I’m pretty skeptical when it comes to polls about energy issues. Way too often, the questions are posed in such a way that they practically compel the respondent to answer in a certain way. Seriously: if someone asks you “would you like the energy you use to have less environmental impact?”, are you going to [...]
The new debt-limit agreement with Congress has been the big news. Big enough for Fitch to keep U.S. Treasuries at AAA for the time being. Last week another major agreement was reached. President Obama announced a historic agreement with thirteen major automakers to increasing fuel economy to 54.5 miles per gallon for cars and light-duty [...]
Gas-fired combined cycle powerplants have been around for decades. In fact, they were almost ubiquitous in the 1990s, sprouting up across America like weeds. The only reason they lost favor in the early 2000s is that, because so many were built, natural gas prices spiked from about $2/mmBtu to over $10/mmBtu, making the variable cost of [...]
If there’s really a significant gulf, as onetime marketer Geoffrey Moore put it, between selling to early adopters and the majority of technology buyers, what does this mean for companies in cleantech? The chasm model holds that there’s a big difference between what companies need to do to effectively sell technology products to early adopters [...]
As posted previously, one of the big challenges the cleantech community faces is the reliance of many pivotal technologies on rare earth minerals that are mainly located in China and increasingly subject to supply curtailment. Neodymium is of particular concern for so-called permanent-magnet motors and generators. In response, a number of companies are seeking alternatives to [...]
It takes a lot of electricity to run Dow Jones, one of the world’s largest publishers and information providers. Dow Jones is now generating 3.6 MW of its own electricity with Solaire Generation Solar Parking Canopies. Solar parking structures allow organizations to reduce their utility bills, get more control of their own electricity generation, convert [...]
One of the hottest cleantech investment segments in recent years has been home energy management (HEM). HEM technologies enable households to remotely and/or more wisely manage their energy use, enabling lower consumption for equivalent (or better) quality of life: climate control, lighting, entertainment, cooking, etc. In the space of just a week or so, two of [...]
Google, Inc. has deployed more than 70 Coulomb Technologies charging stations at its worldwide headquarters in Mountain View, CA. Over 100 employees who own electric cars use the charging stations. The stations (EVSE) are also used by the company’s growing car sharing program for Googlers (GFleet), which includes Chevrolet Volts, Nissan LEAFs and Toyota Prius [...]
On June 23, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) announced that IEA’s 28 member countries had agreed to release 60 million barrels of oil in the next month from their reserves “in response to the ongoing disruption of oil supplies from Libya.” These extraordinary powers had been exercised only twice previously: after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, [...]
Late May, the wind industry flocked to Anaheim for its annual gathering, Windpower, hosted by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). For the first time in quite awhile, attendance was down from the previous year – estimated at 14,000, compared to a reported 25,000 in Dallas in 2010. At least part of the reason was geographic: [...]
By Neal Dikeman I had a chance to chat today with Dr. Charlie Gay, the President of Applied Material’s solar division. You may recall, we broke the story in the blogosphere 5 years ago about Applied’s entry into solar, which was anchored with a highly touted and very aggressive strategy for turnkey large format amorphous [...]
I sense that many in the cleantech world generally hold a negative view of venture investors. Although rarely worded as such, I can almost hear the pleas: “Why don’t you invest more in cleantech? Why don’t you do more cleantech deals?” Well, as a venture capitalist, I can tell you plainly that our capital is very [...]
by David Niebauer I recently listened to an astounding podcast of an interview with Dennis Bushnell, Chief Scientist at NASA’s Langley Research Center, talking about low energy nuclear reactions (LENR) and devices that are apparently generating significant energy in the form of heat, with very little input of raw material and no radioactive waste. Bushnell [...]
Energy is life, the rest runs on it. Since the 70s through every presidential administration and every Congress, we have had an energy policy that boiled down to fighting the cold war through oil and getting lucky on locally sourced coal and gas. It’s not a zero planning energy policy, we’ve spent money, defined policies, [...]
I’ve been thinking a lot over the past several months about industrial policy: actions by the public sector to help promote a fledgling industry so as to ensure, foster and/or accelerate its emergence. In the cleantech sector, questions about industrial policy are particularly salient. It’s no secret that many aspects of cleantech – especially low [...]
Large scale energy has proven almost as elusive a Yeti, and perhaps almost as all world saving juicy as the silver bullet for the werewolf or the Holy Grail itself (and not the Monty Python kind). Energy storage for nearly 15 years has been the energy tech and cleantech version of the ultimate “but-if”. I.E., [...]
At the invitation of Paul O’Callaghan, the CEO of the water consultancy O2 Environmental, I attended the Blue Tech Forum in San Francisco in early June to get a deeper perspective on water technology innovation. It was well worth the cross-country trip, even for just a one-day event. Paul’s opening remarks summarized the state of [...]
The Economist had an article in a recent issue about the “anthropocene” period, our new geologic era, where mankind is the dominant force in the geology of the planet. A period where our agriculture, cities, dams, etc literally have and will permanently change the face of the earth itself, forever. The article suggests that we [...]
Renault has received orders for 100,000 of its Renault Fluence Z.E. electric car from Better Place for massive deployment in Israel, Denmark, and other countries. The Renault-Nissan Alliance is the clear leader in freeway speed electric car sales with Nissan delivering the LEAF, and both using common electric drive system and lithium battery components. These [...]
One of the most important yet overlooked points about the penetration of clean energy into the marketplace is that there’s pretty much only one thing that matters: cost. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: people buy all sorts of things — clothes, cars, electronic gadgets — based on non-economic factors, but energy [...]
