A shakeout may be underway for the solar sector, but one manufacturer, Norway-based NorSun, has just made a deal that could help carry it through the downturn. The company has raised 1.15 billion NOK (about $163 million) to expand its production of silicon wafers and ingots for high-efficiency solar...

Energy Secretary Steven Chu has made it clear from Day 1 that he intends to get long-delayed loans out the door ASAP. Now he has knocked out one of the obstacles he saw creating drag for the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing incentive program: a set of hard deadlines. Chu wanted to do away w...

When the editors of GreenBiz.com released their first State of Green Business report, they included a simple question about jobs (as noted in an interesting Gristmill post): How many jobs are being created through all of the kinds of activities measured in this report? The answer: “No one know...

When it comes to battery packs for plug-in hybrids, smaller is better, according to new research from Carnegie Mellon University. Led by engineering professor Jeremy Michalek, the study authors found that plug-ins with battery packs large enough for only about seven miles of all-electric range can s...

Given the tone of his speech before Congress earlier this week and his support of clean energy infrastructure as a tool for economic recovery, it’s no surprise that the outline of President Obama’s 2010 budget proposal, released today, includes increased funding for the Department of Ene...

Not too long ago, executives from IBM, Wal-Mart and General Electric might have seemed a motley crew of experts for a Congressional hearing about the electric grid and clean power. But yesterday the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming heard testimony from that very crew,...

Jockeying will be the name of the game for smart grid companies over the next several months as funding from the economic stimulus package rolls out to state and federal agencies. As Bloomberg notes this morning, now that the $787 billion has been divvied up across U.S. industries, Round 2 of lobbyi...

California’s aggressive Renewable Portfolio Standard program has finally started to put a dent in the state power grid, more than six years since its launch and just around the corner from the first major deadline: 20 percent renewable energy in every utility’s portfolio by 2010. The Cal...

The electricity grid can only get so smart without a framework for interoperability; a common protocol would make it easier for utilities, appliances and software to share data about energy use and supply — in other words, it would help put the “smart” in smart grid. Secretary of E...

When reading the newsletter that electric car startup Tesla Motors sent to customers this morning, you could hardly be blamed for thinking the company had a Department of Energy loan in the bag. “Regarding funding,” writes CEO Elon Musk, “I am excited to report that the Department ...