We knew that cleantech startups were getting less venture-capital funding, but it looks like later-stage companies are really suffering. At the Financing the Cleantech Vision conference hosted by Thomson Reuters’ Venture Capital Journal in Palo Alto, Calif., on Thursday, Virgin Green Fund partner Anup Jacob said […] Read more »
Cleantech investor Steve Westly, managing partner of The Westly Group and former California state controller, is at it again. In a keynote speech at the Thomson Reuters “Financing the Cleantech Vision” conference in Palo Alto, Calif., on Thursday, Westly said that after a major dry period, […] Read more »
The deals keep coming for solar thermal startup eSolar, indicating confidence from utilities –- but also increasing pressure on the Pasadena, Calif.-based company to deliver quickly. The startup on Thursday announced plans to build a 92-megawatt plant in Lancaster, Calif. It has signed a deal to […] Read more »
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As the world’s largest solar-panel producer for the last two years, China already is a major solar player. But now, some industry experts say, it’s expanding from being mainly a solar panel supplier to also becoming a substantial customer. “China, which already is important in production, […] Read more »
We’ve written a lot about how we like Netflix’s approach to streaming content to your TV. The company’s decision to partner with hardware companies instead of building its own box was a smart one that positions it for life after rent-by-mail DVDs. But that wasn’t always […] Read more »
Looks like California’s going to be getting a whole lot of solar power soon. After a year of discussions, the California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday not only approved Southern California Edison’s 250-megawatt rooftop solar project -– but doubled it. To jog your memory, the Rosemead, […] Read more »
It’s a question we hear all the time: Why doesn’t California have a German-style feed-in tariff for the solar industry? German utilities pay a high price for any solar electricity fed into the grid, with the cost distributed among the country’s ratepayers. The much-esteemed policy made […] Read more »
Take your laptop outside, and you’re likely to find yourself squinting at the screen. The glare is even more pronounced with mobile computing devices, which users usually view downward (like a piece of paper), catching more light than when the screen is vertical. But putting brighter […] Read more »
Take yourself back for a moment to 1990, to the era of dueling operating systems: OS/2 and Windows. At the time, many people still used MS-DOS, and Windows was new (and klunky). Microsoft had cooperated with IBM to create OS/2 to overcome the limitations of DOS […] Read more »
If you’ve ever walked through a skyscraper-laden city on a windy day, you know how big buildings can intensify the gales, creating wind tunnels that accelerate the gusts so that they blow off hats and flip up skirts. Now a 3-year-old Akron, Ohio-based startup called Green […] Read more »
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With all the attention on electric vehicles these days, laptop battery manufacturers are rushing to get in on the action. The latest is Massachusetts-based Boston-Power, which on Monday unveiled a new battery, called Swing, for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. The company hasn’t released any details […] Read more »
Warning: The below post contains spoilers for the upcoming Roland Emmerich-directed film “2012,” starring John Cusack, Thandie Newton and Danny Glover. Trust me, you’re not missing much. Back in the winter of 2008, I had more than a few good reasons to be excited for 2012, […] Read more »
Some 60,000 solar insiders from around the world have gathered in Munich this week for the annual Intersolar conference. As prices for solar panels fall and solar developers face financing challenges in the economic downturn, Markus Elsässer, CEO of Solar Promotion, one of the two organizers […] Read more »
Ascent Solar Technologies‘ thin-film solar panels may soon be flying the not-so-friendly skies as Bye Aerospace, a startup developing jets with better fuel efficiency and lower emissions than today’s commercial and military models, said Tuesday it plans to incorporate Ascent’s panels into its first design, an […] Read more »
Energy-efficient lighting investments are starting to trickle back onto the scene after cleantech deals plunged in the first quarter. On Tuesday, Braemar Energy Ventures raised its bet on lighting with a $10 million investment in Hawthorne, Calif.-based Fulham Inc., a 7-year-old company that makes components for […] Read more »
Is that the wind you’re hearing? No, it’s a collective sigh of relief from UK wind advocates. Plans for the world’s largest offshore wind farm have been given the green light from investors — Danish utility DONG Energy, German energy company E.ON and Abu Dhabi’s clean […] Read more »
Microsoft is gaming us — that’s apparent with a peek at some tweets posted on the Office 2010 Twitter account. They keep denying they are working on their own phone and ducking rumors about a Zune phone, but these tweets are obviously designed to get the rumor […] Read more »
Tube-shaped thin-film solar maker Solyndra‘s been streaming a series of good news lately, including a much-coveted Department of Energy loan guarantee, a customer installation and various partnerships and sales contracts. The company on Thursday added to that list a $189 million deal to sell an undisclosed […] Read more »
A draft rule that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency unveiled Tuesday about how emissions should be measured has the corn ethanol industry in an uproar, while newer next-generation biofuel startups seem to be more welcoming of the move. The rule calls for the inclusion of emissions […] Read more »
Smart meter and home energy management companies have been getting the bulk of the attention when it comes to the rollout of the smart grid. But the old skool demand-response firms are still going strong. One of the largest demand-response providers in the country, CPower, said […] Read more »
As a rule, power strips are pretty boring-looking. Consisting of a bar of electrical sockets, often surrounded by a tangle of cords, their look can be described as utilitarian at best. But that’s begun to change over the last few years, with companies like Belkin and […] Read more »
Lilliputian Systems, a Wilmington, Mass.-based company developing fuel cells for cell phones, laptops and other consumer electronics, has raised $28 million in venture-capital funding. Mouli Ramani, vice president of business development, told us Friday that the company plans to use the money to help integrate its […] Read more »
Some 130 clean power and energy efficiency companies have already signed up to use Wattbot — a San Francisco-based startup developing a web site aiming to connect those companies with residential customers — even though the site is still in beta, according to CEO Kurt Brown. […] Read more »
For those curious about their carbon footprint, basic carbon calculators abound across the web, but none have really been all that successful or effective. The Almanac, a New York-based startup that presented at our Green:Net conference last week, thinks it can do better using a more […] Read more »
Saving energy may not sound as fun as, say, stealing cars, shooting zombies or becoming a Guitar Hero. But Adaptive Meter, a startup that presented at our Green:Net conference last week, thinks it can make energy conservation an engaging game. The company, which makes web applications […] Read more »
The idea of buying food from a local farm might seem like the very opposite of high tech. But FarmsReach, a California startup that won the audience choice award at our Green:Net conference this week, hopes to make it easier to buy directly from farms by […] Read more »
We’ve wondered if the explosion of smartphone app stores has created a dilemma for developers. It’s easy to imagine that with limited resources, app developers are going to make a choice as to which platform will make them the most money and then go solely with […] Read more »
Southern California Edison plans to begin installing its second rooftop-solar array this week. The 1-megawatt array, slated for a Multi-Employer Property Trust building in Chino, Calif., is part of the utility’s plan to install 250 megawatts of solar panels on some 150 commercial roofs in Southern […] Read more »
Greenbox Technology, a startup with a web-based platform that monitors home energy use, told us recently it hopes to close its first round of funding by June. Matthew Smith, the company’s vice president of marketing, said the company is talking to potential investors now. The round […] 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 »
At long last I am sitting at the gate in the San Francisco Airport where I will soon be heading back to the old hacienda. It’s been a whirlwind couple of weeks with the long CES trip to Vegas, one day home and then out to […] Read more »
As we continue to slide into a dire economic correction, a silver lining is starting to emerge around the dot-com crash. By pushing a lot of froth out of the system several years ago, it has spared us from a true “Perfect Storm” of an economic crisis in 2008. Read more »
So there’s two new fantasy MMOs with high name recongition launching now. Only three years ago, gamers and the industry would greet that announcement with at least a modicum of enthusiasm. Now the general reaction is more likely to be, “But… why bother?” Sony Online’s Vanguard: […] Read more »
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