As we wrote on Monday, Tuesday is the day of reckoning for the smart grid biz. The Department of Energy this morning has announced the recipients of the $3.4 billion in stimulus grants for 100 smart grid projects (25 large and 75 small) that are meant create “tens of thousands of jobs,” and lead to [...]

  The Solar Power International Conference, which is the largest solar industry-focused event in the U.S., kicks off on Tuesday in Anaheim, Calif, and comes at an interesting time for the solar industry. The U.S. solar biz is in the midst of a yearlong shakeout, significant government spending from the U.S. stimulus package, and growing influence [...]

  Cap and Trade’s Biggest Losers: A new report by energy consultants Wood Mackenzie finds “cap-and-trade legislation will cost U.S. refiners about $100 billion a year by 2015 and put them at a competitive disadvantage to refiners in Europe.” — WSJ’s Environemental CapitalBright Automotive Bags $1.4M Army Demo Deal: Anderson, Ind.-based Bright Automotive said today the [...]

  Renovating the power grid requires big ideas from startups, major technology companies, manufacturers, and university labs. Innovations will range from technologies that increase the grid’s capabilities and efficiency to new business models taking advantage of these new abilities. To find out more about GreenBeat’s Innovation Competition and to apply, click here. The deadline to enter [...]

  Carbon capture technology is like a half-baked web tool, according to Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt: in need of some “debugging.” The chief of the search engine giant made the comments at Google’s headquarters this morning, where he interviewed Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. Chu, who was visiting the Googleplex to talk about today’s ARPA-E funding [...]

  Is tomorrow the day of reckoning for the smart grid industry in the U.S., when utilities and companies will finally learn whether or not they will receive part of the close to $4 billion in stimulus funds? It’s starting to look like it. According to suggestions from media reports, a planned Department of Energy press [...]

  If there’s one thing to be said about plug-in hybrid vehicle developer Fisker, it’s that the young startup moves quickly. A month after securing a $528.7 million loan from the Department of Energy, Fisker is reportedly in advanced talks to buy an old 3.2 million-square-foot General Motors assembly plant in Wilmington, Del., to build its [...]

  It’s not often that the Department of Energy gets to go far out on a limb with its investments. But that’s exactly the point of ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy) — a program funded under the stimulus package to support moonshot technologies that might be too risky for other investors. Today the DOE has announced [...]

  This is looking like a packed week for climate change regulation and government spending meant to remake the energy industry — the Department of Energy just announced new funding for very early stage energy projects, and there will be major debates in the Senate over the climate bill in the coming days. And to kick [...]

  With increased awareness — and regulation — of issues such as energy security and climate change, more and more corporations are working to reduce their carbon emissions and consumption of energy and natural resources. But how do you know if your efforts are paying off? Software company CA hopes to help answer this question with [...]

  The term “batch processing” was coined back in the 1950’s in the days of mainframe computers: A computer operator would feed a batch of punch cards into the computer, which would then process the information during a scheduled time, and hopefully deliver the needed information back the next morning. Compare that to today, when most [...]

  One of the chief ways that startups are helping make data centers greener is by developing wireless technology that can fill in the energy blind spots. As analyst Katherine Austin put it in our recent GigaOM Pro report (subscription required), in which she takes a look at startups like SynapSense and Sentilla: “You can’t control [...]

  How Windows 7 Will Cut Computer Energy Consumption: Microsoft’s next-generation operating system, Windows 7, has some nifty new power management functions that will help cut down on the energy consumption of your PC or laptop. It’s about time.8 iPhone Apps for Car 2.0: New smartphone applications are pushing forward the idea of Car 2.0, or [...]

  Electric car infrastructure startup Better Place and Danish rail operator DSB have a vision to link electric vehicles, car sharing networks, trains and mobile devices into one high-tech, eco-utopian transportation system in Denmark. The duo has just announced an agreement to install charging stations for electric vehicles at “a number of major Danish train stations,” and [...]