raised to meet the need, the best solution to […] Read more »

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