Chris Morrison | posted on February 9, 2009

If you were reading VentureBeat a couple weeks ago, you may have seen an article suggesting that most people don’t care about global warming — despite a recent deluge of media about climate change and renewable energy, many people aren’t convinced. Today a new study is suggesting that the geeky, forward-thinking information technology industry is also behind on becoming environmentally friendly.

The study by Think Ecological, a group owned by BPM Forum, Intel and Rackable Systems, says that while over 80 percent of companies are more sensitive to ecological issues than they were a year ago, about the same number give their own industry “failing grades” in carrying out ecological practices.

To simplify some of the study’s findings, the people who control the computing infrastructures of major corporations are behind the curve, spending their time hounding employees to not print out emails rather than tackling major issues like reducing the amount of energy that power-sucking server farms consume. …read full discussion

CAMILLE RICKETTS | posted on January 30, 2009

 
The past several years have seen rapid growth in the number of so-called “green collar” jobs in the state of California, according to a new report from Mountain View, Calif.-based Collaborative Economics. Between 2005 and 2007 alone, employment in the sector spiked 10 percent to about 105,000. To put that in context, the overall workforce grew about one percent statewide. This shift is significant for the state, and Silicon Valley in particular, where many formidable cleantech companies have taken root. The region has always been a hub for computing technology but only recently emerged as a leader in the green economy — even though wind and solar projects have been toiling out of the spotlight elsewhere for decades.

The wave was kicked off in 2004, when then-California Treasurer Phil Angelides pushed the state’s large public pensions (CalPERS and CalSTRS) to commit $1.5 million to a “Green Wave” program. The initiative included investments into venture capital firms that backed clean technology companies. The green trend reached a crescendo in 2007, when green czar Al Gore decided to join the prestigious Valley venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers to help advise it on clean technology investments. The whole time, cleantech startups have rushed to set up shop nearby; other firms, like Mayfield Fund, Silicon Valley Bank and Draper Fischer Jurvetson, have dedicating more resources to cleantech initiatives of their own. Clearly the bulk of these new green jobs won’t be at slick venture-backed startups. According to the report, nearly 20 percent of them are in manufacturing — the actual plants where solar cells, turbine blades and electric engines are built. Other salient findings include: …read full discussion

Chris Morrison | posted on January 23, 2009

 

 

One of the stranger-looking representatives of the electric car revolution is approaching its public debut. The Aptera 2e, an all-electric car that the company calls an “aerodynamic marvel,” has reached pre-production and is scheduled to start being manufactured in October of this year.

Aptera’s real claim to fame, aside from building electric vehicles in the first place, is its three-wheeled design that places two wheels at the front of the car and one in the back. This arrangement confers some steering and efficiency advantages, but is unknown in modern cars, which has prompted some (including me) to suggest that Aptera will have difficulty breaking into the market. …read full discussion

Chris Morrison | posted on January 14, 2009

 

 

The Detroit Auto Show is underway, and the world’s most famous vehicle brands are touting the next generation of cars. And although yesterday’s fervent promises of hydrogen-powered vehicleshave mostly fallen away, they’ve been replaced with new promises, this time centered around the idea of the electric car.

Don’t believe the hype. Although electric vehicles are almost certainly the way forward, much of the motion is really a show intended to sway the opinion of consumers and legislators in the short term. Startups hope to build an early niche, and America’s big auto makers are hoping their fervent hand-waving will bring accolades and government money — but in the near term, we’ll see little motion in the industry. …read full discussion

Chris Morrison | posted on December 1, 2008

 

The entire world hopes to start driving electric cars soon, and Africa, despite its reputation for poor economies, is no exception. Luckily, a South African company called Optimal Energy is working to release a vehicle in 2010.

And unlike the many attempts to make electric cars as small and cheap as possible, the vehicle, called the Joule, will be a highway-speed, multi-passenger model aimed at the same people that buy full-priced four door vehicles, making it a good fit for Europe and the United States.

Optimal has the benefit of strong support from its government, which has put money into the company through a research investment fund. Having such backing gives Optimal the time to pay close attention to its engineering and design choices.

That has resulted in some some uncommon bonuses for buyers, like an optional solar panel integrated with the roof that will help charge the car, and varying seat designs — the standard model will have six seats, three front and three back, but North Americans would likely be more comfortable with four. …read full discussion

Chris Morrison | posted on November 6, 2008

 

While electric vehicle star Tesla Motors has been looking shaky of late, other automakers look ready to step into the gap. One name that may come up more often is Miles Electric Vehicle, which peHUB reports is in the midst of raising a $40 million funding round.

Miles, which already makes low-speed electric cars (often called NEVs) is in the process of finishing the design of a highway-speed car, the XS500. The company appears to be on track to start making the cars late next year, and has so far raised $13 million of the new funding. If it finds the full amount, the money may well be enough to carry it to commercial launch of the XS500. Earlier this year, then-CEO Jeff Boyd said in a VentureBeat interview that Miles’ capital requirements are lower than those of other companies because it outsources much of its work.

More exciting than Miles is the news from Mini, an iconic but mainly European automaker owned by BMW. As the SUV craze dies down, the company is making forays with its small vehicles into the United States. Now it’s beginning to quietly sign up 500 drivers to test out an electric vehicle in California, New Jersey and New York, according to Automotive News. …read full discussion

Chris Morrison | posted on October 13, 2008

 

It’s safe to say that the cleantech investors who pumped tens of billions of dollars into cleantech over the past three years didn’t expect a serious recession any more than anyone else. Yet with one on the horizon, it looks as if heavily funded technologies like wind and solar power could get hit from more than one direction.

The obvious danger is a slowdown in venture funding, as pointed out in a leaked Sequoia Capital presentation and this contributor piece from Advanced Technology Ventures’ Todd Kimmel. Companies without large funding rounds to draw from will struggle to commercialize their products, especially mid-stage cleantech outfits, who need a lot of capital to move from pilot demonstrations to commercial installations. …read full discussion

JEREMY JACQUOT | posted on October 10, 2008

 

In a sign investors may be warming up again to the residential and commercial photovoltaics market now that Congress has finally approved the extension of renewable tax credits, Gaithersburg, Maryland-based Standard Solar has secured $8.5 million in second round funding from Truecast Capital and a number of private and institutional investors.

The money will be used to fund the firm’s expansion into new markets and to scale up its production capacity. The company, which sells and installs small and mid-size solar panel systems built by SunPower for government and business customers, will also ramp up its marketing initiatives and boost its operational capabilities. …read full discussion

Camille Ricketts | posted on October 9, 2008

OwnEnergy just brought in an undisclosed amount in first-round funding, but the 1-year-old wind and alternative energy company is already looking ahead to the full $100 million it needs to raise to develop its first project, a 51-megawatt wind farm in north Texas — and to have it up and running by the end of 2009.

It’s unclear how close the Brooklyn-based company is to this goal, and I haven’t been able to reach OwnEnergy executives yet. But they must be pretty confident, considering that they’ve already started negotiations with a major turbine manufacturer, and broadcasted their intentions to develop between 10 and 80 other wind farms of similar scale. …read full discussion

Chris Morrison | posted on October 8, 2008

Most of the heavily-funded solar panel makers out there have let the public know what they’re working on, if not all the specifics of their technology. So it’s somewhat remarkable that Solyndra has managed to stay stealthy for over three years, all while accumulating over half a billion dollars in funding.

 

Some details have emerged, to be sure. But the company has now opened up for the first time to give hard details on its product, a panel for commercial rooftop installation that it says drastically undercuts its competitors in price.

Solyndra is currently in the expansion stage for one large plant to make the panels and in planning stages for a second plant, both in the company’s hometown of Fremont, Calif., with a planned total capacity of over 500 megawatts. But its panels aren’t exactly the industry standard; where almost all others on the market look like a flat sheet of dark material, Solyndra’s panels resemble a row of long fluorescent light tubes, each an inch wide and an inch apart. …read full discussion