California Clean Tech Update 02.22.10
Monday, February 22, 2010 at 8:07PM
Solar developer shrinks Mojave proposal, gets mixed reviews (Green Wire)
A solar developer's efforts to placate opposition to a proposed power plant in California's Mojave Desert was greeted last week with skepticism from environmental groups that want the company to build in a more developed area.
2001: When green tech was born (Green Wire)
Technically, it started around 2000 B.C. when the Egyptians began to design buildings with passive air conditioning. The Roman Emperor Varius Avitus followed by having snow brought from the mountains to cool his palace, thereby kicking off a craze for ice-powered air conditioners. He's often ranked as the worst emperor but for other reasons.
Influence spending by wind, all renewables soared in 2009 (Green Wire)
As lobbying on climate and energy surged last year, the wind industry pushed hard into a field of competitors, nearly tripling its spending on influence efforts from a year earlier. The American Wind Energy Association paid $5 million for lobbying in 2009, compared with $1.7 million the previous year, the highest amount ever for the association and a sixth of the $30.1 million spent by all renewable companies combined. It came in the same year that the wind industry saw its prospects lifted by legislation.
Clean energy mired in politics (LA Times)
Uncertainty over proposals in Congress has firms holding off on investments.
SF clean energy plan could fuel higher rates (SF Chronicle)
Mayor Gavin Newsom and the Board of Supervisors are steaming ahead with a clean-power plan that, according to the city's own estimates, could drive up rates for residential customers as much as 24 percent.
Obama mounts a last-ditch attempt to pass a hybrid energy-climate bill (NY Times)
The White House is mounting a last-ditch effort to piece together an energy and climate change bill that has enough incentives for nuclear power, natural gas and the coal industry to muster the votes needed to pass it this year.
10 things to know about Bloom Energy (earth2tech)
Eight years and close to $400 million later, ultra-stealthy fuel cell maker Bloom Energy is finally ready to officially launch and ditch its "stealth-mode" status. The company started its first ever media blitz on Sunday with a video on 60 Minutes, an article in Fortune, and soon to be followed by the unveiling media event on Wednesday.
GreenRoad's latest investor: Al Gore's fund (earth2tech)
GreenRoad -- a driving system that can improve fuel efficiency and reduce crashes -- can now count Al Gore's Generation Investments as a backer. This morning GreenRoad announced that it has raised another $10 million from the Generation IM Climate Solutions Fund, which was created by investor David Blood and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. The so-called Blood and Gore duo join a long list of investors including Richard Branson's Virgin Green Fund, and the VCs at Benchmark Capital.
SoloPower raises $45 million, payday for founders (earth2tech)S
SoloPower, a San Jose, Calif.-based thin-film solar startup working on copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) cells and panels, has raised nearly $45 million in debt financing, according to a regulatory filing. About $19.9 million of that amount will be paid to co-founders Bulent Basol and Homayoun Talieh, in what appears to be the last chapter of a lawsuit recently settled between Talieh and SoloPower.
Reader Comments (1)
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