Energy

The distributed sensor revolution is coming to office buildings, starting with overhead lights, according to startup Enlighted.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company today detailed the energy savings of some its first corporate customers who are using its computerized lighting controls. Enlighted said that customers, including Google, Turner Broadcasting, and Interface Global, have saved on average 60 percent on lighting energy. The return on investment, which depends on the price of electricity, is about two years, according to the company.

Rather than build a more efficient light source, Enlighted and a few other lighting startups are designing better controls. Automatically adjusting … Read more

For the most part, solar panels can safely be ignored and simply keep turning your meter backwards. But thanks to some local squirrels, I realized the perils of not regularly monitoring solar panels' output.

These days, it's not difficult to view the electricity generated by solar photovoltaic panels online. And homeowners are increasingly choosing to lease panels, rather than buy them upfront. That means a solar installer or financing company will own the panels and they'll have a financial interest--in the form of renewable energy credits--to monitor rooftop panels' output.

When I had my PV panels installed four … Read more

GreatPoint Energy has completed a $1.25 billion deal to build the first large-scale plant for converting coal to natural gas in China, a sign of how U.S. energy technologies are often being commercialized overseas.

The Wall Street Journal on Friday reported that China Wanxiang Holdings will invest $420 million in Cambridge, Mass.-based GreatPoint Energy, the largest equity investment by a Chinese company in a venture-backed U.S. company. Wanxiang will finance construction of the plant, with the first phase to be completed by 2015, according to the Journal.

The project in China, which the company has been … Read more

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--To those who say the world needs dramatic technology breakthroughs to get off of fossil fuels, energy guru Amory Lovins has a succinct answer: integrated design.

Lovins has been working in the trenches of energy and efficiency for more than 30 years, gaining a reputation as a radical thinker able to imagine possibilities others can't. He was here at MIT yesterday giving a presentation on his latest book, "Reinventing Fire" and speaking to entrepreneurs and investors at an event organized by Xconomy.

The book, written by Lovins and colleagues at his "think and do … Read more

Lemnis Lighting is taking a foot-in-the-door approach to LED lightbulbs.

The startup company today announced a new line of bulbs, priced at $4.95 and $6.95, respectively, aimed at getting consumers to try out LEDs for general lighting. The bulbs, though, have some limitations.

The Pharox Blu line comes in 200-lumen and 350-lumen versions, both of which give off less light a 40-watt incandescent bulb's 450 lumens. That means that the bulbs, which consume less than 5 watts and 8 watts, respectively, won't give off enough light for many uses, such as lighting a whole room.

The … Read more

Pioneering solar company Energy Conversion Devices today filed for bankruptcy protection, the latest casualty in a global price war.

In a statement, the Michigan-based company said it intends to sell its solar power subsidiaries and will continue to operate during the bankruptcy and sale process.

Through its subsidiaries Uni-Solar and Solar Integrated Technologies, the company manufactures flexible silicon solar cells and develops solar projects. The solar collectors can be laid out as sheets on rooftops or integrated into roof tiles.

Energy Conversion Devices was founded in 1960 by Stanford Ovshinsky, a scientist who was also integral to developing nickel metal hydride batteries … Read more

For a new crop of biofuel companies, ethanol is out and "biogasoline" is in.

One of them is Primus Green Energy, which plans to open a demonstration plant by the end of the year that will convert wood pellets into high-octane gasoline. The Hillsborough, N.J.-based company intends to raise $50 million to $100 million this year for a commercial-scale plant that would start producing at higher volumes in 2015.

Many companies break down biomass into sugar through different methods and then ferment that to make ethanol or speciality chemicals. Primus Green Energy and others are seeking … Read more

To build a better energy storage device, startup EnerG2 is making better carbon.

The company today flipped the switch on a factory in Albany, Ore., that will turn out a resin used in the manufacture of batteries and ultracapacitors. Its engineered carbon material improves the performance of existing energy storage devices, promising lower prices for hybrid vehicles or grid storage.

The first customers for EnerG2's product are ultracapacitor makers who can expect 25 percent to 30 percent better energy storage capacity, said company COO and CFO Chris Wheaton. Lithium ion and lead acid batteries can get a three times … Read more

Years of shifting and smoothing Georgia red clay paid off last week, as the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted to allow construction of two new nuclear reactors near Augusta.

Atlanta-based utility giant Southern Co. will soon have permission to complete construction and operate two AP1000 type nuclear reactors (PDF) at the Plant Vogtle nuclear power station.

But what were initially lauded as the first reactors of a nuclear renaissance when proposed are more likely to be the exceptions that prove the rule of no new nuclear construction in the U.S. Only this twin set of Westinghouse-designed reactors in … Read more