From continued growth for the internet of things to regulatory headaches for the share economy, there's much to watch for in cleantech in the coming year.…
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Startup Ceiva Energy wants to use your family photos to lower your energy use
Many attempts to use dashboards to show energy consumption data and get consumers to conserve energy use have failed miserably. Will a startup's idea of using a digital photo frame to broadcast the data make a difference?…
Read MorePodcast: Power to the people — and all their connected devices
Want to know what your power company thinks about the internet of things? If you live in Austin, you'll know exactly what it thinks, but for everyone else my podcast with Austin Energy may still provide some valuable insights.…
Read MoreThe weekend review: Tesla X, Honeywell vs Nest, and collaboration in the workplace
GigaOM Pro readers scrutinized the consumer cleantech industry this week, tracking big news from Tesla and digging in to the intricacies of the Honeywell-Nest lawsuit, which threatens to stifle the green startup industry.…
Read MoreThe Honeywell-Nest lawsuit: Have the patent wars come to cleantech?
Cleantech has so far largely avoided the nasty patent wars that plague a space like mobile, but that changed last week when thermostat maker Honeywell filed suit against startup Nest. The appearance of a large company using its patent libraries to fight a new product's coming to market could have chilling effects on the ability of startups to convince investors that investing in a new idea is worth the risk. It is tough enough right now to raise capital for early-stage cleantech startups. Build in extensive patent survey costs for startups and investor concern about late-stage litigation, and it gets even harder.…
Read MoreThe top 10 trends from the year’s big smart grid show
One of the year's largest smart grid conferences -- DistribuTECH -- closes today in San Antonio, Texas. It's like the CES for utilities, power companies and the vendors that are trying to sell them stuff. Here are the top 10 trends I took away.…
Read MoreThe latest to target the smart energy home: Time Warner Cable
The 2012 CES show hasn't even officially kicked off and already the smart energy home has emerged as a key target for a variety of sectors, including telcos, big box retailers, startups, chip companies and now cable operators like Time Warner Cable.…
Read MoreWhy the future of smart meters is data, not hardware
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 to manage demand response, address outages and balance load. Beyond these initial steps, however, lies the holy grail of smart meter data: the possibility that it can be used to drive changes in customer behavior.…
Read MoreTop 5: RoadMap and connected consumers
GigaOM's recent GigaOM RoadMap conference, with its emphasis on the future of connectivity and consumers, is a major influence on this week's Top 5. Also hot: Kindle Fire, hyperlocal targeting and tablets.…
Read MoreDesign matters when it comes to sustainability
When Apple’s former Chief Architect Tony Fadell, who designed 18 generations of the iPod and 3 generations of the iPhone, took the…
Read MorePhotos: Best Buy’s quiet home energy stores
Here are photos and a review of one of Best Buy's new Home Energy sections at its stores, which will sell gear to help home owners reduce energy consumption. While the section is waaay at the back, it's designed to educate shoppers and promote interactivity.…
Read MoreToday in Cleantech
Florida based Tellago Studios has developed a platform that will allow data center managers to manage their data centers from a smartphone.…
Read MoreEnergyHub raises $14.5M to market energy management tools to consumers
Peddling home energy management gear and software successfully is harder than it seems, and big companies such as Microsoft and Cisco are ditching this market. EnergyHub is staying and on Thursday announced a $14.5 million round to help it sell products and services to consumers.…
Read MoreWhy Internet companies are abandoning home energy plans
Throughout 2009 and 2010, Internet companies like Microsoft, Google and even router giant Cisco launched experimental software and hardware to help building managers and home owners monitor and control their energy consumption. But now these firms are abandoning those plans. Why?…
Read MoreToday in Cleantech
Let’s hear it for 6LowPAN for home energy management! Looks like Google is indeed turning to 6LowPAN to network its Android-capable smart…
Read MoreWhat Silver Spring’s IPO means for the smart-grid landscape
Last week’s launch of Silver Spring Networks’ long-awaited IPO is a big deal for the smart-grid industry. The company’s early public performance…
Read MoreSilver Spring’s IPO and the 2011 smart grid landscape
What does Silver Spring Network's potential IPO mean for the smart grid sector as a whole?…
Read MoreCalifornia utilities lay out smart grid roadmaps
Last week saw California’s big three utilities release in-depth smart grid deployment roadmaps, giving smart grid companies about the closest thing to a detailed plan of attack that they could ask for.…
Read MoreToday in Cleantech
Can technology help homeowners save energy, rather than ignore it? Yes — if the prices are right. That’s the gist of this…
Read MorePeople Power tries to grab homeowners’ energy interest
Can People Power get homeowners interested in managing their energy use? Today the startup, which has a cloud-based home energy platform, launched new…
Read MoreToday in Cleantech
Looks like the box on top of your TV is a worse energy waster than your refrigerator, or even your air conditioner.…
Read MoreGoogle pulls the plug on PowerMeter energy tool
Google has officially pulled the plug on its web energy management tool PowerMeter. The project, which Google launched two years ago, just "didn't catch on the way we would have hoped," said Google.…
Read MoreThe broadband–home energy connection gets stronger
Who needs smart meters when you’ve got broadband? Last week saw two announcements that lay out the potential for delivering deep energy management capability via existing home broadband market channels, all while smart meters are still struggling to get up and running. If the broadband channel to home energy takes off — a very big if, to be sure — that could leave smart meter-dependent home energy startups in the dust…
Read MoreThe Evolution of Home Energy Management
Tendril Networks is finally seeing some of its dozens of utility pilots blossom into full-scale commercial deployments numbering in the millions of homes. But where does Tendril’s classic model of in-home devices linked to smart meters fit into today’s brave new world of home energy management?…
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