Mar
31
2010
The latest cleantech venture capital tracking report from the Cleantech Group and Deloitte show a continuing shift in funding away from renewable energy companies and toward technologies focused on transportation alternatives and energy efficiency.
Overall, there were 180 clean technology companies that received investments during the first quarter, for a total of $1.9 billion in capital. [...]
Mar
31
2010
Didn’t make it into NYC today for the International Auto Show, but felt it relevant to report that Ford and Microsoft are teaming up an application that will keep tabs on when your hybrid vehicle needs a recharge.
As Andrew Nusca reports on our SmartPlanet sister blog network, the energy management application is made possible by [...]
Mar
31
2010
Given that more and more enterprise and midsize businesses are studying what they should do with their e-waste and how they should deal with it, it’s little wonder that there are several different industry efforts cropping up to claim their attention.
In my mind, there are two big organizations for you to watch: The Basel Action [...]
Mar
31
2010
So, I’ve written several times here about research suggesting that larger data centers and the phenomena of software as a service (SaaS) and cloud computing are somehow greener for the IT industry than the practice of using hundreds of smaller data centers. Not so fast, suggests Greenpeace, in a new report that it is releasing [...]
Mar
30
2010
Oh goody, another eco-label that we get to suss out and assess for relevance! Seriously, though, I just got word that the Dell OptiPlex 908 has been blessed with the TCO Certified designation, which focuses on environmental and high-performance design. This is a label recognized worldwide.
TCO Certified, spearheaded by an organization that hails out of [...]
Mar
30
2010
What are you up against in terms of smart meter risks? New report makes some educated guesses.
Mar
30
2010
The mission in life of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (well, at least ONE of its missions) is to hold technology companies accountable for the entire lifecycle of the products they create.
Given the high profile of solar in the Valley, the organization has created its first Solar Company Scorecard, which ranks solar photovoltaic module manufacturers [...]
Mar
30
2010
U.S. tech companies have a long time history of locating software developer centers in Ireland, so it wasn’t shocking for me to hear the IBM and Ireland’s Industrial Development Agency (IDA) have gotten together to plan new Smart Cities Technology Center (Centre!) to be located in Dublin. The city itself will be a testbed for [...]
Mar
29
2010
Should we really be pushing smart meters as the holy grail of smart grid deployments?
Gary Fromer, the CEO of demand response company CPower (which used to be called ConsumerPowerLine), suggests more attention should be paid instead to energy efficiency programs that reward consumers for changing their behavior. A potential shortcoming of smart meters is that [...]
