What’s cleantech? It’s often dismissed as a playground for solar panel and wind turbine makers.
But in fact, green technology startups and researchers and have transformed the field into a hotbed of innovation. From Facebook’s renewables-powered data center, to Nest’s iPod-inspired smart thermostat, cleantech pioneers are bringing their energy-saving techie passions home. And don’t worry, and those solar and wind are making big strides too.
Now’s the perfect time to catch up on what’s happening on the cleantech front. Click below for some highlights or can always follow ecoINSITE on Twitter for the latest updates.
Nissan is airing a clever new ad campaign in support of its Leaf electric vehicle. The TV spots feature average Joes and Janes going about their lives using everyday gadgets. Instead of running on electricity, they’re powered by gasoline instead — complete with chattering little engines and bleak, soul-draining plumes of exhaust. The car maker’s [...]
Read more New Nissan Leaf TV ads skewer gas powered lifestyle
Video: GE Aviation has released a neat, time-lapse video showing a 7.2-acre solar installation go up at its Durham, North Carolina facility. The project is the company’s way of practicing what it preaches, so to speak. Power from its 9,072 thin film panels is governed by GE equipment like its Brilliance Inverter. All told, the [...]
Besides reducing carbon emissions from car travel and ending America’s love affair with the fuel pump, electric vehicles (EVs) can perform another important function: energy storage for renewable energy sources. GE’s new Txchnologist website has an infographic that illustrates how your (future ?) plug-in can one day become a pivotal piece of the smart grid [...]
A few weeks ago, IBM made one of its strongest plays in the smart buildings market by announcing that it was acquiring Las Vegas-based Tririga. Today, word is that the deal is done. Financial terms remain undisclosed, however. With Tririga, a maker of facility and real estate management software, in the fold, IBM can leverage [...]
Read more Done deal: IBM completes Tririga buy, angles for smart buildings boom
Today’s LED-related news offers a neat, practically literal parallel to the story of the solid-state lighting technology’s ascendancy. Deerfield Beach, Florida-based MSI announced today that the San Diego Air and Space Museum is replacing the tungsten halogen lighting it currently uses with the LED lighting manufacturer’s LED bulbs. Coincidentally, MSI’s LEDs are already being put [...]
Read more MSI LEDs to light up the San Diego Air and Space Museum
I love a good infographic in the morning. 1BOG’s pixelsmiths are at it again with a new infographic that illustrates how the American home has grown (literally and figuratively) to a big consumer of electricity. Did you know that by 2001, 86 percent of American households had microwaves compared to just 14 percent in 1980? [...]
IBM today announced that it is acquiring Tririga, the Las Vegas, Nevada-based maker of facilities management software for an undisclosed amount. The move is the latest in Big Blue’s Smarter Buildings initiative, which pursues IT opportunities in a burgeoning market for solutions that improve cost- and energy-efficiency of real estate assets like corporate offices and [...]
Besides leading to explosive sales for Microsoft, its Kinect add-on for the Xbox 360 has also turned into an impressive “innovation platform,” to quote Tim O’Reilly. One of those innovations comes from Nitrogen (aka Mike) who hacked a Kinect sensor bar to interface with a home automation control system. As you can see in the [...]
Just in time for the Super Bowl, SunRun, the San Francisco-based home solar financing and installation startup has ranked the ten greenest stadiums in the U.S. Though Cowboys Stadium, this year’s home to the big game, didn’t top the list, it made a strong showing nonetheless. Instead, the number 1 spot goes to Qwest Field, [...]
Read more Top 10: SunRun ranks the greenest stadiums in the U.S.
Singapore-based Semitech today announced that the company has raised $3.4 million AUS — incidentally nearly the same USD amount due to current exchange rates — with an option for up to $6 million more for a total possible haul of $9 million. The Series A round was led by Melbourne, Australia’s Cleantech Ventures. The startup [...]
Read more Semitech lands Series A funding for power line smart grid communications
This work by Pedro Hernandez is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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