Industry Newsfeed

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• Execs Depart Silver Spring While World Awaits IPO September 3, 2010
  It's musical chairs time at Silver Spring Networks. Judy Lin, who had been serving as the chief product officer at the company, and John O'Farrell, who was executive vice president for business development, have left the company. O'Farrell has joined Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm. Lin is on vacation and couldn't be reached. […]
• Nine Ideas For Changing Behavior, Incentives In Energy September 3, 2010
  Oh, Behave! That could actually serve as the informal motto of the energy industry. Getting individuals and businesses to change the way they interact with their thermostat has become one primary goals of utilities, regulators and energy start-ups. To spur adoption of renewables, incentives have to be properly calibrated. But what works. One of the most succ […]
• The Positive Side of SmartGridCity September 3, 2010
  SmartGridCity, the smart grid/home automation project in Boulder, Colorado created by Xcel Energy, has received its share of lumps. The project has cost far more than expected, many prospective partners shied away from participating, and regulators, community leaders, and others have raised objections to having the cost of the $100-million-plus budget whittl […]
• Why Energy Bills Should Look Like Your Cell Phone Plan September 3, 2010
  Convergys’ Kit Hagen, director of utilities, thinks the Maryland and Baltimore Gas & Electric Company negotiation was a good moment for smart grids. “There’s a lot of spin around smart meters, both positive and negative. People just don’t understand them,” he said. To this end, Hagen thinks this shift looks like what the cable and telecommunication guys […]
• Roundup: Coda Goes to Hawaii, Ford Adopts Liquid-Cooled Batteries, and More September 2, 2010
  Coda Automotive, the Sino-American car company coming out with an all-electric sedan later this year, said it will bring its cars to Hawaii in the third quarter of next year. The company is already slated to bring out a limited number of cars to California later this year. Hawaii is an interesting choice. The state is seen as a growth market for PV panels, w […]
• In California, Large and Small Generators Tussle Over Grid Rules September 2, 2010
  To help California reach its renewable portfolio standard goals, The California Independent System Operator (the ISO) may be aggravating a rivalry between large- and small-scale renewable energy producers. The Small Generator Interconnection Procedure (SGIP), the ISO's proposed rules governing grid connection for five megawatt to twenty megawatt project […]
• Independent Test Exonerates PGE Meters, Blames Customer Service September 2, 2010
  The Structure Group, an independent organization retained by the California Public Utilities Commission to examine the smart meters installed by Pacific Gas & Electric in Northern California, issued its report today. The meters worked. Increases in bills were largely due to a 2009 heat wave, which caused air conditioning use to spike. Structure also did […]
• With Arch Rock Purchase, Cisco Takes Aim at Silver Spring Networks September 2, 2010
  The brewing competition between Cisco and Silver Spring Networks just lost its subtlety. The networking giant today bought Arch Rock, a privately held company that specializes in standards-based mesh networking technology for monitoring data centers and, more importantly, for connecting different assets on the grid (namely, AMI networking solutions). Yesterd […]
• JDSU, an Optical Giant, Enters the CPV Market September 2, 2010
  The concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) market has been long on promise and short on results.  But there have been a few hopeful signs of late.Kleiner Perkins saw fit to invest $130 million into CPV systems vendor Amonix.  And shortly after that fund raise, Cogentrix announced a 30-megawatt project with Amonix.  That's easily the largest CPV project in the […]
• The Biggest Green Market? Seven Reasons Why It’s Green IT September 2, 2010
  Over the past few weeks, I've had a number of meetings with engineers, executives and investors and such, and I keep coming away with the same conclusion. The fastest-growing and arguably most attractive segment in alternative energy and energy efficiency lies in hardware, software and networking equipment. Yep, green IT. Part of the conclusion is a his […]