A Colorado cleantech venture, Luca Technologies, filed an S-1 today revealing its intention to go public, and raise up to $125 million (though that number could vary with the receptivity of the market by the time they actually go public).
The company stimulates microbes with a “proprietary formulation of nutrients,” in already-drilled natural gas wells, which enables the wells to produce more… → Read More
SoloPower— a manufacturer of flexible, thin film solar cells and modules— has raised another $43.7 million in an equity round this month, according to a new SEC filing. Investors in the round include: Greentech Capital in New York, and Thomas Weisel Partners in San Francisco. Earlier investors in the company include: Hudson Clean Energy Partners, Crosslink Capital, Convexa, and Firsthand.
In… → Read More
What’s more impressive than a car that can do over a thousand miles per gallon? One that was designed by school kids.
In the UK, students from regional schools and universities took part in the annual Mileage Marathon Challenge near Leicester, England, each team vying to set new gas mileage efficiency records in a race around a track. Cars were allowed to coast, but had to maintain a minimum… → Read More
GE, Emerald Technology Ventures, Foundation Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, RockPort Capital and Carbon Trust Venture Capital Partners will invest in $63 Million in 10 home energy technology companies, as part of the company’s $200 million “GE ecomagination Challenge.” As we wrote last year, the initiative is meant to help spur advances in green technologies.
The second phase… → Read More
According to an official company blog post today, Google is increasing its investment into California’s Alta Wind Energy Center (AWEC) by $102 million, bringing its total investment in the renewable energy facility to $157 million.
The AWEC is being developed by Terra-Gen Power, primarily. The first development within the massive facility is the Alta-Oak Creek Mojave Project. Google’s latest… → Read More
A French software company, Enablon, has raised a series A round of $15 million from the Environmental Technology Fund (ETF) in the U.K. Enablon’s enterprise software helps companies understand how much water, energy, chemicals and other resources they use, and how much they waste or pollute so that ultimately they can defray costs— financial and otherwise— associated with their environmental… → Read More
A San Francisco-based renewable energy fund, CleanPath Ventures, announced plans today to invest $800 million over a period of about five years into the development and construction of large-scale, solar photovoltaic projects. The company’s chief executive and co-founder, Mike Cheney spoke at the Renewable Energy Finance Forum in New York, today revealing a goal to help bring more than 1,000… → Read More
A Los Angeles startup that’s trying to become a cleantech mashup of AngelList, LinkedIn and Intellectual Ventures, OnGreen, today announced it has hired ex-Hulu, ex-Myspace vice president Mark Richards as chief technology officer.
According to OnGreen’s founder and chief executive officer, Nikhil Jain, while the site is currently running in English by the end of 2011 it will also launch in… → Read More
Combining social games with a cause has become a popular way to engage game players on Facebook with raising money for various philanthropic causes. For example, Zynga has raised funds via its games for the earthquake relief efforts in both Japan and Haiti over the past few years. Startup Good World Games is developing Facebook games devoted purely to marrying the power of causes with the viral… → Read More
A New York City startup that helps brands connect with and reward their fans via Facebook, Crowdtap, recently crossed the $1 million revenue mark for 2011, with 115,000 active members and about 50 major brand clients, chief executive officer Brandon Evans reported today.
Crowdtap members earn redeemable points for taking “brand actions” like: completing “quick hit” surveys, voting in a poll… → Read More
Air travel promises to become cleaner, if industry actions ahead of the huge, annual Paris Airshow are any indication.
Virgin America— a company that’s been reporting on its own greenhouse gas emissions since 2009— ordered $1.4 billion worth of new, super fuel-efficient engines from CFM International the companies announced on Wednesday. The move should help keep energy costs down, and reduce… → Read More
EcoMotors struck a parntership with Generac (NYSE: GNRC) this week to jointly develop fuel-efficient, backup power generators.
Generac is a large manufacturer of backup power generators for home, light commercial and industrial use. The company went public in February 2010. When natural disasters strike, Generac and other companies that make backup power generators (like Honda, GE and Kohler) … → Read More
EcoFactor, an energy efficiency startup based in Redwood City, Calif. was named a winner at the Utility Technology Challenge today in Boston. The other two winners were Ideal Power Converters and Power Tagging, according to a press release from the event.
EcoFactor’s flagship software as a service (SaaS) helps electricity consumers and utilities to diagnose and curb energy waste related to… → Read More
Total, the fossil fuels giant, just gave itself a renewable energy makeover by finishing up its $1.3 billion purchase of a majority stake in SunPower, the San Jose, Calif.-based designer and manufacturer of solar panels and systems.
Let’s put the scope of the Total-SunPower deal in perspective. According to research by the Cleantech Group and Deloitte, for all of 2010, venture investments in… → Read More
The founder of Efficiency 2.0, Tom Scarmellino, sat down with TechCrunchTV this week to talk about how his company motivates consumers to curb their power-hogging behavior at home, and what kind of impact that makes from an environmental perspective.
A New York City cleantech company, Efficiency 2.0 runs loyalty rewards programs on behalf of its clients, big electric companies that are legally… → Read More
On Tuesday, ClearEdge Power— a cleantech startup that makes 5-kilowatt stationary fuel cells— announced that it won a $2.8 million grant from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to gets its technology out to the market more quickly.
Targeted customers for ClearEdge Power include the owners and operators of hotels, groceries, schools, medical centers and fast food restaurants. → Read More
Google today announced a new partnership with SolarCity, committing $280 million from its coffers to finance SolarCity installations, namely solar rooftops for homes in North America.
The partnership brings Google employees a discount on residential solar installations and services from SolarCity. On a worldwide basis, according to the company’s last quarterly earnings report, Google employs… → Read More
An energy technology incubator, ClarianLabs in Seattle, has published a patent for a device called the Rotary Piston Generator (RPG) which the company hopes will challenge the idea of what batteries are, and how they’re used, especially in vehicles.
The RPG is a mechanical rather than chemical approach to portable energy storage. Its energy capacity is potentially ten times greater than a… → Read More
Golden, Colorado-based Proterra, Inc.— the makers of electric commercial vehicles, systems and charging stations for them— raised $30 million, the company announced today. The investment was led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) and joined by GM Ventures, Mitsui & Co., Vision Ridge Partners and 88 Green Ventures.
According to a press statement today, Proterra will use its new… → Read More
Maybe it’s just a biofuels thing this year, but it seems like the feds are giving cleantech grant money to companies and institutions that are based anywhere but in the nation’s capital of venture capital.
The U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced six recipients of $36 million in total grant funding via the Department of Energy’s Biomass Program on Friday. That non-dilutive funding went… → Read More
Storing heat may be the last thing you think of when turning on an air conditioning unit, but one model takes advantage of the sweltering weather to heat water while cooling the air.
The aptly named Air Conditioner Water Heater, or ACWH, from Hotspot Energy has a condenser unit that sits outside of the building, collecting heat that the air conditioner compresses and expels from inside. The heat… → Read More
JouleX– an Atlanta tech startup promising a way to cut energy consumption and reduce costs at large data centers by about half– closed a $17 million round of financing, the company announced today. Investors included: Sigma Partners, Flybridge Capital Partners and Intel Capital, along with earlier investors Target Partners and TechOperators.
The U.S. EPA has not updated national statistics… → Read More
At its worldwide headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. today Google installed 71 electric vehicle charging stations made by Coulomb Technologies. They will be used to power up employee-owned hybrid and electric vehicles (EVs) as well as the company’s GFleet vehicles.
GFleet is Google’s car sharing program for employees. So far, it includes Chevrolet Volts and Nissan LEAFs. → Read More
Shell spinoff Avantium raised another EUR 30 million, or about $43.9 million (USD) the company reported Thursday. Avantium produces “chemical building blocks” that industrial plastics, textile and fuel makers need to churn out green products that are as affordable and work as well as petroleum-based equivalents.
Avantium uses a catalytic process to convert carbohydrates into furanics, which are… → Read More
Thursday marked World Oceans Day, a United Nations effort to “raise global awareness of the challenges faced by the international community in connection with the oceans.”
Getting in the spirit, Google Earth and about a dozen research labs paired their data, talents and technology to create highres maps of seafloor terrain. Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory led the charge… → Read More
While he’s no Steve Jobs, Cupertino Mayor Gilbert Wong has his unique charm. In a press conference today responding to yesterday’s amazing Steve Jobs pitch, Wong said emphatically, “Cupertino is ready for this” referring to the 150 acre “Mothership” Apple campus. Jobs wants the fantastic building ready to house over 12K employees by 2015 (if everything goes as planned).
“There is no chance that… → Read More
A research firm focused on clean energy and green innovation, the Cleantech Group, launched its i3 Platform today— and it’s something like a paid Crunchbase, with a dash of Alltop and Gartner, for green tech ventures.
The product became privately available to some of Cleantech Group’s clients in late May. Now, some of the i3 Platform is available for free public use via Research.cleantech.com. → Read More
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
Boston, MA
Disrupt Europe: Berlin Hackathon
Berlin, Germany
