A Singapore clean-tech company called Gcorelab has just received $482,000 (S$589,000) in funding for a new technology that promises to control the thermal issues that have plagued lithium-ion batteries. Battery packs that use lithium-ion cells such as those found in laptops and, in larger deployments like electric cars, can suffer from cells failing. When the cells do and overheat, they can cause… → Read More
On Friday, President Obama appointed General Electric’s chief executive, Jeff Immelt — an advocate for carbon cap-and-trade — chairman of his panel of outside economic advisors, the newly branded Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.
GE is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of clean energy and related technologies. The company makes everything from large wind turbines, to electric… → Read More
Today, President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao revealed, at a press conference in Washington D.C., conclusions from their latest round of meetings that have taken place this week at the White House. The two world leaders have met eight times since Obama took office.
Excerpts from their speeches relating to environmental issues follow below. A full transcript of today’s press… → Read More
The United States Patent And Trademark Office (USPTO) has extended its Green Technology Pilot Program to accelerate the review of patent petitions for green technologies defined as those pertaining to: environmental quality, energy conservation, development of renewable energy, and greenhouse gas emission reduction.
Applications are usually reviewed in the order they are received by the patent… → Read More
Bryan Hansel, chief executive of Smith Electric Vehicles U.S., spoke with TechCrunch this week about how he is convincing American corporations to try electric trucks, and some of the challenges the company faces as it scales to meet the demand it’s been working so hard to create.
But the CEO almost disdains the word “green.” His company, headquartered in Kansas City, Mo. sells all-electric… → Read More
Toyota settled a longstanding patent dispute today with Paice LLC, a firm that first sued the Japanese auto juggernauts back in 2004.
The technology disputed had to do with supplying torque from both an electric motor and an internal combustion engine to a car’s wheels, according to earlier reports by Bloomberg BusinessWeek and confirmed by a Paice spokesperson today. → Read More
SolarCity today announced that it is taking a $21.5 million round of funding led by Mayfield Fund, and the company’s previous investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson, DBL Investors and Generation Capital. The company’s prior funding totaled approximately $134 million, and included investors First Solar, JP Morgan and Elon Musk.
SolarCity helps businesses, home owners and government agencies adopt solar… → Read More
After a better-than-expected pop on the first day of its IPO, Tesla’s stock (under the ticker symbol TSLA) started to slide a few days after. It is now hanging 7 percent below its initial pricing of $17, closing at $15.80 per share today.
Only a week on the market, Tesla’s stock has fluctuated greatly, trading at a high of $30.42 and dropping to a low of $14.98. While some hoped Tesla would… → Read More
Clean technology remains one of the hottest areas of venture funding. In the second quarter, cleantech venture investments worldwide totaled $2.02 billion across 140 companies, according to market research firm Cleantech Group and Deloitte. The numbers are in line with last quarter’s $2.04 billion, but 43% higher than one year ago.
Exits for the quarter totaled more than $8 billion globally… → Read More
If you thought solar panels were too expensive to put on your house, wait ’till you hear this one. Bloom Energy, a clean energy start-up in Silicon Valley, said “Hello world” yesterday, unveiling a rather revolutionary solid oxide fuel cell unit. If all goes to plan, it should be able to put your house completely off the grid. There’s a 60 Minutes spot after the jump. → Read More
What do a trucker, an Israeli entrepreneur, Al Gore and Richard Branson all have in common? Proof that the real goldmines are old, neglected industries.
The name of that proof is GreenRoad. While so many entrepreneurs bang their heads against a Web and social media advertising brick wall, GreenRoad has applied common technology to an industry technology has largely passed by… → Read More
Japan is turning greener and greener by the week, it seems. This weekend, during the Eco Products 2008 exhibition in Tokyo, a total of 750 companies showcased a few hundred new environmentally friendly products and services. Four noteworthy examples are shown in the video above [JP]. The first segment is about a water heating boiler that is powered by bricks made of dried newspapers, with the main… → Read More
On the bus back from the Cleantech conference in Stockholm last night I spoke to an investor working with AirGlass, a type of glass that is 97% air. This is actually a sort of aerogel and weighs a mere 50Kg/m³. It would be used as a form of transparent wall and has amazing insulating potential. The product has been floating around (ha!) for a while but this is the first time I’ve seen it up… → Read More
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
San Francisco
San Francisco, CA
