At our current pace of consumption, the world’s demands for compute power will quickly outpace the energy provided by our data centers. The solution is a global smart grid, and Europe provides a model for what that might look like. Read more »
Smart grid company Silver Spring Networks held its first earnings call as a public company on Wednesday, and delivered a flat quarter. It’s a hard knock life in the hardware biz. Read more »
Utilities are increasingly embracing the tools needed to manage big data, and on Monday data warehouse software firm Teradata said it’s teamed up with power grid giant Siemens for a better way to manage the massive data flowing off the smart grid. Read more »
The first quarter of cleantech was a mix of good and bad news. Avis’ purchase of Zipcar and Silver Spring Networks’ long-awaited IPO finally occurring were further signs of thawing capital markets and movement in the acquisition space. However, in both situations valuations were lower than hoped, a sign of how investors view cleantech. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
For a deeper dive into the topics and technologies covered on GigaOM, check out the latest in-depth analyses on GigaOM Pro, our subscription-based research service. This week: the future of the smart watch, investing in smart grid technology, and more. Read more »
The Weightless SIG claims the new standard will allow for ultra-low-power transmissions at long-range and at a cheap manufacturing cost. If true, that would make the technology ideal for M2M communications. Read more »
Silver Spring Networks has scored a deal with a Singapore utility as its first win in Asia. The company hopes other utilities in Asia will follow, given the region is supposed to have significant growth coming. Read more »
GigaOM Pro analyst Adam Lesser’s latest report on the opportunities for big data and the smart grid. Read more »
The deployment of smart meters combined with the growth of cloud computing infrastructure has created opportunities to build business models around the volume of emerging energy data. Those who use data to solve customer problems and leverage decades of software development and advances in big data will attract investment dollars. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Smart grid company Silver Spring Networks saw its shares soar almost 30 percent in morning trading on its public debut on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock is settling around $21 per share, up from a pricing of $17 per share. Read more »
Silver Spring Networks prices its IPO at the midpoint of its planned range, but ends up selling a million more shares, leading the company to raise $81 million. The smart grid company debuts on the New York Stock Exchange today under the symbol SSNI. Read more »
Silver Spring Network’s IPO could be as early as Wednesday (yep tomorrow). It’s been a year and a half since Silver Spring first filed to go public. Read more »
In contrast to an analyst report this week, I’ve heard that Silver Spring Network’s IPO plans are still on and that the company could go public within the next four weeks. Read more »
A report from the Department of Energy’s Inspector General found some mismanagement of the smart grid demonstration program that allocated $700 million mostly from the stimulus package. Out of an audit of just a portion of the program, the report found $12 million in questioned costs. Read more »
The fourth quarter in cleantech saw attention paid to two prominent, publicly traded companies: EV maker Tesla and newly minted public listing SolarCity. It remains a transitional period for the sector as investment declines, with a shift toward those companies able to scale with little additional capital. Read more »
In 2013 cleantech investing will move toward companies serving unsubsidized markets where software plays a role in reducing power consumption. In many ways this is a return to plays for energy efficiency, and there’s still money to be made from business models built around saving energy. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
GE is spearheading a rebranding of green. In a new report out this week, the conglomerate pushes the “Industrial Internet,” which is really mostly about using information technology for energy efficiency gains for industry — across transportation and power generation and distribution. Read more »
The power outages caused by Hurricane Sandy on the east coast highlight the needs for a much greater investment in smart grid technology, energy storage systems, clean power, and ultimately a move to a more decentralized power grid architecture. Read more »
Rent prices are higher than ever, but a growing number of startups are working to analyze our homes’ energy use so we can save money by using less power. Their approaches might differ, but data and analytics are the ties that binds them all. Read more »
A Japanese consortium of government groups and tech companies teams up with a New Mexico utility and a federal lab for a smart grid demonstration project to figure out how to integrate solar electricity and energy storage into an electric grid. Read more »
Organizations that support smart grid roll-outs have simply not demonstrated that their efforts will benefit the causes that consumers support. So what to do? Look to the guys that make soap. Read more »
A smart grid software startup raises $15 million from Japanese conglomerate Mitsui. Read more »
Silver Spring Networks is beefing up its energy data software services for utilities by focusing on real time access via software-as-a-service and the cloud. Read more »
GridPoint, which has raised a lot of money, and has changed its strategy many times of its nine year lifetime, has closed another round of $23 million according to a filing. Read more »
A smart grid needs a good defense against cybersecurity breaches. N-Dimension, which recently raised an A round, says it’s got the software to protect a utility’s operation to fend off data thefts and other attacks. Read more »
The blurring of transmission and distribution sections of the power grid presents numerous challenges and opportunities for innovation and outreach. The smart grid can solve this missing link. Read more »
Following several years of development, demand response has now started transforming wholesale markets — and reducing costs for ratepayers. Read more »
The Internet of things is supposed to connect every aspect of our lives from our homes and cars to the objects we wear and the goods we consume. It’s even connecting ice machines. But one thing the Internet of things lacks is a unifying standard. Read more »
Despite that smart grid network company Silver Spring Networks has yet to go public, the company is chugging along and had a pretty good quarter, according to the latest amendment to its S-1. Read more »
With its booming economy, growing middle class and investments in city infrastructure, Brazil is looking to be the next hot market for smart grid development. Read more »
Swiss power giant ABB plans to acquire wireless mesh networking company Tropos Networks, the companies announced on Friday. Read more »
Pike Research predicts that the market for building energy management systems will grow from $1.9 billion in 2011 to $6 billion in 2020 and there will be 10 trends that shape this growing market over the next decade, Read more »
The over a decade-old company that makes the building blocks — chips, gear and software — for ZigBee-based wireless networks is finally being acquired. Austin-based chip company Silicon Labs announced on Monday that it has acquired Boston-based Ember for $72 million. 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 »
A startup called GELI, lead by battery guru Ryan Wartena, has developed an operating system and software for grid batteries and plans to launch its beta software in the coming weeks. Think of it like the Android for energy. Read more »
Six smart grid projects you don’t see everyday courtesy of Smart Grid News. Read more »
This quarter the EV market struggled to find its footing. Meanwhile, the smart-grid sector solidified and low-power technology proved itself important in the data center. Read more to learn what these news pieces and others mean for the larger space over the next few months. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Utilities and companies that make smart meters and related technology must tighten their “human security measures.” This includes planning for the worst case: rogue employees. Read more »
Five key technology sectors are enabling the smart city: smart grids, smart transport, smart water and waste management, smart building systems, and the enabling ICT platforms for the smart city. Key players like IT companies, telcos and utilities must learn how to harness those technologies, and quickly. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
In an interview at the Verge Conference last week, Opower’s founder and a Senior Advisor to the White House discuss why energy data should be open, how utilities will deal with the influx of big data and how government can help. Check out the video: Read more »
