I see a troubling pattern emerging in how the most critical aspect of EVs – range – is discussed by companies and the media alike. These are problems that could have a significant negative effect on the way the public responds to electric vehicles if manufacturers don’t change the way they communicate expectations about range.

The basic problem is that when an EV is described, it usually has a single “range” number associated with it. For example, the Tesla Roadster has a range of 244 miles. When people talk about the range of a car that is planned in the future, they also offer a single number. For example, the media has reported that several car companies plan to come to market with...

I’m writing this from a BIPV Summit in San Diego. There are about 100 people attending, rather scant for a solar event, but it's an interesting group.  Utilities, roofers, architects, and the usual suspects from the PV world -- Suntech, Solyndra, Heliovolt, some startup called Pythagoras Solar. First let’s make the distinction between BAPV and BIPV.  BAPV is Building Applied PV -– it’s a retrofit added to the building long after construction, while BIPV is Building Integrated PV and it means just that -- the architects, building designers, building owners designed the photovoltaics into the skin and roof of the building from day one. And as of now -- it’s a tiny...

The Crown Estate, the body in the United Kingdom that dispenses the land rights in the country, has awarded 10 leases to companies to develop offshore wind farms. In all the wind farms will produce 6 gigawatts when completed. And at least two of the wind farms you will see the novel offshore wind turbines touted by SeaEnergy Renewables and Burntisland Fabrication. These turbines essentially are built on four-legged platforms initially devised for the oil industry, rather than the conventional monopile used to hold up turbines now. The platforms require less steel, and hence cost less, than traditional turbines and they can be planted further out to sea. Two were erected earlier in...

A quick summary of a talk by PG&E: Utilities tend to be portrayed as Mr. Burns rather than Mother Theresa. People often display a knee-jerk reaction to the idea of a utility -- distrust and suspicion. And that reputation might have some root in reality; most people think of a blackout or a rate hike or a poor customer service experience.  But U.S. utilities manage to keep the grid up and running 99.8 percent of the time. The electrical grid has been called one of mankind’s greatest inventions, akin to stuff like the transistor or space travel and deservedly so -- it animates our society just as the Web connects our world. Without being too obsequious or sycophantic here...

Chalk up one more utility deal for Comverge Inc. (NSDQ: COMV) — and delays in others that might see the demand-response company earn less than it hoped to in the fourth quarter of 2008. Comverge said Monday it had landed a five-year deal with Progress Energy to provide its demand response hardware and software to the utility's EnergyWise residential energy efficiency program in North Carolina and South Carolina. Comverge is aiming to save the utility 170 megawatts on its peak load by installing and managing in-home energy displays, smart thermostats and digital controls to curtail power consumption when it's in greatest demand. It's similar to a deal the East Hanover,...

Would you believe 200 Solar Startups?

A few months ago, I told the Greentech Media Braintrust that I had a list of about 100 solar startups.  Their response, not surprisingly, was “blog it."

So I started categorizing the list and the list kept growing until I was able to publish a six-part blog piece called “150 Solar Startups."

• Part 1: Wafered Silicon, Installers, Financiers, Balance of Systems
• Part 2: CPV
• Part 3: Next-Gen PV
• Part 4: Thin Film
• Part 5: Solar AC and CHP
• Part 6: CSP

But the thing took on a life of its’ own -- a Google search yields a thousand hits for “150 Solar Startups" and all of a sudden I started hearing from people I didn’t know -- they’d ask, “Did you know...

We began tracking venture capital investment in Greentech in 2004 when the sector really didn’t have a name and represented only 1 percent of VC investment totals.

Companies like Nanosolar and Miasolé were just getting started and most VC investors were simply trying to get their heads around this relatively underinvested trillion dollar market.

A few years later, Greentech VC investment represents about 20 percent of the VC asset class -- 2008 finished with a total VC investment of more than $7.7 billion in more than 350 funding rounds, roughly one investment a day, with time off for Christmas and New Years.

Greentech Media just released the most recent quarterly data showing...