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.
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.
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.
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.
Two years ago, utility PG&E first announced it wanted to invest in and own solar projects in California. Well, PG&E’s made some progress on that front in the form of three solar photovoltaic projects it will develop and own in central California.
For those who see the grid as a web off rough and narrow highways that can’t handle a big surge in renewable electricity, there is hope. Big transmission projects across the nation have broken ground or won key approvals this month.
A project that could’ve helped to advance wave energy development is now under the water. At least for now. The Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has suspended a 5-megawatt project off Northern California coast primarily because it’d cost too much.
PG&E might not be winning over hearts and minds for its smart meter project, but the utility has been getting creative with solar financing. This morning PG&E announced that it will create a $100 million tax equity fund to invest in home solar installations with startup SunRun.
San Francisco’s City Attorney Dennis Herrera has asked California’s energy regulators to stop PG&E from installing any more smart meters until a third party investigation into the accuracy of the meters has been completed reports the San Jose Mercury News.
PG&E’s smart meter report creates a sweeping picture of a utility racing to install millions of smart meters in a short period, while facing potential budget overruns, and at the mercy of vendors. The result is a smart meter project that was entirely an infrastructure play.
On Monday afternoon in a press conference, PG&E apologized for not communicating as well as it could have with customers, released a 700 page report on smart meter data (by order of the state regulator) and said the utility had revamped its smart meter customer relationship program.