SunRun teams with Virgance to finance solar for consumers
Hard economic times mean fewer consumers will shell out for expensive solar panels. Also hard hit are startups that offer no-money-down programs to lease panels or buy their power but can’t find banks to partner with. So, teaming with SunRun — one of the few… Continue Reading
Ethanol’s a bust, so move to chemicals, says Genomatica
Genomatica, a bioengineering startup that says its scientific approach can rapidly find alternatives to fossil fuel-based chemicals, has some advice for the beleaguered ethanol industry: Don’t make ethanol.
The company has bred a new microorganism capable of going through the same distiller’s process that makes ethanol,… Continue Reading
Virgance gets funding, deal to install solar for businesses
Virgance, a San Francisco startup with multiple business lines all focusing on social activism, has scored $750,000 in seed funding and is also unveiling a new deal that should help it install more solar panels on roofs around the Bay Area.
We’ve covered Virgance before, although… Continue Reading
Worio adds tag-based discovery to Google
One of the latest attempts to break into the search market is Worio, a Vancouver, B.C. startup that uses tagging to augment results from Google and other big engines. The company went into beta last July, and today is announcing that it has indexed 100… Continue Reading
PowerMeter: Proof positive Google wants to run your life
Joining Google’s Android, Calendar, Docs, Mail, Maps, Reader and a few dozen other products today is a new application, PowerMeter. It’s not launched yet, but when it is, it’ll help you keep track of your home power usage by tapping into information sent from your… Continue Reading
Inaction in IT means computing still ain’t green
If you were reading VentureBeat a couple of weeks ago, you may have seen an article suggesting that most people don’t care about global warming — despite a recent deluge of media about climate change and renewable energy, many people aren’t convinced. Today a new… Continue Reading
Twine, explosively growing, is an early success
It hasn’t been long since Twine, a semi-intelligent bookmarking service, launched last October. That means it’s too early to call the company a surefire success. On the other hand, all signs so far are pointing that way: A casual check I recently made revealed that… Continue Reading
Solar Power Partners takes on $32M for solar panel sales
Add another solar-as-a-service company to the list of those unfazed by the recession. Solar Power Partners, a Mill Valley, Calif. company that installs panels for commercial customers but retains ownership in order to sell the electricity from them, has taken on $32 million more in… Continue Reading
Borrego Solar gets $14M for the boring side of solar
Solar power offers plenty of exciting technological advances to talk about. If those advances were all that mattered, nobody would have to worry about whether the business is profitable or efficient. Yet those nasty little details persist, making or breaking companies like Borrego Solar, an… Continue Reading
VC-backed Cash4Gold attracts complaints (updated)
[Updated: Cash4Gold representative Weronika Cwir has responded, and vehemently denied many of the allegations made in this article. She said the main source VentureBeat quoted was a short-term employee terminated by the company who has malicious intent. Below is her response in italics:]
Virtually every point… Continue Reading
News flash: Nobody gives a damn about global warming
An overlooked item from the world of cleantech reporting: The ever-fickle light of public attention is fading from the problem of global warming, in favor of, well, everything else. A Pew Center report from last week suggests that there are few things people care about… Continue Reading
BrightView picks up $6M for improved solar manufacturing
BrightView, a solar tech firm that hopes to improve the production of photovoltaic solar cells, has raised $6 million in a first round of funding. (The company is not to be confused with BrightView Technologies, an optics company in North Carolina.)
Rather than manufacturing its own… Continue Reading
Personal rapid transit gets another chance at life
Beneath the tall buildings and alleys of Abu Dhabi’s Masdar City, in a hidden, vault-like space, a unique transportation system may one day whisk passengers back and forth to their destinations, faster than any bus system and more accurately than rail. Instead, it will use… Continue Reading
Aptera sets October delivery date for three-wheeled electric vehicle
One of the stranger-looking representatives of the electric car revolution is approaching its public debut. The Aptera 2e, an all-electric car that the company calls an “aerodynamic marvel,” has reached pre-production and is scheduled to start being manufactured in October of this year.
Aptera’s real claim… Continue Reading
Five uses for an invisibility material (other than dumb Harry Potter references)
Haven’t you heard? Scientists have finally invented the perfect tool for porn shopping, shoplifting and general mayhem: A material that can redirect wavelengths within the electromagnetic spectrum, effectively vanishing from sight.
In 2006, Duke University researchers created a metamaterial that channeled microwaves around itself, allowing them… Continue Reading
Solar panels pose an environmental hazard, claims report
Sometime in the late 1970s, toxic chemicals from semiconductor plants in San Jose, Calif. began leeching chemicals into the local water supply. As birth defects soared and families sickened, investigators began a search for the culprits, eventually fingering IBM and Fairchild Semiconductor in 1981.
At the… Continue Reading
Electric cars disappointed in 2008 — and 2009 won’t be different
The Detroit Auto Show is underway, and the world’s most famous vehicle brands are touting the next generation of cars. And although yesterday’s fervent promises of hydrogen-powered vehicles have mostly fallen away, they’ve been replaced with new promises, this time centered around the idea of… Continue Reading
Syngas startup Ze-gen takes $20M to torch trash
Ze-gen, a company that plans to round up waste from construction sites and turn it into gases that can be used to generate electricity, has won $20 million in funding to help build its first full-size facility.
Based in Boston, Mass., Ze-gen has been moving quickly… Continue Reading
Graphene Energy raises $500,000 for ultracapacitor storage
Graphene Energy, an Austin, Tex. startup based on technology from the University of Texas and Virginia’s College of William and Mary, has taken a $500,000 seed round from Quercus Trust and 21Ventures.
Ultracapacitors (insulating layers between conductors that house electric fields) are being explored by a… Continue Reading
SolFocus takes on $47.5M more in quest to sell concentrating solar
SolFocus, the most heavily-funded concentrating solar startup around, has just drawn a bit further ahead of the pack with $47.5 million in fresh capital. With the money, the company has edged near $150 million in total funding, and with luck, widespread installation of a currently… Continue Reading