Applied Materials is a capital equipment producer that services a number of manufacturing industries, including semiconductor, TFT LCD display, solar (thin film and crystalline), and glass. There are four primary groups of Applied Materials – Energy and Environmental Solutions, Display, Silicon
On Energy.gov, we’ve been showcasing a series of stories about innovations from our National Laboratories that have been successfully commercialized – and how they impact Americans’ lives. During 2010 alone, our National Laboratories engaged in more than 13,500 technology transfer transactions – from
China leads the world in total investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency, although as a percentage of overall economic activity Denmark ranks first in clean-tech spending, according to a report by the conservation group WWF.
The report says that China is currently investing $65
Will the political change in Washington spell doom for meaningful progress in clean tech? That’s the question being asked by many since the mid-term election swept a Republican majority into power in the House of Representatives. With deficit reduction as the rallying cry of the legions that have taken half of Capitol Hill, the survival prospects for clean energy legislation
The oil and gas interests that are behind Proposition 23 on the November 2nd ballot in California are faltering in the polls. That’s good news for the clean tech sector, but a less well-known ballot measure, Proposition 26, could still help pull the rug out from under California’s
While national climate change legislation was imploding this past summer, it looked like climate advocates were poised to also suffer another, even more disheartening defeat: the suspension of the most important state-level climate change law in the United States. A coalition of out-of-state oil companies and oil industry supporters had succeeded in qualifying Proposition 23
It’s a truism that sequels rarely live up to classics. If, like me, you’re a fan of the original Wall Street movie, you probably approached Money Never Sleeps with at least a degree of skepticism. Yet the film debuted at #1 over the weekend, grossing more than $19 million. Regardless of your take on the flick’s quality, its context within the current social and economic climate is
Last week was an eventful one in venture capital clean tech funding, especially for California-based Solaria, Solazyme and Calisolar. Here’s a closer look at each of them, and what to look out for in the near future.
Solaria
HQ: Fremont, CA
Israel, a global cleantech powerhouse, is now attracting hundreds of millions of dollars in cleantech investment every year.
The country gets more from its soil, water, air, and sunlight than most other nations on earth.
Why has such a small country been able to position itself a world leader in cleantech?
The answer, I believe, is a combination of many factors: its history, attitude of the people, ingenuity, and challenges to survival.
According to my research, the following are major highlights of Israel’s cleantech leadership to date in 2010:
Texas-based Xtreme Power is one of the leaders of the energy storage world, designing and manufacturing large-scale solid-state energy storage and power management systems called Dynamic Power Resources for solar and wind power applications.
CEO Carlos Coe talked with CleanTechies about developments in the energy storage field.
CleanTechies: You have two energy storage projects in Hawaii.
Carlos Coe: The first project is on the island of Maui and it’s affiliated with the wind farm that’s on that island. And that project is a 1.5 megawatt project in size going on a 30 megawatt wind farm. So that project was put into service the middle part of last year and has been in service since then and has done very, very well.
CleanTechies: Any glitches?
Venture capital investment in clean technology reached $1.9 billion in the first quarter, climbing 83 percent from last year, according to a report by the Cleantech Group and Deloitte.
Startups in North America raised the greatest share among 180 companies around the world, a three-year peak for the area with $1.5 billion, or 81 percent of all investments. That’s a 79 percent rise from the 2009 fourth quarter slump, described as a “blip” by Cleantech Group President Sheeraz Haji.
The transportation sector led the way with a record $704 million, notably $350 million for electric car battery and infrastructure firm Better Place, followed by significant investments in electric car and hybrid technologies. Fisker Automotive brought in $140 million, followed by $30 million for Coda Automotive, also based in California. Groupe Gruau of France reaped $23 million.
China surged past the United States in clean energy investment and finance for the first time last year, becoming the global leader in the booming renewable energy market, according to a new report.
In 2009, China invested $34.6 billion in the development of renewable energy, nearly twice as much as the $18.6 billion spent by the United States., according to an analysis by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Five years ago, China spent just $2.5 billion.
And while the report said the economic recession was a factor, it concluded that China’s growing dominance in green energy reflects a lack of long-term U.S. policies to provide incentives for the production of alternative energy.
“Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over.” Often attributed to Mark Twain, whoever said that seemed to have quite a bit of foresight, something the mainstream cleantech community is only recently warming up to.
The fights over water use facing utility scale solar thermal projects in the desert Southwest may have a lot to do with opening the eyes of the clean-tech community, but the sector’s challenges and opportunities are much broader than that, as scores of Californians, Middle Easterners, and Australians will attest. So why, with the problems so immediate and demand remaining strong in the $58 billion annual market for water technologies, has water investment as a percentage of venture investment declined since 2005?
(Reuters) – A Web application that alerts wine grape farmers when their vines are thirsty has won first place in a competition to spur entrepreneurs in the investment-starved water sector, organizers said on Monday.
Fruition Sciences, which operates in both California and France, came first among 50 teams in Imagine H2O’s global competition aimed at building a “Silicon Valley” for water.
Water is a $500 billion business worldwide, but draws a mere 0.5 to 1.0 percent of venture capital and only a handful of investments per year despite growing demand for solutions to widespread water shortages.
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