One thing is sure: The hybrid, tandem-seat 3-wheeler in the works at Oregon-based startup Green Lite Motors is no Prius. Less certain is whether there’s a market for the 4-feet-by-8-feet vehicle, which features “smart standup” technology that Green Lite President and CEO Tim Miller says will let the vehicle lean smoothly into turns and automatically [...]
One year ago, two key trends dominated the solar industry: economic uncertainty and scarce credit. If solar companies were to survive, they needed to scramble to adapt their strategies to both. Today, the economy is more stable and credit is freer, and so the industry faces two different trends. The first — a supply glut [...]
Two major California utilities – Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison — were noticeably absent from the $3.4 billion in smart grid stimulus grants announced last week, despite both being widely recognized as leaders in the adoption of technologies to upgrade their networks. “More money should have come to California,” said Thomas Bailek, [...]
Senate Panel Green Lights Climate Bill, Sans GOP: Sen. Barbara Boxer has moved the energy and climate bill out of the Environment and Public Works Committee and onto the Senate floor, despite a Republican boycott of the debate. But that doesn’t get the bill any closer to garnering 60 votes. — WSJ’s Environmental CapitalSmart, Sure [...]
The rate of innovation in clean tech, next-generation transportation, green products and sustainable business initiatives has never been higher. This year, nearly $4 billion in venture capital investment has been poured into green innovation, making it the most active sector of VC investment today. Pushing these new technologies into the market will most [...]
The White House wants to see the home energy retrofit market surge, and a new report announced today predicts a growing appetite for energy-efficient heaters, air conditioners and roofing materials, part of a larger trend in the growth of green home renovations. Overall, the U.S. home energy retrofit market will grow about 15 percent per [...]
Energy baron T. Boone Pickens wants to see delivery trucks and just about any other vehicle that “returns to the ‘barn’ each night” running on natural gas. A relative newcomer to the U.S. market, Electric Vehicles International, has just moved to Stockton, Calif., from its former Toluca, Mexico, headquarters and office in Texas (T. Boone’s [...]
It’s no secret that the French government wants to get homegrown electric cars zipping along the country’s roads — or that the Renault-Nissan Alliance wants to dominate the market for those cars not only in France, but also worldwide. The latest move in those two efforts comes today with the announcement that Renault and Nissan [...]
Tendril Networks, which makes energy-management technology for consumers and utilities, is partnering with an unnamed “major computer game manufacturer” to build a new computer game whose main character, an “eco-warrior,” will gain power as users reduce their energy consumption in their homes. Tendril CEO Adrian Tuck, who hinted at the partnership during a panel discussion [...]
Panel discussions at technology conferences are often pretty dry affairs, but smart grid expert Erfan Ibrahim of the influential group Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) proved today at a conference in San Francisco that even topics like home area networks can rile a crowd. Speaking at The Networked Grid conference hosted by Greentech Media, Ibrahim [...]
Updated with additional comments from Ausra and First Solar: Ausra, the solar thermal startup backed by Kleiner Perkins and Khosla Ventures, said today it is selling its Carrizo Energy Solar Farm project, a proposed 177MW project still under development, to industry giant First Solar. Sale of the project, which is in San Luis Obispo, Calif., [...]
Terms Set for Panasonic’s Sanyo Takeover: Panasonic said today it plans to make a tender offer for a majority stake in smaller rival Sanyo after negotiating with regulators for approval of a $4.45 billion deal that would transform Panasonic into a cleantech powerhouse with business in solar panels, fuel cells and rechargeable batteries for hybrid [...]
For electric cars at Chrysler, the game won’t kick into high gear until 2011 and beyond. The Detroit automaker, which tapped A123Systems earlier this year to develop battery cells for upcoming electric vehicles, said in a meeting today detailing its five-year business plan that it’s working to introduce a test fleet of plug-in hybrid minivans [...]
Much of what information technology can do for the power grid, it can also do for water management. With the smart grid buildout, wireless sensor networks, software, and computing will be used to let utilities track energy use and identify problems in the network in close to real-time, delivering a more efficient grid that’s better [...]
