With the emergence of China as the globe’s cleantech powerhouse (see Why China has already overtaken the U.S. in cleantech), it’s become fashionable for cleantech companies with products to sell to target China seeking large purchase orders. What’s not been so popular is to go to China seeking investment capital. We and a handful of [...]
Central Parking System and its subsidiary USA Parking have announced the rollout of electric car charging. Central Parking, with 2,200 locations and over one million parking spaces, clients include some of the nation’s largest owners and operators of mixed-use projects, office buildings, hotels, stadiums and arenas as well as airports, hospitals and municipalities. Car Charging [...]
Last week, at the stunning student union of The Ohio State University, Battelle convened a meeting entitled 21st Century Energy & Economic Summit on behalf of Ohio Governor John Kasich, who both opened and closed the conference with some observations. The agenda covered a wide spectrum of energy issues facing Ohio, and didn’t lack for interesting moments. [...]
Thousands of electric cars are now communicating with owner’s smart phones, charging stations, and service networks. These EVs are plugging into smart grids that use network communications to charge off-peak, monitor and improve reliablity. When I use my Blink EVSE to charge my Nissan Leaf, the charger sends a packet of info to the charging [...]
Without much fanfare, Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI) has developed a number of very good white papers relating to building energy performance: energy efficiency and renewable energy implementation for buildings. The list of white papers includes coverage of topics such as: Lighting retrofits for industrial facilities – including an illustrative example of the economics associated with [...]
The most popular way to extend the range of an electric vehicle is to add a small gasoline engine coupled with a generator as done in the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid. The most popular way to extend the range of an electric bus is to add a fuel cell that generates added electrons. During the [...]
One of my friends, John Moore. the CEO of Acorn Energy (NASDAQ:ACFN), recently sold off their rapidly growing CoaLogix investment for a quick return. I caught up with John to get the story. So John, who the hell is Acorn Energy anyways? Acorn Energy (NASDAQ:ACFN) is the Sun Studios of the energy sector. We have [...]
As mentioned in a prior posting, I recently traveled to Canada as part of a delegation convened by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs to consider energy trade issues of importance to Canada and the U.S. – especially in the Midwest. The second stop on our journey, after a day and a half in Manitoba [...]
Book excerpt from Save Gas, Save the Planet My ninth trip to teach a workshop at Two World Trade Center never happened because of the great tragedy 9/11. For years Sun Microsystems, my former employer and now part of Oracle, had invited me to conduct a series of workshops about technology and strategy. Much of [...]
The sections of the blogosphere concerned with energy topics were abuzz last week with the news that Solyndra had filed for bankruptcy. Until recently one of the poster children for cleantech, Solyndra’s apparent demise was all the more notable due to its blue chip investor roster and its prominent selection by the Department of Energy [...]
Yup. Solyndra’s going BK. Taking with it US government loans to the tune of $10 for every taxpaying household in the country and $500K or so for every job it created for one year. But seriously, raise your hand if you DIDN’T see this coming. Like, OK, those with their hand’s raised, you are no [...]
Last night while watching Office reruns, I realized I’d been remiss, and a lot’s had been happening in the public equities end of the cleantech sector. Not to mention yesterday’s billion dollar BK broiler announcement by the one-time Next Greatest Thing, Solyndra. So, with my usual aplomb, I thought I’d simply peanut gallery what’s “Hot or [...]
Hertz (NYSE:HTZ) expands its Global EV initiative to China, making it the first global rental car company to offer electric cars on three continents. Hertz now offers the Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Volt, Smart ED, Tesla Roadster and other electric cars in U.S. cities including New York, Washington DC, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Hertz is [...]
Last week, I attended a ceremony to dedicate the commissioning of a wind turbine at the corporate headquarters of Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ: LECO) in Euclid just east of Cleveland. It’s not just any wind turbine. For those who have driven on I-90 lately, the turbine is impossible to miss: a 2.5 megawatt unit manufactured by [...]
Ford and Toyota– the world’s two leading manufacturers of hybrid vehicles –announce that they will equally collaborate on the development of an advanced new hybrid system for light truck and SUVs. Ford and Toyota have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the product development collaboration. Toyota has also partnered with Tesla to bring to [...]
NASA has been working on innovative energy technologies virtually since its inception. After all, you can’t run electrical systems in space using the types of power generation devices common on earth. Consequently, NASA has been a major contributor to the advancement of fuel cells, batteries and photovoltaic systems into the products available today. Indeed, for several [...]
by David Niebauer There has been quite a bit of activity lately in the field that used to be referred to as “cold fusion” and is now generally called “low energy nuclear reactions (LENR).” Many experiments over the last 22 years following the pioneering efforts of Pons and Fleischmann in 1989 have generated excess [...]
Ford and SunPower offer a rooftop solar system that will allow Focus Electric owners and other electric car drivers to “Drive Green for Life” by providing renewable energy to offset the electricity used to charge the vehicle. The SunPower rooftop solar system also will be compatible with the C-MAX Energi plug-in hybrid electric vehicle Ford [...]
In early August, at the invitation of the Government of Canada, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs (CCGA) organized a delegation of about a dozen energy executives from the Midwest U.S. to visit Canada to explore energy and environmental issues of common interest to the center of North America. From my prior participation on a CCGA task [...]
By David Anthony and Ken Brown Wind turbines capture the energy contained in wind. The turbine rotates a shaft which powers an electric generator. The electricity that flows from the generator can go to the wind farm’s grid connection to be consumed immediately or go to storage. We have previously discussed the advantages of [...]
