Normally losing a wheel slows a car down, but when it comes to electric vehicles, running on just three might actually speed up their time to market. Two freshly funded vehicle startups — Aptera and Venture Vehicles — want to bring hybrid and electric three-wheeled vehicles to the masses. Their vehicles’ improved aerodynamics and lighter [...]
Google Earth’s bird’s-eye view of the globe is not just a way to check out satellite pics of your crush’s apartment building (though we’re guilty of that one). The virtual space is being used by environmentalists, concerned citizens, and yes, eco-bloggers, to map the effects of climate change, tag renewable energy plants, and point out [...]
While Governor Schwarzenegger chanted for “action, action, action” on global warming at the UN climate summit on Monday, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talkedup the importance of maintaining the economy through emissions reductions at the White House climate meetings yesterday, leave it to the Clinton Global Initiative toannounce some real cleantech progress [...]
We know you’re busy, so we’ll forgive you for overlooking this week’s announcement that researchers at England’s University of Leeds have discovered a way to mimic the toxic defensive spray of the bombardier beetle. But you’ll want to sit up and pay attention when you find out why: to create a new water-based compression technology [...]
Dell Going Carbon Neutral: Dell has been one of the leading computer makers when it comes to reducing its carbon footprint, and now says its going carbon neutral by 2008. The hard part will be getting the suppliers involved — Marketwatch.Mutant Hydrogen-Producing Algae: A professor at UC Berkeley believes that genetically engineered versions of algae [...]
It takes guts to file for a secondary offering only days after you lose your largest contract ever. But that’s what JA Solar did, and investors, oddly, seem thrilled.JA Solar (JASO), a maker of photovoltaic cells that went public in a $225 million IPO only six months ago, is back at the feeding trough [...]
ConsumerPowerline, a New York-based energy management company, said today it has raised $17 million in Series A funding led by Expansion Capital Partners, with additional investment by Bessemer Venture Partners, Schneider Electric Ventures, the New York City Investment Fund, and Vantania Holdings.Following a year of successful IPOs for competitors EnerNOC (ENOC) and Comverge (COMV), [...]
Not everyone’s feeling the biofuel backlash, especially when it comes to cellulosic ethanol — biofuels made from non-food crops and plants. This morning, Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based energy crop company Ceres announced it has raised $75 million through a late-stage financing round led by private equity firm Warburg Pincus. The company says the funds will [...]
We gave portable consumer fuel cell developer MTI Micro a bit of a hard time in a post this week about how long the technology was taking to get to market — it’s slated for commercialization in 2009. MTI’s CEO Peng Lim and VP of Corporate Development George Relan sat down with us this week [...]
John Doerr, the high-profile Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner, closed Silicon Valley Projections 2008, a sold-out forum on responses to climate change, with a call for greater participation by the government in driving greentech forward.“More than anything else, we need the political will among mainstream America and our political leaders to challenge us. And [...]
