
Another IT guy comes to solar.
Tim Harris, a Silicon Valley veteran whose clocked time at manufacturing equipment and disc drive companies, is the new CEO of SoloPower, replacing interim CEO Lou DiNardo
SoloPower specializes in copper, indium, gallium, selenide (CIGS) solar panels. Unlike the rest of the industry, SoloPower does not apply the chemicals by sputtering, printing or evaporation. Instead, it wants to electroplate the active ingredients onto a substrate. SoloPower… Read More ›
Details of the hybrid recall
Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors disclosed that they are purchasing accelerator pedals for their vehicles from CTS Corp, which also supplied the accelerator pedal recalled by Toyota.
Though the three companies did not reveal the names or the numbers of the vehicles equipped with an accelerator pedal manufactured by CTS, they said that they did not find any problem with those vehicles.
"The design and the material of our pedal are different… Read More ›
Funding, forecasting, and fulminating
According to the Austin Business Journal, HelioVolt, a once well-funded and well-regarded CIGS PV aspirant, has delayed its job creation commitments by two years in an attempt to preserve some local funding and save face. HelioVolt altered an agreement with state officials 18 months after it received $1 million from the Texas Enterprise Fund calling for the creation of 158 jobs. Now, an amended agreement extends the target date for creating… Read More ›
And quit visiting your in-laws too? Saul Griffith explores the low-watt lifestyle.
There's really something for everyone, even those on the political fringes of the left and right, in Saul Griffith's energy plan.
Griffith -- an MIT-trained scientist, MacArthur genius grant recipient and serial entrepreneur whose ventures include a kite for extracting power from atmospheric winds -- is trying to get people to stop thinking about their personal energy consumption in terms of a carbon footprint and start thinking about it in… Read More ›
It only has a range of 80 miles, but that could be enough for fleet buyers.
Ford is getting back into the electric car market in a utilitarian fashion.
The automaker today will show off the Ford TransitConnect, an all-electric fleet car, at the Chicago Auto Show. The TransitConnect, coming out late this year, will drive 80 miles on a charge and hit a top speed of 75 miles an hour. Those aren't stats that Tesla Motors or Fisker Automotive would brag about, but Ford is chasing a different market. These cars will be sold… Read More ›
Thin film 2010 is thin film 2.0: go small or go home.
VC investment in solar power is still going strong, despite a dismal 2009 and an only slightly more heartening first quarter of 2010.
But the sub-sector of thin-film solar is a different story. In 2007 and 2008, almost every energy and greentech investor invested in a thin-film firm. In fact, they did so in a big way -- with $100 million plus funding rounds going to Nanosolar, HelioVolt, AVA Solar, MiaSole, Sulfurcell, SoloPower, etc.
Here's a… Read More ›
No new investments for Quercus right now, says Gelbaum.
It's scale up time for the Quercus Trust.
The somewhat secretive venture firm is not currently placing new investments, said founder David Gelbaum in an exclusive and somewhat rare interview. Instead, the firm will concentrate on putting more money in the existing companies already in the portfolio to build them up.
Considering the scope of the trust, that's still a mammoth job. The firm has around 40 to 45 companies in the portfolio, he… Read More ›
Come out, come out, wherever you are.
David Gelbaum, the super-secretive investor behind the Quercus Trust, just took a day job.
He will serve as CEO of Entech Solar, one of the Trust's investments. He takes over for Frank Smith, who became Entech's CEO in March 2008.
The product of a merger between struggling solar installer WorldWater and Solar Technologies, Entech has devised a solar unit that contains silicon photovoltaic cells, which can convert sunlight into electricity, as… Read More ›
The three-way bidding war is over.
Areva, the swarming energy conglomerate, has won the bidding war and purchased Ausra, the solar thermal specialist.
Two other conglomerates had been bidding on the company, according to sources. One of them, however, was likely not Siemens. Siemens bought rival Solel for $418 million last year.
Like many Silicon Valley-funded startups, Ausra came up with a novel idea for harnessing clean power, but has lacked the money, engineering and contracts… Read More ›
Glad to see you back, David Gelbaum.
Why do electric cars with a 100 mile range and battery swapping stations seem so appealing in Israel?
Because, in most cases, if you can't drive 100 miles in a shot without ending up in the sea or enemy territory.
But that's not the only reason Better Place has reconfirmed its plan to set up electric car fleets and charging stations with large corporations in that country. Fleet buyers reduce the number of charging stations required. Fleet cars… Read More ›
And quit visiting your in-laws too? Saul Griffith explores the low-watt lifestyle.
Read More ›
Solar
Michael Kanellos
02 08 10
Policy
Michael Kanellos
02 08 10
Biofuels
Joshua Kagan
02 05 10