Energy
As political turmoil continues to rage across oil-producing regions in the Middle East and Northern Africa and the price of Brent crude climbs past $115 a barrel, now might be a good time to look at how we could speed up the transition to a smarter, more energy efficient society.
Energy
The US Departments of Energy and Defense plan to strengthen their coordination to boost national security through the continued development of advanced clean energy technologies. The two agencies first signed a memorandum of understanding last summer. “Advances in innovation are helping to solve our military challenges, protect our troops, and
Smart Grid
The partner consortium Peer Energy Cloud has won the first prize in the “Trusted Cloud” technology competition presented by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. The consortium project, which is focused on the development of solutions for the intelligent distribution and usage of renewable energy, is set to
Smart Grid
Powerit Solutions, a cleantech company that plugs energy-intensive businesses into the smart grid, has secured another $5 million in investor funding. Black Coral Capital, a fund focused on the cleantech sector, led the round as a new investor; four others were existing investors from prior rounds. Powerit Solutions also announced
photovoltaics
GE Energy Financial Services and VantagePoint Venture Partners are adding $8 million to an investment in Massachusetts-based 1366 Technologies, which is working to develop breakthrough manufacturing processes that could cut in half the cost of photovoltaic solar panels. The new investment comes on top of a $20 million funding round
Energy
The US Department of Energy’s 2011 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit Technology Showcase is now under way in Washington, DC. Among the companies and technologies being highlighted are: * Berkeley, California-based PolyPlus Battery Company, which is developing a lithium-air battery it says could enable an electric car to travel 500 miles
IBM is launching a major expansion of its Institute for Electronic Government (IEG) in Washington, DC, adding cloud computing and analytics capabilities for public sector organisations around the world. IBM has moved and expanded the facility in order to meet the growing demand from government, health-care and education leaders who
energy efficiency
Energy efficiency is, sad to say, a bit too much like the weather: everyone talks about it, but no one does anything about it … or, at least, not enough do. Yet another report, this one produced by Carbon Connect and sponsored by Consensus Business Group and Siemens, has come out
Smart Grid
Honeywell has been chosen to develop and implement China’s first smart-grid pilot project and feasibility study for managing energy use in commercial buildings (demand-side management). The project is part of a grant agreement signed today between the US Trade and Development Agency and State Grid Electric Power Research Institute,
photovoltaics
The world solar photovoltaic (PV) market saw significant growth in 2010, with Europe dominating in terms of installed capacity. Germany has long led the way for solar PV. With 9.8 gigawatts (GW) of installed capacity in 2009, it added a further 6.5 GW last year, according to a
smart cities
It’s not enough that IBM has a computer system so smart it can beat human champions on the Jeopardy! game show … Big Blue looks like it wants to rule the internet of things, from electronic health records and smart meters all the way to escalators and ATMs. And it
Racktivity, a California-based firm that develops next-generation data centre power distribution and energy management solutions, has joined the Climate Savers Computing Initiative. Founded by Intel and Google in 2007, the Climate Savers Computing Initiative aims to help increase the deployment of energy efficient computing, storage and networking equipment and the
