The U.S. Thanksgiving holiday is drawing nigh, and the folks at Truphone are giving free calls for the day in celebration of the giving spirit. The promotion runs on Thanksgiving day, Nov. 26, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. EST. All calls to a U.S. mobile […] Read more »
Step aside “Cash for Clunkers,” and make way for “Cash for Caulkers.” The White House is reportedly considering rolling out a two-year, $23 billion program to encourage homeowners to undertake weatherization projects such as adding air sealing, insulation and energy-saving light bulbs. The program would be […] Read more »
If diplomats headed to Copenhagen this December are able to negotiate a new global climate treaty, how will the world know these countries are reducing their greenhouse gas emissions as much as they claim? Michael Woelk, the chief executive of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Picarro, believes he has […] Read more »
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The Departments of Agriculture and Energy late yesterday announced they will be doling out a dozen grants — ranging from $1 million to $4 million each — to private sector and university research projects focused on alternative fuels and bio-based products. In total, the departments will […] Read more »
Water scarcity is becoming a hot-button issue in the U.S. (and globally), with water managers in 36 states saying they expect freshwater shortages hitting their states by early in the next decade. But the coming shortages could present opportunities for entrepreneurs and investors to develop new […] Read more »
Here’s a handy Ubuntu tweak that simulates one of my favorite Windows 7 features: Aero Snap. This is the user interface feature that automatically resizes application windows when you drag an app to edge of your workspace. Drag a window to the top and it snaps […] Read more »
A bevy of companies now offer flashy software packages for tracking an organization’s carbon footprint. But engineering software developer Autodesk believes existing solutions don’t do enough to tie international climate targets (i.e., the IPCC’s 80 percent greenhouse gas reduction by 2050) to a company’s own emissions […] Read more »
People Power, the latest Silicon Valley venture focused on the home energy management space, will officially launch today, hoping its consumer-friendly product design and open-source home area network platform will make it stand out in an increasingly crowded industry. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup has raised […] Read more »
The smart grid rollout is gaining momentum, spurred recently by the announcement of $3.4 billion in stimulus funding for 100 U.S. utilities and cities. Swiss meter maker Landis+Gyr has already benefited from this smart grid activity, but the firm has still grander ambitions and announced yesterday […] Read more »
About 16 miles down the turnpike in Delaware from the old General Motors where startup Fisker Automotive plans to build an upcoming plug-in hybrid vehicle, Elon Musk, CEO of rival Tesla Motors, yesterday told an audience at the University of Delaware (and more joining via Second […] Read more »
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Updated with clarification and additional information about the utilities’ stimulus funding: Two major California utilities – Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison — were noticeably absent from the $3.4 billion in smart grid stimulus grants announced last week, despite both being widely recognized as […] Read more »
The White House wants to see the home energy retrofit market surge, and a new report announced today predicts a growing appetite for energy-efficient heaters, air conditioners and roofing materials, part of a larger trend in the growth of green home renovations. Overall, the U.S. home […] Read more »
Tendril Networks, which makes energy-management technology for consumers and utilities, is partnering with an unnamed “major computer game manufacturer” to build a new computer game whose main character, an “eco-warrior,” will gain power as users reduce their energy consumption in their homes. Tendril CEO Adrian Tuck, […] Read more »
Panel discussions at technology conferences are often pretty dry affairs, but smart grid expert Erfan Ibrahim of the influential group Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) proved today at a conference in San Francisco that even topics like home area networks can rile a crowd. Speaking at […] Read more »
You iPhonistas put off heading to the App Store because it’s just too vast? Too many aisles, too many apps to possibly wade through? If only there was a way to get people you trust to recommend good apps to prevent you having to mindlessly search […] Read more »
The Clean Tech Open, a nonprofit business plan competition for early-stage startups focused on renewable energy, green building and other cleantech markets, announced today the three winners in the Rocky Mountain region. New Sky Energy, Rivertop Renewables and SunTrac Solar will each receive $50,000 in cash […] Read more »
MicroMedia Filtration, a developer of advanced water treatment systems, said today that it has closed its first round of funding (no word on how much) from SAIL Venture Partners. The Lake Forest, Calif.-based company was founded in 2003 and is already shipping its treatment systems to […] Read more »
Building materials typically don’t arise as examples of high technology. In the green building sector, energy management systems and building-integrated renewable power generation have drawn much of the attention from tech-oriented innovators, with less activity around green building materials. But the authors of a new report […] Read more »
Waste Management, one of the country’s largest landfill operators, today is opening what it says it the world’s largest facility to convert landfill gas to liquefied natural gas (LNG). Once at full capacity, the $13.5 million facility, located at Waste Management’s landfill site near Livermore, Calif., […] Read more »
ZETA Communities, a San Francisco-based green prefab builder, has been quietly developing an energy management system that it says will be ready to be installed in all the startup’s projects starting next year. The system, called zTherm, automatically opens vents, draws heat from thermal mass, and takes other low-cost measures […] Read more »
The Department of Energy this week announced the first round of grants under its Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program, which was created to back risky but potentially breakthrough technologies. Out of the 37 projects awarded grants, three are focused on improving building energy efficiency and […] Read more »
If there’s one thing to be said about plug-in hybrid vehicle developer Fisker, it’s that the young startup moves quickly. A month after securing a $528.7 million loan from the Department of Energy, Fisker is reportedly in advanced talks to buy an old 3.2 million-square-foot General […] Read more »
If you are or ever have been the board gaming type, you may have run across Settlers of Catan, or at least heard of it from a fanatic friend. The game, which is a bit like Risk but without the war (at least in its basic […] Read more »
Just days after the White House outlined its strategy for bolstering the home energy retrofit market, a new report from research and publishing firm McGraw-Hill Construction predicts the market for nonresidential green building retrofits is set to soar and represents a better opportunity for designers and builders than […] Read more »
A new report published this week by the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab offers valuable insight culled from a decade’s worth of data into perhaps the most important metric in the PV industry: installed system costs before financial incentives. Because these incentives, like government tax rebates, can’t […] Read more »
The White House believes it’s found the political version of a double whammy in the home energy efficiency retrofit market. There are about 130 million homes in the U.S. and a sizable chunk of them are good candidates for energy-saving projects, like air-duct sealing, insulation and […] Read more »
The federal stimulus bill is allocating billions for energy efficiency projects, but a new report by the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab predicts that state-level, ratepayer-funded efficiency programs already in the pipeline will be an even bigger recipient of funding in coming years. The study found that funding for these […] Read more »
Green jobs have become a sort of mantra of late among the political left, with supporters looking to clean-energy sectors to produce companies hungry for new hires and help ease the pain of the economic downturn. Today research firm Clean Edge, known among other things for […] Read more »
Solar thermal developer eSolar is continuing its rush of deal-making, saying today that it’s inked a partnership with a South African-based energy firm to expand sales operations across the sub-Saharan region of the continent. Under terms of the deal, Johannesburg-based Clean Energy Solutions will exclusively represent […] Read more »
Michelle Kaufmann has been called the high priestess of green “prefab” design. The architect, who worked for Frank Gehry early in her career, was one of the first to make a persuasive case that prefabricated design — which saves time and reduces waste compared with conventional […] Read more »
Venture capitalists often speak of green building as a promising sector, but few have actually invested in companies developing innovative building materials. Beyond Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Serious Materials, most cleantech junkies would probably struggle to name more than one or two other venture-backed green building outfits. But a stealthy […] Read more »
In the rush to grow energy crops for producing alternative fuels, jatropha has often been heralded as the most promising because it can be grown on marginal land. But so far jatropha hasn’t lived up to the hype — requiring too much water and producing too […] Read more »
The world’s governments will meet in Copenhagen in December to hammer out a new global climate deal. But Al Gore, speaking on Wednesday at the Clinton Global Initiative’s annual meeting in New York, said success hinges on the U.S. Senate’s progress on legislation that would limit […] Read more »
With so much activity in Washington, D.C., these days — from funding opportunities to policies like cap and trade — that could affect cleantech industries, many startups have sent their executives to the capital or hired lobbyists in the hope of adding their voices to the […] Read more »
Rennovia, a stealthy renewable chemicals startup based in Menlo Park, Calif., has secured a $12.3 million first round of venture funding led by 5AM Ventures and Versant Ventures (hat tip peHUB). Details on Rennovia are slim, but its mission, according to a job posting from the […] Read more »
General Electric has never hidden its intention to gobble up startups with promising technology in order to expand its business. The conglomerate followed through on that promise again on Monday with the announcement that its energy division has acquired ScanWind, a Norwegian developer of advanced drive […] Read more »
Solix Biofuels might not have a big oil backer like a number of its algae fuel competitors, but the Fort Collins, Colo.-based startup can now list Los Alamos National Laboratory as a partner. Solix said this week that it’s entered into a research and development agreement […] Read more »
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, continuing its march against government-imposed limits on carbon emissions (see here and here for examples), has added another misleading commentary to the ongoing discussion about a cap-and-trade system. This time it alleges that there is “evidence” that the Obama administration […] Read more »
The growth of the green building market has been widely celebrated recently, spurred largely by government policies and rising recognition that such structures are more economical to operate. The forces behind the industry are so strong now that research firm McGraw-Hill Construction predicts green buildings will […] Read more »
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — that $787 billion behemoth of a bill that was signed into law in February and was meant to stimulate the U.S. economy — so far seems to have had a beneficial but lackluster impact on the home energy retrofit […] Read more »
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