It’s summer here in the Northern hemisphere, and that means the solar-based industry in the US is in top experimental gear (to clarify: the company in question is British but the test flight is in the Arizona Desert). A few more months and they’ll hibernating or relocating to their Australian headquarters, but in the meantime, we’re getting a lot of solar-related news. It wasn’t long ago that the Solar Impulse proved it could stay in the air for 24 hours (26, in fact), and now we’re hearing that Qinetiq’s much-smaller craft, the Zephyr, will be going for a world-record 14 days. Of course, it already holds the world record, since it’s been in the air a good week or so already. It’s kind of like when you set the high score but the points are still rolling in. → 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 power. It designs, installs and provides finance options for appropriate solar systems with a goal of helping its customers generate savings from clean power versus electricity generated from non-renewables. → Read More
Green data geeks now have another tool for controlling their energy consumption. Enphase Energy‘s new Environ Smart Thermostat lets you control your home’s temperature and monitor your solar installations remotely.
The company is known for its microinverter system, which turns solar-generated DC power into home energy friendly AC power. A microinverter is attached to every solar module, and the unit also monitors the module’s performance and sends out an alert if there is a problem with the module, be it debris or a tree branch that grew large enough to shade the solar panel.
All of the data is transmitted to a website where you can analyze your energy consumption and, with the new thermostat, control your home’s temperature from afar. → Read More
In his weekly address on Saturday, President Obama announced the Department of Energy will loan almost $2 billion to two solar energy companies: Abengoa Solar and Abound Solar Manufacturing. The loans will go towards developing solar energy plants.
With the funding, Abengoa will build a solar plant in Arizona that can power 70,000 homes. When completed in 2013, the plant will be one of the largest in the world. It will also store part of the energy it produces, becoming the first plant in the U.S. to do so. → 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, with $6 billion in cleantech M&A and $2.3 billion in cleantech IPOs. Tesla‘s $202 million IPO has been in the spotlight recently, but globally, the cleantech IPO market is concentrated in China, which grabbed $1.7 billion, 75 percent of the $2.3 billion raised worldwide in the past three months, and 12 of the 19 IPOs, though not all of those are venture backed. The biggest IPO of the quarter was China’s Origin Water on the Shenzen Stock Exchange, which raised $330 million. As a point of comparison, in the U.S. alone, IPOs across all sectors totaled $900 million in the second quarter. → Read More
We first blogged about Ikaros, a solar powered “space yacht” developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), in September last year. The idea was to use solar photons to propel satellites in outer space to boost energy-efficiency. That yacht was eventually launched on May 21, and now we have the first pictures of Ikaros moving through outer space. → Read More
Everyone loves the idea of solar energy. The three big challenges are that solar cells are expensive to produce, they’re not very efficient, and you need some means to store the energy collected. I’d heard of solar shingles before, which are basically roofing shingles with solar cells in them, but now word is coming out of solar cells printed on paper. As usual, the technology is still years away from a marketable product, but it’s an interesting development. → Read More
When I first saw shots of the new Puma phone, I was a little skeptical. It looked decent enough, but the whole solar charging thing made it seem a little gimmicky. After seeing the following video from Mobile World Congress, however, it’s beginning to look more like a smartphone I’d actually use. → Read More
One Block Off the Grid, a company that helps residents get competitive group pricing for solar panel installation, has raised a $5 million series A round of venture capital from New Enterprise Associates. The company has gotten pretty far without formal venture cash—facilitating more than 600 installations in 2009, most of that in the fourth quarter. 1BOG, as it’s called, hopes to install five-to-ten times that amount this year, so that NEA cash will help the company hire and grow.
Think of 1BOG like another NEA investment, Groupon, but focused on solar panels. The site groups together customers in large metro areas interested in having panels installed and helps get them the best price. Only one could argue there’s a much bigger need for IBOG. Most people don’t know where to start if they want to install solar panels and have no idea how to compare bids between contractors. On average, 1BOG saves customers 15%. And, of course, there’s the whole getting-us-off-foreign-oil/saving-the-planet benefit to 1BOG. → Read More
Do you not have enough clutter on your desk? Not quite badass enough for BattleBots? Solarbotics has posted instructions on how to create these rather adorable solar-powered symets, so you can battle the 20 other people who probably make this sort of thing. [Instructables] via [Make: Online] → Read More
I’ll be damned. A solar charger with a 1500mAh capacity battery and 5-volt output from a relatively well known manufacturer priced at $30. That actually seems reasonable.
The solBAT II from Scosche features a standard USB output port for charging most of your portable devices and it even comes with a little suction mount case for use in the car. So what’s the catch for $30? → Read More
My first experience with solar energy was in Cub Scouts, when we made a solar-powered hot dog cooker. Unfortunately, solar technology hasn’t advanced terribly much in the intervening decades. At the consumer level, solar power still isn’t particularly useful for very much outside of a few niche markets. i.Tech has a couple of products that make a real effort to bring usefulness to solar power for the average user: the SolarVoice 908 Bluetooth headset and the SolarCharger 906 multi-device charger. → Read More
Sanyo is already being considered Japan’s “greenest” brand in the consumer electronics field (which is the main reason Panasonic is about to acquire the company), but them building complete, eco-friendly buildings is certainly new. Sanyo Homes [JP], a wholly-owned subsidiary, will start marketing all-electric homes with lithium ion batteries providing back up power to Japanese customers as early as tomorrow. (Sorry for the tiny picture, which shows a CGI-model of how these houses look like.) → Read More
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has big plans: It wants to conquer outer space to generate solar energy by 2030. The idea is to collect solar power in space and beam it down to earth, in the form of lasers or microwaves. The so-called Space Solar Power System project is led by big corporations such as Mitsubishi, NEC, Fujitsu und Sharp. → Read More
Sharp has on display a number of fun new gadgets at CEATEC. As is all too often the case, these things are for Japanese release only (at least for now). Maybe we’ll see them in a couple years. Read on for details on a dial-by-photo phone, newspapers on TV, solar-charging cell phones, and the Sharp Netwalker! → Read More
Scosche has dropped the price of its solar battery charger from $40 down to $25, plus you can get an extra 15% off by using promo code back2school until October 1st. The “sunVOLT” is a five-volt solar battery that holds a 500mAh charge and features little suction cups for use in the car. → Read More
Apparently this whole “solar power” thing really works. Case in point, this Solar-Breeze apparatus uses solar power to clean your pool all day long and, aside from keeping your pool clean, it cuts down on the amount of time your pool’s pump has to be running since it grabs gunk and leaves before they get sink to the bottom and get sucked into the grate. → Read More
When the power goes out and you finally find your flashlight, it’s invariably out of batteries. Soon you’ll be able to buy a solar-powered flashlight from Chinavasion. It’s got a built-in lithium-ion battery and uses white LEDs with a rated life of 50,000 hours. → Read More
This is a solar vest. You can tell because it says SOLAR VEST in big letters across the shoulders, right above the four weatherproof solar panels. This fine gentleman is carrying more than a few gadgets in the pockets of his SOLAR VEST, which he’ll be able to recharge when they run out of juice. → Read More
Here we have a combination USB hub, rechargeable battery extender, and solar doodad in one. The 2.5- by 2.5-inch square features an internal lithium ion battery that can be charged via sunlight or AC power and then hooked up to your dying cell phone to provide some extra juice on the go. → Read More
San Francisco, CA
