Today's Date:
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Energy Efficiency
May 02, 2008
If you're like most office workers, some 20 percent of the pages you print end up in the recycling or waste bin the same day. Xerox researchers have invented an erasable paper that fades after a day so it can be reused again and again.
May 02, 2008
The Palo Alto Research Center plans to launch a venture-capital-backed company that can improve solar cells' efficiency with thinner electricity-conducting grid lines. The center also hopes to commercialize a low-energy water-filtration technology, reusable printing paper and energy-management software for data centers, all in the next year.
April 30, 2008
Startup Sungevity, founded by former Greenpeace manager Danny Kennedy, wants to make it cheap and easy for suburbanites to go solar.
April 24, 2008
The state has designated 1,100 plus acres of switchgrass for the production of cellulosic ethanol -- but does the environment benefit?
April 21, 2008
Solar-thermal developer eSolar snags $130 million while competitor Stirling Energy Systems gets $100 million, and the U.S. Department of Energy spends up to $86 million more for biofuel demonstration projects.
April 17, 2008
The Clean Energy Council launches a fellowship program in the hope of moving 25 experienced executives into greentech each year.
April 17, 2008
The greentech market is moving ahead. These are the companies leading the way.
April 14, 2008
Recent reports show that cleantech investments in ethanol, wind and solar are slowing down, though heavy investment this week shows the sector is still going strong.
April 10, 2008
Susan Preston, general partner for the California Clean Energy Fund's new Clean Energy Angel Fund, says more angels are needed to fund greentech investments of between $500,000 and $5 million. The fund, which is raising up to $20 million, plans to spend the cash on solar, energy efficiency, transportation, cooling systems and lighting.
April 10, 2008
The Clean Tech Open begins as UC Berkeley's greentech contest closes and the California Clean Energy Fund announces an angel fund. Will these efforts to seed innovation be enough?
March 24, 2008
While U.K. banking giant HSBC looks to back renewable-energy projects, lighting company Luminus Devices grabs $72 million and Dutch display-manufacturing company Liquavista sees $12.5 million.
March 18, 2008
Michael Bauer leaves BPL Global, where he was vice president, to help commercialize greentech from Oak Ridge National Lab on behalf of Foundation Capital.
March 17, 2008
Massachusetts-based company raises one of the largest-ever funding rounds for energy-efficient lighting. But with $139 million now in its pocket, will Luminus be able to make an investor-friendly exit?
March 12, 2008
Despite recent studies that ethanol will stir up more environmental havoc than traditional oil-based fuel, the money is rolling in for Coskata, which claims to have revolutionary next-generation biofuel on the horizon.
March 10, 2008
At the UC Berkeley Energy Symposium, a state Air Resources Board member proposed a plan to make cities responsible for budgeting their portions of carbon emissions. The program could open the door for urban carbon-monitoring and tracking technologies, as well as energy-efficiency technologies.
March 10, 2008
A lack of funding for early stage research is slowing the breakthroughs needed to combat climate change, according to KPCB Partner John Doerr. Progress is being made, such as a second-generation Miasolé technology that further cuts solar costs, but "it's not enough."