San Jose, PG&E lift veil on major Smart Grid collaboration
Pacific Gas and Electric announced today that it’s partnering with the city of San Jose, Calif., to deploy a major project integrating smart meters provided by the utility with the city’s well-developed solar energy infrastructure.
PG&E has been gradually rolling out smart meters in its California… Continue Reading
Sierra Solar snags $40M for cheaper thin-film
One of the major barriers standing in the way of solar power’s wider adoption is its high cost. Sierra Solar plans to address this problem by offering cheaper thin-film photovoltaic cells, and just raised $40 million in a second round of funding to do it.
The Fremont,… Continue Reading
Solar co. Solyndra shines with $220M
Solar installation maker Solyndra has every reason to celebrate the new year, raising $219.2 million in fifth-round funding from a flock of 23 investors. This is the second largest investment received by any U.S. cleantech company in the last year, coming in behind the $300… Continue Reading
Innovalight rakes in $5M for solar cell ink
Investors Leader Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank have shined on solar cell company Innovalight, providing $5 million in new financing toward the development of silicon solar modules so small they can be painted onto surfaces like ink.
The Sunnyvale, Calif. company uses liquid processing of silicon… Continue Reading
Roundup: IT budgets dying on the vine, Chrysler’s electric cars, a cure for the bees, and more
Datamonitor points to IT budget freeze — Major sector analyst Datamonitor says that half of IT organizations around the globe will cap spending levels next year.
Chrysler to roll out electric cars — Car maker Chrysler will unveil a line of electric cars to its dealers next week,… Continue Reading
Roundup: Crisis speculation, another marketing-firm VC, and more
How will the current crisis on Wall Street affect Silicon Valley? – “I don’t think it will have much of an impact on Silicon Valley as an operating entity,” banker Bill Hambrecht tells Om Malik. Watch the video for more.
Meanwhile, how will online advertising be affected by… Continue Reading
Nanosolar outshines the competition with a $300M financing
Thin-film solar company Nanosolar has been sitting on a big secret for much of this year, it turns out: The company took a $300 million financing this March, and has remained mum ever since, only detailing it on the company’s blog this morning after VentureWire… Continue Reading
Manufacturing could hit a new upswing in the United States
A few years ago, it was still a subject of regular outrage. Jobs were headed to Mexico. Factories moving to China. Everybody hated globalization, without quite understanding it. But with a flood of news coverage — the slightly nauseating peak being an all-too-popular book about… Continue Reading
HelioVolt hopes for a fast scale-up with high-efficiency CIGS process
updated, with correction
These are heady times for the thin-film solar industry. The sector’s dominant player, First Solar, has been on a tear of late, recently announcing it would build a second 10 megawatt power plant in Nevada, while Miasole, once thought to be ailing, has… Continue Reading
Nanosolar blows a raspberry at other solar CIGS startups
Thin-film solar panel maker Nanosolar isn’t shy about tooting its own horn. The heavily-funded startup has made a series of advances over the past couple years, from building one of the world’s largest solar cell factories to printing its first cells, all the while claiming… Continue Reading
Duke Energy invests $100M in rooftop solar projects
Duke Energy — hardly your conventional renewable energy startup — has thrown its hat in the solar ring with a $100 million investment in commercial-scale rooftop solar panels.
The Charlotte, North Carolina, based electric utility will partner with commercial and residential property owners to tap into… Continue Reading
HelioVolt claims CIGS thin film efficiency record
HelioVolt CEO BJ Stanbery is set to announce that his company has set a new speed record for CIGS conversion efficiency, ratcheting up the pressure in the competitive, high-stakes thin-film solar cell sector. The Austin, Texas, start-up, which raked in a cool $101 million in… Continue Reading
Small municipal plants could be the future for solar power
Writing on Nanosolar’s blog, CEO Martin Roscheisen has unveiled the next prong in his firm’s business plan — a focus on municipal solar power plants of 2 – 10 megawatts in size. The idea is to build 10 acre lots on the outskirts of small… Continue Reading
Real Goods Solar, a residential solar installer, sets terms for IPO
Real Goods Solar, the Broomfield, Colorado-based solar installer and a subsidiary of Gaiam (NASDAQ: GAIA), a green lifestyle company, expects to sell 5 million shares at $10 – 12 when it files for an IPO on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol “RSOL”. The offering’s… Continue Reading
Nanosolar gets yet more funding for production — next up, an IPO?
Another day, another dollar, or $50 million of them. Nanosolar is now the most heavily-funded thin-film solar cell manufacturer outside the public market, with a new investment from a French company that wants it to churn out cells more quickly.
Nanosolar’s cells, which the company only… Continue Reading
Solar CIGS production to pick up — HelioVolt building plant in Austin
updated
A day after Silicon Valley solar cell company Nanosolar said it has begun manufacturing and sales of its solar cells, rival HelioVolt declared it too is building a solar cell production plant, in its hometown of Austin, Texas.
Both companies are competing to build cells from… Continue Reading
Nanosolar rolls out first production thin-film solar cells
Some five years after its founding, and a year and a half after announcing a huge solar cell factory in the Bay Area, Nanosolar has become one of the very first companies to begin commercially selling thin-film solar cells.
Nanosolar’s cells use an “ink” thin enough… Continue Reading
Nanosolar gets $20M more for cutting-edge solar technology
Nanosolar, the company using a new material called CIGS to make lower cost and more flexible solar cells, has received $20 million more in financial backing, this time from the U.S. Department of Energy.
The award was part of the Solar America Initiative, which provides financing… Continue Reading
Silicon Valley’s new solar cell companies slipping on delivery dates
Amid all the excitement about new solar technology, several promising companies are slipping on their delivery dates.
However, most of the companies still say they plan to deliver — it’s just a matter of time before they hit the market
Solyndra, a Santa Clara, Calif. solar company… Continue Reading
Feds inject $168M into solar, boon for start-ups
The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $168 million to 13 solar companies, many of them Silicon Valley start-ups, in what is the equivalent of manna falling from heaven for these companies.
It is cut-throat industry, where solar projects are expensive and difficult to get… Continue Reading