Cleantech | Grist

Tortoise and the hare -- a clean energy tale

Winning the clean energy race: a new strategy for American leadership 4
Posted 4 days, 1 hour ago You know times are changing when China, the world’s greatest polluter, and other Asian nations are poised to dominate the burgeoning global clean-tech industry by out-investing the United States. That’s the conclusion of a large new report we co-authored called "Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant," released this week by the Breakthrough Institute and Information Technology & Innovation Foundation.
Signs point to 'no'

Is John Broder embarrassed to have a baseless hit job on Gore under his byline? 25
Posted 2 weeks, 4 days ago Al Gore's back in the public eye, promoting his new book, which naturally raises the question: which mainstream press outlet will be the first to do a vapid hit piece? We have our answer: The New York Times, which has run a truly absurd and embarrassing piece from John Broder. It casts about desperately seeking something sinister about the fact that Gore invests in clean energy technologies, argues David Roberts.
notable quotable

Washington governor isn’t falling for big geoengineering fixes 1
Posted 3 weeks, 1 day ago "There is no silver bullet. There is only golden buckshot."
technically good ideas

Cleantech Open winners get it done quick and cheap 0
Posted 3 weeks, 3 days ago PET shingles, DIY solar arrays, smart thermostats. This year's Cleantech winners focus on getting products to market as fast and economically as they can.
Downright Paltry Private Spending

National Institutes of Energy needed to fill energy research and development gap 0
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago The U.S. biomedical and pharmaceutical industry invests between 10-20 percent of revenues in research and development (R&D) and new product development, spending $58.8 billion on R&D in 2007. The U.S. government adds an additional $30 billion per year investment in biomedical R&D through the National Institutes of Health. In contrast, the U.S. energy sector invests well below $3 billion annually in R&D in an industry with well over a trillion dollars in annual revenue.
Open for Business

Cleantech Open has $100,000 for a green startup idea 0
Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago The Cleantech Open has helped more than 100 startup companies find their footing since it launched in California three years ago. Now it's expanding in some interesting ways. Competitors in Cleantech's new "ideas competition" stand to win $100,000 in support and advice from business experts.
Spurred by stimulus, "now eclipsing biotech and IT"

Cleantech venture capital investment continues recovery 0
Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago
Revealing the mysteries of Pittsburgh

Pa. Rep. Doyle on getting blue-collar support for a climate bill 0
Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago How does a blue-collar guy from a Pittsburgh steelworking family end up supporting a climate bill in Congress? Rep. Mike Doyle explains how he came to believe that climate legislation is good for his manufacturing-heavy district and the whole country.
China’s rearview mirror

China is leaving the U.S. in the dust as it surges ahead on clean energy 14
Posted 2 months ago
Even as China overtakes the U.S. in the dubious category of “world’s leading greenhouse gas producer,” it is also well ahead of the U.S. in developing the technologies and policies to solve the problem -- and selling those solutions to us at massive profits that could have been ours.
Gloves off

Seven ways to fight dirty (energy) 4
Posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago
If we are going to pass effective legislation this year, it's time we step up the effort and fight the dirty industries that pollute our communities and jeopardize our children and grandchildren's future. Here are seven ways to do it.
Please lord, don't let it be another Segway

EEStor CEO says game-changing energy storage device coming by 2010 30
Posted 3 months, 3 weeks ago
If the Texas company EEStor is running a scam, it's a frakking brilliant one. For years the otherwise tight-lipped outfit has been promising a capacitor that can quickly charge, quickly discharge, and hold enormous amounts of energy. Now there's a leaked interview with EEStor CEO Dick Weir in which he claims that he'll have a pre-production prototype done by the end of the year.
From this VantagePoint

Silicon Valley VC sees bright future for green tech—and a need to engage policy makers 6
Posted 4 months ago
VantagePoint Venture Partners is making big bets on green tech by funding nearly two dozen startups involved in everything from LED lighting to algae biofuels to water to the smart grid. CEO Alan Salzman talks about what his firm sees ahead.
Zen and the art of anxiety maintenance

Why I’m not freaked out about the Waxman-Markey climate bill 36
Posted 5 months ago
Will the Waxman-Markey bill spark a full-scale energy revolution? No. Not in the next 10-15 years. But I've been trying to focus on the bigger picture: will there be an energy revolution? The two questions are not the same; thinking they are is the road to freakout.
Lots of great green stuff in the latest issue of The Atlantic 1
Posted 5 months, 1 week ago
I haven't read The Atlantic much lately, but I picked up the latest issue at the airport and it is superb. Three pieces are worth particular note.
State of plug-and-play

Hot new clean-tech startups are plug-and-play 4
Posted 5 months, 1 week ago
You gotta be crazy to start a clean-tech company these days, right? But green start-ups competed fiercely to make their elevator pitches in front of a panel of VCs in Silicon Valley recently, and the common thread was plug-and-play.
tech your children well

Clean technology innovation: reaping the rewards 2
Posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago
Clean technology has more potential for wealth creation than information technology. Yet despite numerous breakthroughs, the clean energy and technology space has yet to generate the type of home runs on a company level or growth on an economy-wide level needed to reinvigorate the American economy and get wages moving upwards again. What can be done?
Cleaning Up

First quarter cleantech VC funding hits $1 billion — green stimulus funds soar to $400 billion 1
Posted 7 months, 3 weeks ago
Clean tech venture capital funding in the first quarter of 2009 hit $1 billion, according to “findings released today by the Cleantech Group in cooperation with Deloitte.”