Green Tech

Back in October, we called Miasole, which makes copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar cells, about a rumor that the company cut about 50 employees and planned to close its Shanghai operation.

Founder Dave Pearce, however, said the rumors were overbaked. The company got rid of some contractors but that was about it, he wrote.

"We have recently hired a number of senior engineering, operations, and sales resources, not laid them off. We have no plans to shut down our Shanghai operations," he wrote in an e-mail to CNET News.com in October.

Today, VentureWire wrote that sources … Read more

DSM, a Dutch giant that makes everything from food enzymes and pharmaceuticals to plastics and chemicals, has invested in Novomer, which has a process for converting carbon dioxide to biodegradable plastic.

DSM Venturing participated in the $6.6 million series A round that was announced last month, DSM said Wednesday.

DSM said the two companies signed a "cooperation agreement" but did not disclose the amount of DSM Venturing's investment or many other details. Flagship Ventures and Physic Ventures also took part in the funding round.

Novomer, which was spun out of Cornell University, has developed a catalyst … Read more

HelioVolt, which plans on producing thin film solar panels made from copper indium gallium and selenide (CIGS), will build a 20-megawatt factory in Austin, Texas, that will start popping out panels in 2008.

The factory will employ about 150 people. The company then hopes to move into mass manufacturing by the first quarter of 2009 as well as expand production capacity.

CIGS solar panels aren't as efficient at converting sunlight into electricity as silicon solar panels, but advocates say that they cost far less to produce. CIGS solar panels can also be placed on glass or polymer sheets. Ideally, … Read more

You can store energy in chemical batteries. Pentadyne Power stores it in moving objects.

The Chatsworth, Calif.-based company has created and sells uninterruptable power supply (UPS) for data centers and large power consumers that stores energy kinetically. A 25-pound mass spins in a vacuum chamber at a high speed. When a utility needs a jolt of electricity, kinetic power is converted to electrical power. When it's not needed, the mass just spins to conserve its energy.

The company uses a relatively small mass to avoid potential mishaps (imagine what would happen if a large mass came unstuck from … Read more

Erecting wind turbines requires a lot more work than finding a site and bringing in cranes to install them.

Before construction, wind developers need to test the wind resource, which will have a significant bearing on how much power--and money--a turbine will produce.

Second Wind is a small company that has carved out a niche in "wind profiling," or gathering data about wind resources.

The Somerville, Mass.-based company on Tuesday announced that it has raised $4 million in the second round of financing from Good Energies, a renewable energy investment company.

Earlier this year, Second Wind introduced … Read more

Consumers won't pay more for cars that would meet new, stricter emissions standards.

That was the message sent last week by Susan Docherty, Western Region general manager of General Motors, as a handful of automotive journalists (including yours truly) sat scattered at a very large table in a private room in the back of one of Santa Monica's poshest hotel restaurants during a GM-sponsored holiday dinner.

The proclamation erupted out of a somewhat heated debate with one of the print journalists at the table, sparked in part by news that a U.S. District Judge had dismissed a lawsuit … Read more

Thomas Edison had it right, say the founders of start-up Validus DC Systems. Direct current is the way.

Validus on Tuesday announced that it has raised $10 million from Oak Hill Venture Partners to further develop its data center power supplies that use direct current (DC) to lower power consumption. Products are expected to be released in late January next year.

By using direct current, rather than drawing electricity from outlets that supply alternating current, data center managers can reduce their energy consumption by up to 40 percent, according to the company.

There is a growing awareness of the cost … Read more

Well-financed solar start-up Nanosolar on Tuesday said it has started shipping its flexible thin-film solar cells, meeting its own deadline and marking a milestone for alternative solar-cell materials.

On the company's blog, CEO Martin Roscheisen announced that the first megawatt of its solar panels will be used as part of a power plant in eastern Germany.

The release of Nanosolar's first products is significant because the company develops a process to print solar cells made out of CIGS, or copper indium gallium selenide, a combination of elements that many companies are pursuing as an alternative to silicon.

The … Read more

Many young adults are willing to make lifestyle changes in 2008 for the good of the environment--as long as the efforts are relatively easy, a consumer survey indicates. Fifty-eight percent of adults age 24 or younger plan to make a "green" new year's resolution, according to marketing firm Tiller.

Among all ages surveyed, 49 percent said they would aim to be greener next year. Older respondents were less likely to set such goals, with half of those aged 50 to 64 and 40 percent of people of retirement age claiming they would change their habits for ecological … Read more