The burden loaded onto General Motors’ extended-range electric Chevy Volt has been heavy since before the “New GM” — the company that emerged this summer after the federally managed bailout and bankruptcy process — was even born. In the financial viability plans that GM submitted to Congress in pursuit of federal aid, the company used [...]

  The buildout of smart grid infrastructure is about to drown utilities in a sea of information. So points out Jack Danahy in an interesting article in Smart Grid News recently, in which he presents data that shows how much information a typical smart meter will produce. If 140 million smart meters are installed over the [...]

  Utilities, Startups Weigh in on Cali Car Charging Rules: As the California Public Utilities Commission drafts rules related to the integration of battery-powered cars into the state’s electrical grid, one of the biggest questions is whether the commission should regulate Better Place, Coulomb Technologies and other third-party providers of electricity for EVs. — NYT’s Green [...]

  Hundreds of bills escaped California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s veto power last night ahead of a midnight deadline to act on a mountain of legislation — but not a pair of long-debated clean energy bills. As expected, the governor killed two items, which would have required utilities in California to get at least a third of [...]

  Move over Vinod Khosla, billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros has his own billion dollars ready for clean power. This weekend Soros told a conference in Copenhagen that he plans to invest more than $1 billion of his own money into clean energy technology. His announcement is the latest move by a high profile investor [...]

  Here’s an idea: Offer digital rewards — free broadband access, digital goods, or web services — for consumers and organizations that reduce their energy consumption. Everyone talks about disincentives like a carbon tax to help curb carbon emissions, but what about using broadband-based, carbon-free incentives as a way to encourage energy reduction, asks Bill St. [...]

  For many hybrid drivers, hypermiling, the practice of changing driving behavior and in some cases making tech mods to their vehicles in order to eke out triple-digit MPGs, has become a way of life — never mind complaints that they drive like a granny. A number of smartphone apps and after-market vehicle retrofits have emerged [...]

  10 Things to Know About Smart Grid Security: The energy information that will be unleashed by the creation of the smart grid could be valuable to people who would use it for ill will. Don’t fret too much, but here’s what you need to know about the security risks of adding digital intelligence to the [...]

  Solar thermal developer eSolar is continuing its rush of deal-making, saying today that it’s inked a partnership with a South African-based energy firm to expand sales operations across the sub-Saharan region of the continent. Under terms of the deal, Johannesburg-based Clean Energy Solutions will exclusively represent and distribute eSolar’s concentrating solar power technology across seven [...]

  As if Chris Anthony didn’t have enough to do as chief of composite operations for Aptera, a startup working on a futuristic-looking, ultra aerodynamic three-wheeled vehicle, and CEO of hybrid boat maker Epic Boats. The multi-tasking entrepreneur has just taken on another project as the head of a new company called Flux Power, which plans [...]

  The partners at venture firm Mohr Davidow Ventures (MDV) say there’s a dirty little secret in the current cleantech investing climate: Much of the sector has been based on modernizing outdated industrial technologies and we’re missing out on a new transformational industry. In an article in Forbes this week MDV partners Josh Green and Will [...]

  The energy information that will be unleashed by the digital technologies of the smart grid is valuable. That’s why companies and policy-makers are pushing so hard to add infotech to our electrical system. But that information is also valuable to people that could use it for ill will — to disrupt the power grid, for [...]

  EU Clean Energy Growth, Now Tracked Online: “The European Commission this week launched an open-access online tool to monitor the development of about a dozen low-carbon technologies in the trade bloc.” — NYT’s Green Inc.Chamber Credits/Blames Environmentalists for Resignations: Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue said in a press conference today that “an orchestrated pressure [...]

  Ultracapacitors, energy storage devices that can deliver quick bursts of intense power and withstand more charge and discharge cycles than batteries, could provide a twofer — disrupt the vehicle market and revolutionize the power grid. That’s the basic pitch from developers of next-gen ultracapacitors (most audibly from stealthy and controversial startup EEStor). But, like most [...]