UPDATED: Wyclef Jean, Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Mary J. Blige, Shakira, Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera, Dave Matthews and Justin Timberlake are just a few of music stars that will take part in tonight’s Hope For Haiti Now benefit concert, starting at 5 p.m. PST and 8 p.m. […] Read more »
If you’re a Gmail user who’s coveted third-party Outlook email productivity add-ons like Xobni or Gist, you might like to check out Webyog’s new MailBrowser. It’s a free plugin for Firefox and IE (with Chrome support on its way) that aims to extend the contact and attachment management […] Read more »
As solar panel prices fall, installers’ valuations appear to be climbing. A report from NeXt Up Research that was released Monday on SharesPost, an online marketplace for trading shares of private companies, estimates that solar developer SolarCity‘s exit valuation would be between $375 million and $443.8 […] Read more »
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As the year winds to a close, GigaOM Pro’s crack team of contributors takes a look back at what went right, what went wrong, and for whom in the world of Green IT. ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Signs keep mounting that the solar industry is on the upswing, the latest coming in the form of solar project developer Tioga Energy’s announcement that it’s raised $20 million in a second round of venture funding. The San Mateo, Calif.-based startup, which builds, owns and operates […] Read more »
Panasonic, the world’s largest plasma-TV maker, will invest $1 billion by 2012 into clean technologies as part of a plan to focus its core business on outfitting homes and commercial buildings with solar power and energy-saving products. The plan is the latest example of a corporate behemoth […] Read more »
Have you started your holiday shopping yet? If you need ideas for tech gifts, here is a handpicked selection of some of the most luxurious and desirable Apple-related items from across the globe. Read more »
As utilities start to build large solar projects and solar power makes up an increasingly larger portion of the electricity mix, integrating this energy into the grid will be a challenge. Solar, like wind, is intermittent — power from the sun fluctuates when clouds pass overhead […] Read more »
Companies like Applied Materials and Oerlikon are building businesses out of selling so-called “turnkey” (ready to use) thin-film solar manufacturing equipment to would-be solar developers. The idea is that instead of developing the technology itself, a solar maker can just buy the gear and start churning […] Read more »
Feds Open Another Spigot for Clean Energy: The Treasury Department has announced that it’s allocating $2.2 billion in bonds to support the efforts of 805 small-scale clean and renewable energy projects across the country. Most of the bond money will be used to support solar, wind […] Read more »
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is no stranger to controversy. The environmental lawyer and president of the Waterkeeper Alliance served jail time in 2001 for trespassing after joining a protest at a U.S. Navy training facility in Puerto Rico, and wrote an article in Rolling Stone claiming […] 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 »
I’d say Dell just beat the pants off of my homebrewed Android UMPC. The Dell Streak and its lovely 5-inch multitouch display just made an appearance over at SlashGear and it looks sweet from a form factor perspective. The video demo gets a bit choppy at […] Read more »
For years, the U.S. solar-installation market has been driven mainly by independent developers and contractors who initiated most of the projects to put solar panels on rooftops and on the ground. But now, as some have predicted, it looks like utilities are starting to take the […] Read more »
It looks like Ausra’s plan to sell components, instead of building large solar-power plants on its own, has started rolling. Ausra on Wednesday announced it has been selected to supply a critical component, a solar steam boiler, for a 100MW concentrated solar thermal power project being […] Read more »
Ready to make that grueling San Francisco to Los Angeles roadtrip . . . in an electric vehicle? Yeah, that doesn’t sound so great given the current limited range of EVs, but solar installer SolarCity has decided to lend a hand and has built a set […] Read more »
Sungevity, a Berkeley-based startup that uses Internet and satellite images to reduce the cost of installing solar power on homes, says it’s ready to take on the rest of the state. The company, which has focused mainly on installing solar in Northern California so far, announced […] Read more »
Solar panels are getting cheaper, and as prices decline, companies are looking for ways to reduce manufacturing costs to stay competitive. Here’s the latest innovation from Applied Materials: on Monday the chip and solar equipment maker announced two new technologies that it claims can reduce the […] Read more »
In news highlighting that solar software is getting smarter, solar software startup Fat Spaniel Technologies is moving beyond just monitoring solar projects. The San Jose, Calif.-based solar software company plans to announce on Tuesday that it has developed a set of software called Lifecycle Management solutions […] Read more »
Solar startup 1366 Technologies on Monday plans to announce that two technologies that boost the efficiency of multicrystalline-silicon solar cells are officially available. The company told us back in July that it had signed an unnamed first customer for one of the technologies, which textures multicrystalline-silicon […] Read more »
An idle 320-acre Ford Motor Co. plant, which during its 52 years of operation assembled 6.6 million Lincoln Continentals, Ford Thunderbirds and other vehicles before halting operations two years ago, is getting reincarnated as a renewable energy equipment manufacturing park. In a symbolic win for those […] Read more »
Stealthy solar startup SkyWatch Energy is in the process of raising $3.2 million in its first round of equity financing, according to a Securities and Exchanges Commission filing in June. Khosla Ventures this week divulged it invested in the company as a side note to an […] Read more »
As with most electronics, solar panels lose efficiency when the temperature increases — and that’s particularly problematic considering the panels are usually installed where they can catch the most sun. SunModular, a young solar-component startup, hopes to help solve that problem with a technology that keeps […] Read more »
Most solar panels are strung together like Christmas tree lights, so that if one panel stops working, performs poorly or ends up in the shade, the whole string is affected. To address this problem, 2-year-old startup eIQ Energy came out of stealth mode Monday night and […] Read more »
While the Gigabyte TouchNote T1028x convertible netbook hit other markets a while back, it’s just now finding its way to American shores. Brad Linder from Liliputing offers not one, but two videos that highlight this touchscreen convertible. The obligatory unboxing happens first, followed a device overview […] Read more »
A growing San Francisco-based solar energy initiative called 1 Block Off the Grid couples do-gooder motivation with a drive for profit and scalability that you might say could only have born in the City by the Bay. The initiative aims to lower the cost of residential […] Read more »
It looks like financing for solar projects may be starting to pick up again. Solar installer Borrego Solar Systems is set to announce on Monday that it will offer power-purchase agreements (PPAs) — contracts that provide the upfront financing of a solar-power system in exchange for […] Read more »
I’m not sure how many netbooks will come with Microsoft Windows 7 Starter Edition after October 22, but I do know how much it will cost to upgrade those devices to higher editions of the operating system. The Windows 7 Team Blog offers up the details […] Read more »
A year ago, it seemed like gigawatt-sized solar factories were just around the corner, with companies such as Sharp and Royal Dutch Shell subsidiary Showa Shell Sekiyu unveiling plans to build 1 GW thin-film solar plants. And back then, predictions like the one from Anish Tolia, […] Read more »
Despite the best efforts of solar firms to reduce cost and raise the efficiency of solar material, many in the industry still find themselves chasing thin-film solar darling First Solar, which makes high-efficiency cadmium-telluride solar film panels. In particular, Oerlikon Solar and Applied Materials, which have […] Read more »
Thin-film solar startup Nanosolar isn’t exactly known for being shy. The San Jose, Calif.-based company has attracted plenty of attention –- as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in funding -– for claims that its technology can produce highly efficient copper-indium-gallium-diselenide panels for less than […] Read more »
Industry watchers continue to fawn over solar panel maker First Solar because of its low-cost technology and ballooning sales contracts. But with mounting competition, analysts attending an important presentation by First Solar executives later this week want to hear the company’s plans for cutting production costs. […] Read more »
A growing number of companies are working on technologies to squeeze as much juice as possible from solar panels and reduce the cost of these systems over their lifetime. One of those companies, Enphase Energy, now tells us that it is working on the next frontier […] 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 »
My good friend and your co-host here needs your prayers. Kevin Tofel unexpectedly lost his father yesterday and he needs our help. He’s in my thoughts in this difficult time and will you please join me in wishing Kevin and his family the strength to help […] Read more »
American Airlines, which has so far been offering the Gogo in-flight wireless broadband on nonstop flights between New York JFK and San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Miami, says that it will add the service to an additional 300 planes over the next two years. American will […] 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 »
Qualcomm said today it is running Google’s Android platform on its Snapdragon chipset designed for netbooks and mobile Internet devices. This isn’t earth-shattering since Snapgragon is an ARM-based chip, and another Qualcomm ARM-based chip powers the G1 Android phone. Qualcomm is also a big Android backer […] Read more »
SolarCity, a solar installer and financier based in Foster City, Calif., has installed one of the country’s first thin-film solar projects on a residential roof. The company installed 2.4 kilowatts worth of First Solar cadmium-telluride panels on a home in San Mateo, Calif., last week, SolarCity’s […] Read more »
Japanese shipping giant Nippon Yusen K.K. and oil distributor Nippon Oil Corp. today launched the first-ever cargo ship with a propulsion system powered, in part, by solar energy. The freighter, which left a port in Kobe carrying vehicles by Toyota, sports $1.68 million worth of solar […] Read more »
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