It’s official: Long-awaited clean-energy manufacturing tax credits are really happening, finally. The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the U.S. Department of Energy on Thursday announced a program awarding $2.3 billion in tax credits for clean-energy equipment manufacturers. While there are already some tax credits for […] Read more »
http://www.youtube.com/v/tvdwEz9qcJY&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1 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 […] Read more »
Broadcast Networks Cut Upfront Ad Prices; estimates peg the decline at 15 to 20 percent off last year, dipping to $7.5 billion, a dollar figure not seen since 2001. (The LA Times) TiVo Gets Rovi’s Data; DVR service will get access to Rovi’s metadata, which includes […] Read more »
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What About Charging?: The Department of Energy is spending $2.4 billion to help develop technology for electric vehicles, but relatively little has been awarded for a crucial element that remains in short supply: the infrastructure needed to recharge vehicles once they are on the road. Wall […] Read more »
While many web workers use (and love) Macs, most of the rest of the world still uses Windows PCs. So what do you do if you need to connect to, or control, a client’s Windows machine? Microsoft offers its free Remote Desktop Connection Client, but its […] Read more »
Many times, we want to find ways to give back, be more socially responsible, or make our lives more about service, but running a business can make it seem impossible to find the time to do anything other than the task immediately in front of us.
How can we find a way (and the time) to do more good in the world while still keeping up with the demands of our businesses? One solution, focus on one trait at a time.
First, make a list of all the traits you would like be (generous, responsible, helpful, supportive, etc.).
Under each item, list ways you can incorporate more of that particular trait into your daily life. For example, if you want to be more responsible within your community, you might consider sponsoring an area youth program or volunteering to maintain a local park.
Finally, set aside time each day and week to devote to your commitment. Even 15-30 minutes a day can make a big difference. If you could commit to just 15 minutes a day, 5 days per week, at the end of the year, you would have contributed more than 65 hours of your time to improving the world around you. That’s more than a week and a half (full time) of your attention! Read more »
“Carousel Fraud” Strikes Carbon Markets: Carbon credit fraudsters are increasingly “setting up complicated import and export schemes between EU member countries, charging buyers for value-added tax in the country of destination, and then absconding with the tax rather than handing it over to the governments.” — […] Read more »
Facebook and SunRun, a San Francisco-based company that helps finance residential solar installations, don’t connect on many levels. But according to Rich Wong, a partner with Accel Partners — the venture capital firm that backed Facebook early on and on Tuesday will announce that it has […] Read more »
Broadcast Networks Cutting the Price of Ads; advertisers able to negotiate cheaper rates for the upcoming TV season, bummer news for networks who are already feeling an economic pinch. (The Wall Street Journal) Kia Motors Gets Lost for New Web Series; Mysteries of the Universe: The […] Read more »
DOE Flunks Again: The latest inspector general’s report finds that the Department of Energy often fails to adjust heating and air conditioning settings to conserve energy, wasting more than $11 million per year. This comes on the heels of another report finding the DOE wastes more […] Read more »
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In the days when a two-guys-in-a-garage startup could morph into a massive public offering with relative ease, SharesPost might have had a hard time making its case. The startup, which launched an experimental marketplace last month for buying and selling private equity, aims to step in […] Read more »
Last year’s oil spike feels like a distant memory, but to remind you, oil prices surpassed $147 per barrel last July, with gasoline prices above $4 per gallon. But if you think that was bad, feel lucky you weren’t living in the Caribbean at the time. […] Read more »
Think small. That’s the basic design concept (if not the ambition) for Honolulu-based startup Sopogy’s concentrating solar thermal systems. The technology is essentially a condensed version of the massive mirror-and-lense setups that companies like Ausra, BrightSource, Solel and eSolel use on large swaths of land to […] Read more »
If you can supersize meals, why not solar panels? Roger Little, chief executive of Spire, which develops equipment for solar PV panel manufacturing, thinks so. Little, who spoke on a panel at the Intersolar conference this week in San Francisco, told us that his Medford, Mass.-based […] 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 »
Over the last year, U.S. electric utilities have announced ambitious plans to own and operate their own solar projects. In two high-profile examples, California’s Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric each unveiled plans to develop 250 megawatts worth of midsized projects (1 to 20 […] Read more »
Few ideas drive as much excitement in the solar industry as grid parity, the point at which solar systems — or any other renewable source of energy — cost the same as producing electricity from conventional sources like fossil fuels. Travis Bradford, founder of The Prometheus […] Read more »
The feds on Thursday unveiled guidelines to provide $3 billion in grants for renewable energy projects including solar, wind and biomass. The hope is that the grants will help spur investment in renewable energy projects, but analysts at investment bank ThinkEquity Partners aren’t so optimistic, according […] Read more »
Free cash from the feds for clean energy, up front — not enough to cover a whole project, but enough to get investors to pony up more. That’s the basic idea of a new stimulus program that the Department of Energy and the Treasury Department have […] Read more »
DOE Dole Doesn’t Come Cheap: To score a $43 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy last week, energy storage company Beacon Power spent $1 million over three years filling out 96 forms. “Considering the company only earns $68,000 in revenue, it’s a miracle Beacon […] Read more »
Grid parity represents something of a Holy Grail for solar companies — a point where they can compete on cost with conventional fossil fuel sources of energy. The race for grid parity shifted into overdrive earlier this year as a heap of new funding and the […] Read more »
10:30 a.m.: The Michael Jackson funeral has begun. Watching CNN.com Live feed with Facebook integration. Facebook reports 6,000 status updates/minute, on a more global scale than what they saw with live Obama Inauguration coverage. CNN doesn’t have audio from the Staples Center, switching to MSNBC. 10:35: […] Read more »
Let there be light. The Obama administration unlocked $346 million in stimulus funds for energy efficiency earlier this week, including $50 million for advancing solid state lighting, or SSL, technology. The Department of Energy designed the program as “a coordinated development of advanced manufacturing techniques” and […] Read more »
You know the solar industry is hurting when a startup with a promising cell manufacturing technology turns to systems integration to stay afloat. That’s the recent story of Blue Square Energy, which was launched to develop and manufacture low-cost solar cells using upgraded metallurgical-grade (UMG) silicon […] Read more »
Cleantech investment is on the rise again, according to two reports released this week, hitting $1.2 billion in the second quarter. “Cleantech venture investment has rebounded moderately after free-falling for two consecutive quarters,” said Brian Fan, senior director of research for the Cleantech Group, in a […] Read more »
Developing Countries Eye Efficiency: “Emerging markets are waking up to the fact that using energy more wisely puts money in consumer wallets, can help smooth out trade deficits and is better for the planet in terms of reducing carbon emissions.” — WSJ’s Environmental Capital Nitrogen Dioxide […] Read more »
Free Trade and Climate Change: Making trade more free could lead to more carbon dioxide emissions as a result of increased economic activity, but more trade could also help to curb climate change by increasing the availability of clean technologies, according to a new report from […] Read more »
It may have come a little late, and it may not have come via a first-party solution, but the iPhone is now able to emulate one of the Palm Pre’s neatest tricks: wireless charging. I assume I’m not the only one who enviously ogled the Pre […] Read more »
As the world’s largest solar-panel producer for the last two years, China already is a major solar player. But now, some industry experts say, it’s expanding from being mainly a solar panel supplier to also becoming a substantial customer. “China, which already is important in production, […] Read more »
Looks like California’s going to be getting a whole lot of solar power soon. After a year of discussions, the California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday not only approved Southern California Edison’s 250-megawatt rooftop solar project -– but doubled it. To jog your memory, the Rosemead, […] Read more »
It’s a question we hear all the time: Why doesn’t California have a German-style feed-in tariff for the solar industry? German utilities pay a high price for any solar electricity fed into the grid, with the cost distributed among the country’s ratepayers. The much-esteemed policy made […] Read more »
Riversimple Aims to Launch Open Source Hydrogen Car: Riversimple will make engineering designs for the hydrogen car it unveiled today in London available online in order to allow local manufacturing in small plants. — BBC German Solar Firms Eye North African Solar Project: A consortium of […] Read more »
Evolution Solar Shopping for Startups: Evolution Solar has announced that it is searching for a suitable acquisition of an existing solar company, preferably one that’s involved in sales and distribution, but which lacks an expansion plan. — PV Tech AEP Signs Up for Solar: Ohio utility […] Read more »
This past Friday, Facebook started issuing vanity URLs to its 200 million-plus community. It was a big change for the social-networking company that has so far used unique numerical identifications to identify its members. Not anymore — now you can go to Facebook.com/OmMalik and friend me. […] Read more »
DOE Details More Funding Opps: The Department of Energy today detailed some of how more than $300 million in investments funded by the stimulus package and the agency’s annual appropriations will be divvied up among clean energy technologies including carbon capture from coal, solar power and […] Read more »
First Solar has been under pressure lately from analyst downgrades and financial publications warning of a solar glut. On Tuesday, an analyst at Broadpoint AmTech stepped in with some reasons why the stock might rally beginning with the company’s analyst’s day, scheduled for June 24. That […] Read more »
After some concern that the solar industry would have to wait to receive stimulus money, the dollars look ready to start flowing — at least those that were set aside for startups. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory on Tuesday said it’s already selected a group of […] Read more »
Despite an incremental speed increase, the biggest update to the MacBook Air at WWDC was the price. The low-end model is now $1,499, down $300, while the high-end model with a solid-state drive now sells for $1,799, a jaw-dropping $700 price drop. Available in two models, […] Read more »
Plug-in cars have barely made a dent in the global vehicle fleet, and automakers have yet to launch their first real entries into the race for a mainstream electric car. When carmakers do start selling those models — late next year and beyond — they for […] Read more »
Take yourself back for a moment to 1990, to the era of dueling operating systems: OS/2 and Windows. At the time, many people still used MS-DOS, and Windows was new (and klunky). Microsoft had cooperated with IBM to create OS/2 to overcome the limitations of DOS […] Read more »
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