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Recent Posts Tagged With 'greenbeat'
Fixing solar’s intermittency: Do SolarReserve and PG&E have the answer?
Pacific Gas & Electric has signed a contract with SolarReserve to buy power from its 150-megawatt plant. Power purchase agreements like this are pretty commonplace at this point — so what makes this one special? SolarReserve claims its tech...
Surprise! Copenhagen falls flat and it might be America’s fault
World leaders finally emerged from cloistered negotiations, only to have President Barack Obama announce a deal falling far short of even people’s low expectations for the U.N.’s Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Despite the U.S.&#...
Solyndra files for $300M public sale — kicking off cleantech IPO rally?
Beating long-standing predictions that it would be one of the first clean technology companies to go public in the next year, cylindrical solar-panel maker Solyndra has filed for an IPO that could amount to as much as $300 million. Based in Fremont, ...
New supply deal keeps A123 competitor Valence afloat into 2010
The relatively minor deal just struck between Smith Electric Vehicles U.S. and Valence Technology may hold broader promise. The $1.4 million contract to supply the automaker with advanced batteries could be the shot in the arm Valence needs to surviv...
Dept. of Energy beefs up electricity transmission with new $60M
The U.S. Department of Energy has been generous in its support of smart grid efforts this year, granting $3.4 billion to utilities to transition to a cleaner, more efficient electrical grid, and backing companies of all sizes making components and en...
Deadlock persists as bigwigs fly in for climate summit’s last days
After a week and a half of back-and-forth negotiations, presentations and protests, the next three days will be the most critical for the COP15 United Nations Climate Conference in Copenhagen. But even as top leaders fly in to hammer out a deal, the ...
U.S. smart grid market poised to double by 2014
The race to build a cleaner, more efficient electrical grid has sparked a diverse, rapidly-growing industry, including traditional utilities, titans of the internet boom like Cisco Systems and Intel, and a crop of startups hoping to hit it big. Now ...
Dept. of Energy launches fellowship program, strips fridges of Energy Star status and more
The U.S. Department of Energy continues to churn out important announcements — today establishing a fellowship program via its ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy) initiative. This news follows the Department’s distri...
Lehigh named 2010 technology pioneer for recycling rubber
Lehigh Technologies has been named one of the World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneers for 2010. It was one of only 26 companies to be selected to the 2010 class out of over 300 contestants, and although a number of other clean-tech companies...
ZeaChem gets $25M from DOE to make fuel from trees
With the aid of a microbe found in termites and $25 million in DOE grants awarded today, ZeaChem is proposing to build a trial sized biofuels refinery in Boardman, Ore. A hundred and 50 miles east of Portland, on the Columbia river, the Boardman faci...
Obama says yes to Copenhagen just as China backs off
China isn’t going to be a proactive player at the climate talks in Copenhagen starting next week, according to a government representative. Because it won’t be seeking international funding, there’s no reason for China to enter into...
Warren Buffett: the next clean energy baron?
Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens and master currency speculator George Soros have both gone green in the last several years. Now it could be Warren Buffett’s turn to crank up his participation in the cleantech sector. Already with four related inv...
Downey, Calif. says yes to Tesla Model S Plant
Downey, Calif. is one step closer to becoming home to Tesla Motors‘ pricey new assembly plant. The City Council voted earlier this week to approve a memorandum of understanding with the Industrial Realty Group, the company that manages the 80-a...
Tesla eyes Downey, Calif. for Model S assembly plant
Tesla Motors may have finally picked a site for its new Model S Assembly plant — an announcement that has been awaited with bated breath by California politicians and those in the advanced vehicle industry for months. While the company has yet ...
Study: Hybrid cars hit more pedestrians
According to a recently released National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study, hybrid-electric vehicles are up to twice as dangerous to pedestrians as traditional cars. The effect is at its worst in the city, when HEVs are almost silent. Near...
Gridwise, IEC make pact to make utilities smarter
The Gridwise Alliance, a nonprofit coalition of stakeholders developing the Smart Grid, signed a memorandum of understanding today with the International Engineering Consortium, to team up to make utilities more intelligent. Presumably, the Alliance ...
Solar costs set to plummet 50% by year’s end
The cost of solar equipment has been falling over the past several months, but now it looks like cost of solar-generated electricity will drop about 50 percent from where it was at the end of 2008, according to a new report from research firm New Ene...
EVs surge as Nissan taps China’s market, U.S. gov. lobbied for green car subsidies
In addition to Tesla Motors‘ potential IPO, there’s two more big pieces of news coming out of the electric vehicle world. Nissan is opening talks about electric cars in China, and the Electrification Coalition has started lobbying for tax...
GreenBeat: Big thank you and media roundup
Thanks to everyone who made it out to GreenBeat 2009 yesterday and Wednesday! We were thrilled with the turnout, and couldn’t be more grateful for all the support we received from attendees, speakers, sponsors and the press. It’s clear th...
GreenBeat: Al Gore says Smart Grid part of ‘the single largest solution’ to climate change
Nobel Prize winner and former vice president Al Gore gave a wide-ranging, passionate talk at VentureBeat’s GreenBeat 2009 conference yesterday in San Mateo about combating global warming. We already liveblogged Gore’s talk, but for folks ...
Power to the People: Giving consumers more control over energy will pay off big
[Editor Note: Pilgrim Beart is the CEO of AlertMe, maker of hardware and software for holistic home energy management. Based in the U.K., the company recently partnered with Google PowerMeter to deliver British citizens with energy consumption data d...
GreenBeat2009: Still more Super Grid speakers!
We’re rounding out the agenda for GreenBat 2009, the seminal executive conference on the Super Grid taking place NEXT WEEK on Nov. 18-19. Today, we’re delighted to announce the addition of still more policy, IT and investment experts. Bef...
New SAIC software predicts grid failures weeks, months in advance
Engineering firm Scientific Applications International (SAIC), a company that has been playing at the edges of the emerging Smart Grid space, is putting the finishing touches on software that could predict and pinpoint the causes of electricity outag...
Advanced Power enters week-long rebranding cocoon
Advanced Power Projects, a company that revamps power plants to make them greener and more energy efficient, will shutter this week, in hopes of reemerging next week as a brand new company with a more expansive roadmap, according to Dow Jones Venture...
Applied Materials grows solar business, buys Advent Solar
Applied Materials has gobbled up all of the assets of Advent Solar, a photovoltaic maker with patented module assembly processes said to be more streamlined and efficient. The deal is yet another example of Applied Materials’ sprint to define i...
McLaren F1 designer goes green with T.27
Gordon Murray — known best as the designer of the McLaren F1 and the Mercedez Benz SLR McLaren (some of the fastest, most expensive and coveted cars ever made) — has unveiled plans for an all-electric car dubbed the T.27. Shockingly homel...
Smart Meter maker Landis+Gyr lands $100M for epic rollout
Last week’s announcement of $3.4 billion in stimulus funds for utilities was big news for smart meter makers. Almost every recipient of the money said they would be using it to add millions of advanced meters to their coverage areas. Now major ...
Australian Geodynamics wins $90M to make hot-rock power a reality
Geodynamics, a company that draws emissions-free power from hot fractured rocks beneath the earth’s surface, has just won $90 million from Australia’s Renewable Energy Demonstration Program. The Hot Fractured Rock (HFR) technique is basic...
Sanyo ups solar, battery action as it courts Panasonic
Massive battery-maker Sanyo Electric is looking to be acquired by Panasonic. If the acquisition happens, the result will be an almost invincible force in the energy-storage space. Now, to make itself even more attractive to Panasonic, which has made ...
Steve Westly joins GreenBeat’s top-tier roster
We are thrilled to announce investor and former California state controller Steve Westly as the newest speaker for GreenBeat 2009, the seminal executive conference on the Smart Grid taking place Nov. 18 and 19 in San Mateo. Bringing combined expertis...
