Despite attempts by companies and industry groups to paint the wireless standard Wi-Fi (the one commonly used within buildings for Internet connections) as a winner for smart grid rollouts, it’s looking like Wi-Fi will end up taking a back seat for the next generation of the digital power grid. This morning the trade group the [...]

  Water scarcity is becoming a hot-button issue in the U.S. (and globally), with water managers in 36 states saying they expect freshwater shortages hitting their states by early in the next decade. But the coming shortages could present opportunities for entrepreneurs and investors to develop new water-saving technologies. One ripe area for innovation is the [...]

  Louisiana offered up a hefty incentive package in order to bring the Kleiner Perkins and T. Boone Pickens-backed auto startup V-Vehicle Company to the state. And over the next few weeks, businesses in the state will be racing to secure some of the direct benefits of that move.According to the latest report on the company [...]

  Texas Homebuyers Go for Efficiency: “Texas is a national leader in the number of Energy Star qualified homes in the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Four Texas markets earned spots on the top 20 list.” — San Antonio Business JournalWinners and Losers in the Upcoming Energy Shift: The International Energy Agency’s [...]

  Something’s gotta give. In a time of uncertainty about the future supply and demand for fossil fuels, a surge of activity in energy technology and the prospect of stricter emission regulations barreling down the pike, the global market for transportation fuels is poised for disruption.According to a new report out this week from technology and [...]

  The idea of modeling government funds after venture capital has swirled, in various forms, around the Obama administration since back in the campaign days. Now comes the latest twist: The Obama administration has named a former VC, Jonathan Silver, to head up the Department of Energy’s highly competitive loan guarantee program and green car loan [...]

  Out of 10 solid greentech startup contenders vying for cash on the East Coast there could only be three winners of the Ignite Clean Energy business competition that took place on Tuesday in Massachusetts. Here they are: third prize, EGG Energy; second prize InnoSepra; and first prize IntAct Labs. The audience-voted People’s Choice Awards went [...]

  Berkeley Labs has been working on an open source version of a system for demand response services for the power grid (called openADR) for more than five years. But only one company in that time has commercialized a version of the open source platform — a sign that utilities are very far from embracing open [...]

  Think of it as a phone plan, but instead of minutes to gab each month, you get insurance coverage for a certain number of miles driven in a set period of time. That’s the basic idea behind pay-as-you-drive auto insurance policies. The concept has been tossed around for years as a way to discourage extra [...]

  Meet the Tesla Roadster Sport: Model updates to the Tesla Roadster for 2010, including push button controls and a touch screen for checking battery statistics, make “the previous generation car seem like something hacked together in a garage.” — CNET’s Car TechChina Solar Snaps Up ThinSilicon: China Solar Power, which makes thin film [...]

  Can an open source data management system do for the smart grid what Google’s open mobile operating system Android is doing for cell phones — spawn innovation and low cost development? Execs at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the largest public power provider in the U.S., seem to think so. TVA analyst Josh Patterson says [...]

  Picture this: You hop on Interstate 280 in San Francisco, close in on a line of cars, and then kick back and relax — taking your hands off the wheel and foot off the accelerator — until you get to Sand Hill Road half an hour later and opt to peel off from the group. [...]

  Updated with additional info from ActaCell: Lithium-ion battery startup ActaCell has just added the state of Texas to its corral of high-profile backers. The state is providing a “pre-seed award” of $250,000 to ActaCell, according to a release from the Austin-based company this morning, and putting another $750,000 on “reserve” for the startup, which nabbed [...]

  Energy management could end up being the killer app for the slow-moving home automation market. Well, at least companies selling products like broadband-based home security are rapidly moving to add energy to their lineups. Here’s the latest: iControl, a 5-year-old startup backed by some of the biggest names in venture capital and networking announced this [...]