PG&E plans to start testing out home energy gadgets and software starting in March 2012 with a small group of customers, and the utility unveiled details of its plan this week. Here’s what you need to know. Read more »
The momentum right now in cleantech is as much about connectivity and how it can drive energy efficiency as it is about advancing sources of renewable energy. And as the web and mobile connectivity change our consumer experiences, the opportunities to redefine cleantech are rich, and they are already happening. This research note examines the cleantech space in that context and analyzes the car-sharing, home-energy-management and smart-grid sectors and their relevant companies to see how connectivity will play into their future endeavors. Companies mentioned in this report include RelayRides, Opower, Silver Spring Networks and Nest. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Energy software startup Opower has hired a chief financial officer, Thomas Kramer, and is mulling over a potential IPO down the road. Kramer was previously the CFO at Cvent, and created the eCommerce strategy for Boston Consulting Group. Read more »
Connectivity changes everything. That’s the credo driving just about every corner of our day-to-day lives. As human beings, we are now connected to one another through not just our social networks but also our cars, the books we read, the albums we download and even our own health and wellness habits (to name just a few areas). With that in mind, GigaOM Pro has singled out certain areas in the technology industry where we see this shift to constant connectivity taking place most drastically. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
By this time next week, the world will have 7 billion people in it, and this population growth will fundamentally change the way populations use resources like energy, water and food. Increasingly, organizations are turning to big data tools to manage resources. Read more »
Tech companies so far have stumbled when it comes to getting people to be mindful of their energy use and conserve. But startup Changers thinks it’s come up with a better idea: sell mobile solar chargers and create a social networking around energy credits and shopping. Read more »
Facebook, energy software startup Opower, and the NRDC plan to launch a Facebook social energy application next year that they think could be “the world’s largest social energy community.” Read more »
Ditch the hardware and embrace big data and analytics — that could be the key to monitoring and managing energy consumption of commercial buildings. On Thursday startup FirstFuel Software announced that it’s raised $2.4 million from Battery Ventures and Nth Power, to scale up. Read more »
Fancy dashboards that can monitor and control a home’s energy consumption haven’t really caught on. But maybe that’s because the dashboard is the wrong device. Increasingly companies building home energy tools are focusing on making software for connected thermostats. Read more »
A new Y Combinator–style incubator that will focus solely on the intersection of energy and information technology is launching in Houston, the founder of the group, Kirk Brand Coburn, told me in an exclusive interview. Read more »
Earlier this year we reported that energy software startup Opower was considering adding a home energy device to its portfolio. A half year later here’s Opower’s first foray into hardware: the company announced it has partnered with building automation giant Honeywell to sell a connected thermostat. Read more »
Calling all do-gooder developers looking for your next opportunity. Introducing the Cleanweb Hackathon, a developer contest and event, which will take place on the weekend of Sept. 10 and 11th in San Francisco. Read more »
Big data and Platform-as-a-Service offerings highlighted the second quarter, suggesting that we can expect to see a shift in enterprise IT practices around application development and analytics very soon. On the PaaS front, we saw new projects like DotCloud and Cloud Foundry gain incredible momentum in just a few short months. The big-data activity ranged from major new Hadoop vendors to heavy investment in flash storage that will speed the serving of data to processing engines. In other areas, we saw an uptick in cloud-computing plans from large vendors, OpenStack continued to mature and pick up both contributors and users, and Facebook caught our eye by launching an open-source project around the designs for its specialized servers and data centers. Additional companies mentioned in this report include VMware, Salesforce.com, IBM, Heroku and Calxeda. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The ability to analyze enormous amounts of data and use that to better target an ad, make a new drug or any number of other lofty goals is talked about constantly, but what about harnessing Hadoop for the rest of us? Read more »
Opower, a startup using software and big data tools to help utility customers reduce their energy consumption, is expanding outside the U.S. for the first time, and will be working with U.K. energy company First Utility. Read more »
They’re dropping like flies: the big Internet companies’ online energy tools. Last week, it was Google pulling the plug on PowerMeter, and this week, it’s RIP for Microsoft and its Hohm energy tool. Here’s my assessment of 5 reasons why Microsoft Hohm didn’t take off. Read more »
On Thursday morning, GE will host a day-long event where it plans to announce the latest winners of its $200 million smart grid challenge that are specifically focused on energy use in the home. Read more »
On the heels of Silion Valley startup iControl securing a deal to provide its software for Comcast’s new home security and energy management service, iControl announced that it has raised another $50 million in a Series D round from its long list of high profile investors Read more »
Big data tools are an incredibly important way to help better manage the world’s resources, like energy consumption, food production and fuel use. Here are 5 companies that are leveraging big data to help the planet: Read more »
Will huge returns on social media investments — like Groupon, LinkedIn or Pandora — help make up for underperforming greentech investments in a venture firm’s portfolio? If so, perhaps this gives firms time — and wiggle room — to keep up their cleantech investing. Read more »
Energy data startup OPower says its software will be able to save one terawatt hour of energy from U.S. homes by the end of 2012. That’s equivalent to the energy consumed by 100,000 American homes for a year, and is worth $100M in energy savings. Read more »
Who needs smart meters when you’ve got broadband? Two announcements last week — EcoFactor’s energy-saving data and Comcast’s Xfinity Home Security launch — raise that question. If the broadband channel to home energy takes off, it could leave smart meter–dependent home energy startups in the dust. Read more »
EcoFactor, a startup that uses big data tools to act as a new brain for connected thermostats, says on average its services can reduce a person’s home energy use by 17 percent compared to a programmable but non-optimized thermostat. Read more »
While state and federal legislators are drafting rules to make sure consumers have prompt and secure access to their energy consumption data, consumers themselves are largely unaware of the tools available to manage their own energy. That’s according to a survey out from CEA. Read more »
Is the Foursquare, Twitter, or Mint.com of real time energy data just around the corner? GridGlo, a year-old startup working on combining energy data with other big data sets, launched on Wednesday, with a plan to sell apps around energy info to utilities. Read more »
Tendril Networks is finally seeing some of its dozens of utility pilots blossom into full-scale commercial deployments numbering in the millions of homes. But where does Tendril’s classic model of in-home devices linked to smart meters fit into today’s brave new world of home energy management? Read more »
How do we get consumers to use less energy and to use it smarter? State and local governments might be able to incentivize smart grid rollouts, but to ensure adoption, utilities will need to educate consumers and giving them the right tools, such as peak pricing. Read more »
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 »
At Green:Net next week, we’ll be exploring how adding IT technologies to anything from the power grid, to data centers, to buildings, to lighting can lead to energy efficiency and a more sustainable consumption of increasingly-constrained resources. Read more »
Can Opower fix utilities smart meter customer relation woes? The startup, which uses data about energy consumption to modify consumer behavior, has two new clients — Pacific Gas & Electric and Baltimore Gas & Electric — that have faced issues with smart meters and consumers. Read more »
Ever wondered how big data, smart grid and cloud computing will impact an average person? Now you can, thanks to Opower, which molds terabytes of data into delightful insights, shares them with many of us, hoping that we will do our bit as willing conservationists. Read more »
OPower, the startup that gets homeowners to cut energy use with out in-home dashboards and gateways, is looking at home energy automation devices. What are the pros and cons of high-tech automation versus smart behavioral science? Read more »
It’s time for the home energy management firms that have been leading the pack to bulk up. Home automation company Control4, is in the process of raising $25 million and has closed $15 million of that round, according to a filing. Read more »
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 »
The annual smart grid event Distributech kicked off in San Diego Tuesday morning and — as expected — it’s unleashed a whole series of news from smart grid-focused firms. Here are 10 trends and news bits out of Distributech this morning. Read more »
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 »
Hug Energy, which had developed an application for computer energy management, is shutting down. CEO Marcus Tallhamn made the announcement in a blog post and an email to users, citing weak investor interest. It’s a sign of how crowded the energy management space has gotten. Read more »
Smart grid data analytics, or software and services that can mine power grid data, will grow from a $356 million market to $4.2 billion by 2015, Pike Research predicts. Read more »
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 »
General Electric and some high-flying venture capital partners have named 12 winners of the first $55 million of a $200 million “ecomagination challenge” they launched this summer. The list is full of some already well-funded companies, including several that GE is already investing in. Read more »
