Solar Mosaic, a startup that’s aiming to be the “Kickstarter for solar projects,” has been awarded a $2 million grant from the United States Department of Energy (DOE) Sunshot Initiative.
Solar Mosaic, which also goes by simply Mosaic, is building an online platform that facilitates crowdfunding of solar projects. Last month the Oakland, California-based company closed on a $2.5 million Series… → Read More
Word got around way back in the middle of 2010 that Apple was building a monster data center near Maiden, South North Carolina. Later, it was shown to be hosting a ton of Nuance software, for obvious reasons. Less widely reported was the fact that nearby, scores of acres were being cleared for a solar array.
Now, it turns out that solar array will be the largest “end user-owned, onsite” one in… → Read More
Scientists at the University of Cambridge in the UK have found a way to improve the efficiency of photovoltaic cells by as much as 25% through harnessing more of the sun’s spectrum than most traditional silicon-based solar cells can. → Read More
In an unusual hybrid, British industrial designer Phil Pauley created Marine Solar Cells that harness energy from both the sun and water.
The web of energy generators capture energy off-shore, using a combination of floating photovoltaics and natural buoyancy displacement. Thanks to the reflective nature of water, the solar component’s efficiency is up to 20% greater than it would be… → Read More
Solar manufacturer Solaria and solar performance monitoring software and hardware provider meteocontrol have today announced a partnership that will see meteocontrol’s Virtual Control Room (VCOM) monitoring system added to Solaria’s projects. The system aims to help Solaria’s customers increase their solar yields through remote management. → Read More
GE has announced plans to spend $600 million on a new solar factory located in the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colorado. The factory, which begins operations in 2012, will be capable of producing enough solar panels per year to generate 400 megawatts of power, or enough energy to power 80,000 homes. When completed, the factory will be bigger than 11 football fields – soon to be the largest factory of… → Read More
The spectacular failure of solar manufacturer Solyndra is being held up by some as a shining example of the Obama administration’s failure to properly manage government subsidies after its collapse left taxpayers with $535 million in federally guaranteed loans. But Solyndra’s failure on its own is not remarkable. There are always risks involved when you’re introducing innovation into a… → Read More
In 2010, the U.S. installed 887 megawatts (MW) of grid-connected photovoltaic (PV), up 104% from the 435 MW installed in 2009, according to a new recent report by the Solar Energy Industries Association and GTM Research. However, the U.S. market’s share of global installations fell to 5.1%, down from 6.0% in 2009.
In the end of 2011, that’s expected to change, thanks to slowdowns in major… → Read More
Main Street Power, a national solar financier, is partnering with AlsoEnergy for a nearly three megawatt distributed generation solar project in California. AlsoEnergy, an energy monitoring and financial management software solutions provider, will provide the energy monitoring software for the project, which will be spread throughout the state of California. → Read More
Meteocontrol North America, a global provider of solar performance monitoring software and hardware, bankable energy yield reports, technical due diligence and operations management services for photovoltaic installations, has partnered with Princeton Solar Solutions (PSS), a top N.J.-based solar provider. → Read More
A Year In The Life Of An Entrepeneur
1. July 2010: Ready: Set: Delaware, the state with the lowest highest point. David Argentar, a biochemist by training and bioinformaticist by trade, has launched a startup. Of sorts. Well – more of a hobby, he’d be the first to admit. He has no business plan, no investors, no employees. All he really has, in fact, is an idea and a pending patent. And as… → Read More
When it comes to renewable energy solutions, sometimes nature has the best ideas. That was 13-year-old Aidan Dwyer’s conclusion after a wintry hike in New York’s Catskill Mountains, a trip that inspired him to build a unique and effective solar array design.
Dwyer observed patterns in the trees and, after further research and contemplation, realized the branches matched up with the Fibonacci… → Read More
Ford Motor Company is teaming up with San Jose-based solar panel maker SunPower to offer a rooftop solar system option which will be sold alongside the upcoming Ford Focus EV. The “Drive Green for Life” program, as it’s being called, involves mounting solar panels on a customer’s home.
These panels wouldn’t be used just to charge the Focus itself, however. They actually help offset the cost… → Read More
Aviation enthusiasts interested in greener flying might put an Elektra One plane on their wish lists. PC-Aero‘s electric aircraft can fly for up to three hours on one charge with a 100mph cruising speed. The charging happens inside a solar-powered hangar included in the plane’s anticipated purchase price of $145,000. → Read More
Group buying is moving into the commercial clean energy space thanks to Solar@Work, a program designed by San Francisco’s Department of the Environment to make solar panels more affordable for business owners. Businesses have three options for acquiring solar panels through the program: Purchasing, leasing, and securing a loan. A federal grant covering 30% of installation costs is also on… → Read More
We will see more of these devices coming in the next few years, I am sure: Panasonic today announced [JP] the BG-BL01, a portable and solar-powered LED light that doubles as a charger for USB gadgets. The device is sized at just 152×104×24mm, weighs 150g, can house two AA batteries and is splash proof. → 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
It seems like when I’m outside the US, all I see is solar-powered netbooks. Solar powered netbooks here, solar powered netbooks there. Cafes brimming with them, streets littered with them, babies babbling into their solar powered netbooks issued at birth. Okay, maybe not. But this one from Samsung, which has no special specs except for the solar panel on the back, was originally not coming… → 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
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
Cleantech companies— especially in solar— love to talk about how they’re breaking records. They issue press releases left and right about the most efficient this, that and the other. Such claims fizzle if they haven’t been verified by a third-party lab. They can also feel like greenwash, or Cola War style brand standoffs.
Broken records we love to hear about, though, are like these from… → Read More
On Wednesday, SolarCity added $158 million to the pool of funds that it uses to finance, design, develop and install commercial or residential solar power projects in the U.S. The latest fund came through a partnership with U.S. Bancorp (a subsidiary of U.S. Bank) and gives SolarCity more than $1 billion in financing capacity… → Read More
SunTech Power Holdings is planning on building a major solar power installation at one of the highest inhabited places on the planet: the Tibetan Plateau. The county of Sangri, 4000m (13,123ft) above sea level, has been chosen as the site for the latest of this company’s green power plants, and will generate around 20MWh of power yearly for the surrounding area. Nice! → Read More
BioSolar, a small public company (OTCBB: BSRC.OB) that makes solar backsheets — a component of the equipment used to hold solar photovoltaic modules in place within frames and racks, and to protect the modules from weather and other damage — attained safety certifications from Underwriter Laboratories this week.
The UL-certification enables BioSolar to sell its backsheets to a variety of… → Read More
Unirac — a company that makes racks that are used to install and hold solar panels in place within power generating systems of any size — today revealed a new partnership with solar tech manufacturers, Canadian Solar Inc. (nasdaq: CSIQ).
Through the partnership, the companies will install 30 MW of solar projects in Canada, starting with a 10.9 MW solar park in Napanee, Ontario. According to a… → Read More
Sure, in many cases electric bikes are much more eco-friendly than cars, but even e-bikes need to be charged in some way or the other – most of the time, the power doesn’t come from eco-friendly sources. Kyocera, however, yesterday announced [JP] an alternative: the so-called “Solar Cycle Station”, which is essentially some kind of a bike stand that allows owners to charge their e-bikes through… → Read More
Move aside Logitech, there’s another solar keyboard in town.
Earlier this week, Logitech introduced the K750, an $80 wireless, solar-powered keyboard made of recyclable plastic and billed as the world’s first solar keyboard. The K750 may be first but it certainly won’t be the last.
This Wednesday, Taiwan’s AU Optronics released details on its own solar keyboard solution: a touch version that… → Read More
Ah, mother sun: you give us maize, you give us warmth, and in the summer you give us just a little color, not too much, just maybe a little around the shoulders so we look like we went outside. Now you can charge our keyboards! The $80 Logitech K750 is the first solar keyboard built of fully recyclable plastic. The device has a set of solar panels along the top edge and even includes a luxmeter to… → Read More
For all the talk about solar, the US market for solar power still has a long way to go before it makes a real dent in the country’s overall power capacity.
On Monday morning, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, a major aggregator of green industry data released a few key projections: the US solar market is on track to grow 30x to 44 gigawatts by 2020 and could make up 4.3% of America’s total power… → Read More
The chief executive and president of Innovalight, Conrad Burke, won the 2010 Ernst & Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year award, the companies announced today, following the ceremony in Dublin, Ireland earlier this week. The award recognizes “entrepreneurs who are building and leading successful, growing and dynamic businesses” according to an E&Y press statement.
According to… → Read More
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