Utilities and companies are so desperate to grab a piece of the soon-to-be announced stimulus funds for smart grid projects that some groups are positioning their proposals like the awards are already a done deal. According to the New York State Smart Grid Consortium, a non-profit made up of New York-based utilities and businesses, if [...]
The upcoming launch of a new generation of plug-in and hybrid electric vehicles is coinciding with the explosive popularity of Apple’s iPhone platform. Combine that with increased pressure on U.S. automakers to demonstrate innovation and advanced technology, and you get new smartphone applications pushing forward the idea of Car 2.0, or the intersection of vehicles, [...]
Climate Change Hoax: A supposed press release from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce claimed that the Chamber was reversing its controversial opinion on climate change. Oh wait, don’t be ridiculous, that was just the Yes Men — WSJ Environmental Capital Blog.Green Phone Stats: ABI Research put out this research note last week that says only [...]
For companies looking to sell energy efficiency tools, green building products and alt-fuel vehicles, a new scorecard from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy could offer a roadmap to markets with some of the friendliest policies in the U.S. This year’s scorecard, which will be released in full Wednesday morning, ranks states according to [...]
The White House believes it’s found the political version of a double whammy in the home energy efficiency retrofit market. There are about 130 million homes in the U.S. and a sizable chunk of them are good candidates for energy-saving projects, like air-duct sealing, insulation and double-panned windows. In promoting retrofits, the White House hopes [...]
Thanks to strong backing from the U.S. government, cleantech investing actually delivered a solid third quarter compared to the rest of the venture-backed sectors, including information technology and biotech. So what happens once the millions from the stimulus package dry up? The third-quarter wrap-up on Green IT from GigaOm Pro looks at what happened this [...]
Updated: True to the recurring motto of green power investor T. Boone Pickens, the top five countries for natural gas vehicle sales do not currently include the United States. Instead the top five countries that buy cars powered by natural gas are Pakistan, Argentina, Brazil, Iran, and India, according to a new research report from [...]
For anyone searching for a smart critical analysis of the biofuel industry, Robert Rapier’s blog R-Squared has been like a breath of fresh air. The engineer, who has led teams creating biofuel technology at Accsys Technologies, Conoco Phillips and Celanese, has spent years crunching the numbers on the economics of various biofuels on his blog [...]
The federal stimulus bill is allocating billions for energy efficiency projects, but a new report by the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab predicts that state-level, ratepayer-funded efficiency programs already in the pipeline will be an even bigger recipient of funding in coming years. The study found that funding for these projects –- in the form of subsidies for energy-saving [...]
Will the Smart Grid Be Made of Dumb Pipes?: Utility executives at the Clean Energy Venture Summit in Austin, Tex. this week debated whether utilities should focus on adding value-added services on top of the power network (like phone companies have rushed to do on their data networks), or remain content to provide the basic [...]
It’s a new world for Aptera in its quest for federal funds today. The startup, which is developing a futuristic-looking, ultra aerodynamic three-wheeled vehicle called the 2e, can now be considered for funding under a highly competitive Department of Energy loan program for green cars.That’s thanks to an 80-17 vote in the Senate yesterday in [...]
Want to hit it big in cleantech? Sign your Chief Financial Officer up for Mandarin lessons. “The hottest commodity today is a Chinese-speaking CFO with an MBA from an American school –- that person is worth a mint,” venture capitalist Steve Westly said this week at a conference sponsored by Silicon Valley law firm Cooley [...]
The match has started, says Guido Bartels, General Manager of IBM’s Global Energy & Utilities industry, in reference to the increasingly competitive smart grid industry. IBM, which sells a long list of networking and integration software as well as consulting services to utilities, has been selling “smart grid” technology since 2004, says Bartels (who was [...]
One-sixth of the world’s servers — computers that run web services — are not being used at all, wasting $24.7 billion a year, including $3.8 billion in energy-related costs, according to a new report published Thursday. Researchers at the Alliance to Save Energy, Kelton Research and 1E, a software IT company, found through surveys of server [...]
