As a boom of solar panels continues to be installed on buildings throughout the U.S., companies, groups and even every day people can make money off of funding this clean energy transition. Read more »
SolarCity is one of the leaders when it comes to installing solar panels on home owner’s rooftops. But the company’s $31 million loss, in its latest quarter, shows the growing pains for the retail solar players. Read more »
Even while some of the huge solar thermal plants being built in the deserts are hitting their milestones, others are facing hurdles due to transmission line delays and cost concerns. Meanwhile solar panel farms, particularly of utility scale, reached a record in 2012. Read more »
According to early results of PG&E’s trial with smart thermostats from Honeywell and Opower, customers really like controlling the thermostat remotely with their iPhones. Remote control could prove to be one of the first smart grid applications that is a clear benefit to consumers. Read more »
AutoGrid, a startup that’s developed a big data analytics engine for energy, officially launched on Monday and unveiled its first product, and its first two customers. Picture if you took Netflix or Amazon’s recommendation engines and used them for utilities’ energy data. Read more »
California regulators approved some — but not all — of the power contracts that Southern California Edison wants to have with BrightSource Energy in a compromise that they say will provide the state’s residents with more affordable solar power in the run long. Read more »
California utility PG&E continues to sign contracts to buy solar power from solar panel projects in California deserts. On Friday SunPower announced that it will build a 100 MW solar panel farm in Kings County, Calif., which will be enough power for 36,000 homes. Read more »
How to connect and influence consumers’ energy use habits with big volumes of smart grid data? Making data interesting, of course. But that’s easier said than done. DJ Patil, a data scientist extraordinaire at Greylock Partners and previously at LinkedIn, doled out some tips. Read more »
Counting emissions accurately — from carbon dioxide to methane — in the air and soil has long been the domain of academia. But Silicon Valley startup Picarro is hoping to turn that practice into a booming commercial business by wooing the natural gas industry. Read more »
Two months ago we asked whether utilities should invest in solar manufacturing because Pacific Gas & Electric was proposing to do just that. The answer from California regulators, who were divided over the issue, was “no” as they voted 3-2 to deny the request on Thursday. Read more »
Smart meters eventually will be ubiquitous globally over the next few decades, but, interestingly enough, installations of smart meters in the U.S. will actually sharply decline over the next two years, before they pick back up, according to Pike Research. Read more »
Watch out Opower. Carbon and energy software player C3 — the quiet firm started by Thomas Siebel and which counts Condoleezza Rice as a director — has acquired another energy software startup Efficiency 2.0. Read more »
One of the most comprehensive applications to use Facebook to manage home energy consumption has officially launched. Created by Opower, the social energy app enables Facebook users to compare their energy consumption with their peers and keep track of energy data provided by a utility. Read more »
Q-Cells was once the largest solar cell maker in the world. Now the company says on Monday it’s filing for bankruptcy, which makes it the latest example of an industry turmoil that has forced many other manufactures out of the business as well. Read more »
Nine more utilities, and three large energy vendors, announced support on Thursday for the Green Button project, which enables utility customers to download their energy consumption data with a click of a button and also use that data for energy-saving apps. Read more »
Utilities don’t often invest in new tech manufacturing, but then, California’s PG&E isn’t your average utility. PG&E has requested state approval to enable it to invest $9.9 million of taxpayer money into a solar engineering and manufacturing service center run by commercialization startup SVTC Technologies. Read more »
Solar panel projects only started to vie for California utilities’ interest in 2007, yet the tech is set to become the largest piece of renewable energy in the state in less than a decade. Check out our charts: Read more »
The solar industry has begun 2012 with some trepidation, with many on the warpath to cut costs and reduce output. These moves give the market a chance to reduce inventories and get production more in sync with demand. But recovery will likely come slowly. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Trotting out auto industry veteran and the former public face of Chevy Volt, Bob Lutz, as a spokesman, VIA Motors on Tuesday showed off its technology of converting conventional trucks, cargo vans and SUVs into hybrid electric vehicles and laid out production plans. Read more »
First Solar has had enough with subsidized solar markets and will bet its future on sales in countries in which solar companies that can provide low-priced equipment and engineering services will make money and stay in business, company executives said Wednesday. Read more »
It is becoming abundantly apparent that, while there is still focus on install rates of physical smart meters, what will matter in the future is how well the data from these smart meters can be secured by utilities and how well utilities can use that data ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
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 »
Energy efficiency measures both reduce consumption and slow the pace of building power plants. Utilities know that, but how much are they doing to promote the idea? A report looks at 50 U.S. utilities and ranked them by the investments they have made in energy efficiency. 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 »
BrightSource Energy is still building its first solar farm, but the company already is steaming ahead with the third, 810 MW project called Rio Mesa, for which the company said Friday it has applied for approval from the California Energy Commission. Read more »
The solar market has been marked by falling profits and controversial federal government loans this year, but one bright spot is the growth of the residential and small commercial solar sector in which investors are setting up more funds to financial installations. Read more »
The race for more clean power has intensified in California, and utilities such as PG&E and San Diego Gas & Electric have been busy inking contracts to meet what is the toughest standard in the country. Read more »
Boulder plans to ask its voters to decide if it should form its own utility instead of relying on Xcel for electricity. The city says the move is for gaining more control over buying clean sources of power. Read more »
California regulators have approved a program, called virtual net metering, for residents who until now have been underserved by the state’s popular solar incentive program. Read more »
Silver Spring Network’s IPO filing is basically the first time we’ve been able to get a peek under the hood of the nine-year-old company, which has been a leader in the smart grid network industry. Here’s what you need to know from Silver Spring Network’s S-1. Read more »
Utility PG&E unveiled a tome (close to 300 pages) detailing the ins and outs of its smart grid plans on Thursday. Here is what you need to know from the report: Read more »
First Solar has become the biggest solar beneficiary of a federal renewable energy loan guarantee program. On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Energy announced three loan guarantee offerings totaling roughly $3.73 billion for First Solar’s three photovoltaic power plants in California. Read more »
Sempra Generation will join the pantheon of solar power plant developers who’ve gotten government aid. The U.S. Department of Energy on Wednesday announced an offer for a $359.1 million loan guarantee to Sempra to build a 150 MW project in Arizona. Read more »
Google is emerging as the ultimate clean power sugar daddy. On Tuesday, Google announced it has made its largest investment in clean power to date, creating a $280 million fund for rooftop solar panel projects that will be installed by solar company SolarCity. Read more »
California regulators on Thursday approved changes to residential electric rates for customers of Pacific Gas and Electric that could have a major impact on whether consumers will readily sign up for solar and energy efficiency products and services. Read more »
The California Public Utility Commission is the first major regulator to issue such sweeping guidance on how data privacy should shape the smart grid. Here is how the ruling will affect the three big California utilities, as well as tech companies, startups and telcos. Read more »
Looks like PG&E is finally giving up on wave power, for the time being. PG&E’s spokesman Denny Boyles tells KQED that it has essentially abandoned the wave power projects it had been researching, including pilot projects and permits for three areas along the California coast. Read more »
Greentech feels like it’s hit a slump recently, but as Saul Griffith recently said: the future of the planet needs to sound awesome for kids, while also combined with science-based realism. Here’s 7 reasons why I’ve been worried lately, followed by 7 things to still get excited about. Read more »
A whole lot has changed since we rounded up the solar farms that are planned for the deserts of California and Arizona, from farms changing hands, to the DOE handing out loan guarantees. Here’s 7 of the solar farms that are being built in Southwestern deserts. Read more »
Utility PG&E has hit another snag with its smart meter roll-out. This afternoon, the company announced it will replace 1,600 of its smart meters, which were manufactured by Landis+Gyr, because of a defect that causes the miscalculation of customer energy bills. Read more »
