In Wednesday’s New York Times, I write about a Google-backed startup that unveiled a new power conversion technology it claims will dramatically cut the energy consumption of motors, electronic gadgets and other devices: A Southern California start-up backed by Google and prominent venture capital firms announced on Wednesday a technology it claimed could slash the [...]
Archive for the ‘energy efficiency’ Category
Google-backed startup aims to slash gadgets’ energy use
Posted in alternative energy, energy efficiency, Google, tagged Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Transphorm on February 24, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
San Francisco, Virgin building LEED Gold airport terminal
Posted in energy efficiency, green buildings, tagged LEED, San Francisco International Airport, Virgin America on January 16, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
I wrote this story for Reuters, where it first appeared on November 29, 2010. Upping the ante in the greener-than-thou sweepstakes, San Francisco is building what would be the nation’s first LEED Gold-certified airport terminal. LEED — Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design – is a program run by the United States Green Building Council [...]
Fannie/Freddie: Homeowners must pay off PACE solar loans
Posted in energy, energy efficiency, environment, green policy, renewable energy, solar energy, tagged Fannie Mae, Federal Housing Financy Agency, Freddie Mac, PACE, Property Assessed Clean Energy on September 1, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
photo: Sonoma County In The New York Times on Tuesday, I wrote about the latest nail in the coffin of Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, programs: Many homeowners who participated in a program that let them repay the cost of solar panels and other energy improvements through an annual surcharge on their property taxes [...]
Report: Energy efficiency saves oil, avoids dangerous drilling
Posted in energy efficiency, environment, green policy, green tech, Natural Resources Defense Council, tagged energy efficiency, Gulf oil spill, Natural Resources Defense Council on August 4, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. The Gulf oil spill disaster is usually tied to Americans’ insatiable appetite for gasoline to fuel an unsustainable lifestyle. And while transportation accounts for most of the United States’ petroleum consumption, there are still more than 14 million homes that rely on some type of [...]
Economy sags, green tech investment surges
Posted in alternative energy, BrightSource Energy, energy efficiency, enviro capitalism, enviro startups, environment, green financing, green tech, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, tagged BrightSource Energy, green tech investing, venture capital investment on August 3, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
photo: Todd Woody I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. The anemic economic recovery may have hit the dog days of summer with consumer spending and factory orders slowing, but the new energy economy continues to surge, according to a report released Tuesday by Ernst & Young. Venture capital (VC) investment in [...]
Analysis: Solar loans pose little hazard to Fannie/Freddie
Posted in alternative energy, energy, energy efficiency, environment, green policy, renewable energy, solar energy, tagged California Attorney General, Fannie Mac, Freddie Mae, PACE, Property Assessed Clean Energy on July 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
photo: Solyndra In The New York Times on Friday, I follow up my story in Thursday’s paper on mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac paralyzing PACE programs that allow homeowners to install solar arrays and make energy efficiency upgrades through an annual assessment on their property taxes: In an article in The Times on [...]
Home improvement giant invests in green retrofit startup
Posted in alternative energy, energy efficiency, enviro startups, environment, green startups, green tech, tagged energy retrofit, green building, Lowe's, Recurve on June 23, 2010 | 1 Comment »
This post first appeared on Grist. I usually don’t write about companies’ funding announcements, unless the amount of money raised is particularly eye-popping. But when Recurve announced Wednesday that it had scored $8 million in its latest round of fund-raising, what caught my attention was who decided to invest in the San Francisco energy retrofit [...]
Financial engineering: Paying for energy retrofits
Posted in energy, energy efficiency, environment, tagged CalCEF, California Clean Energy Fund, energy efficiency, financing, retro fits on February 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
In my latest Green State column on Grist, I explore new strategies to pay for commercial energy efficiency retrofits: On the heels of San Francisco’s announcement last week that it plans to spend $150 million greening up homes, comes a new report that studies a slew of other innovative ways to finance energy efficiency improvements [...]
Green tech investing down but on the rebound
Posted in alternative energy, electric cars, energy, energy efficiency, enviro startups, environment, green financing, solar energy, tagged clean tech investing, green technology, venture capital on January 6, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
image: SolFocus In The New York Times on Wednesday, I write about the year-end green tech investing numbers for 2009: In a flurry of dealmaking bolstered by government subsidies for renewable energy, venture capitalists invested $5.6 billion in green technology companies worldwide in 2009, according to a preliminary report released Wednesday by the Cleantech Group [...]
Who will become the Apple of home energy management?
Posted in energy efficiency, enviro startups, environment, green startups, tagged AlertMe, home energy management, Pligrim Beart, smart grid on December 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In my latest Green State column for Grist, I take a look at AlertMe, a British startup that’s making a play to become a consumer brand for managing home energy use: I’m sitting in a conference room at a PR agency on the San Francisco waterfront when the chief executive of AlertMe, a British energy [...]
