sun

SunRun said that it has secured $200 million from a bank to finance the installation of residential solar panels, a sign of confidence in a business model that avoids the upfront cost of solar.

The company said that a subsidiary of US Bancorp will provide the money, which will be the largest single fund for financing residential solar projects. US Bancorp has already made financing available to SunRun in separate deals.

Prices for solar panels themselves continue to fall but, with installation half the cost of an array, the upfront cost remains a barrier to residential solar. The financing model … Read more

French energy company Total has offered to pay up to $1.37 billion for a majority stake in U.S. solar company SunPower, one of the biggest moves ever by an oil and gas giant into the market for renewable energy.

Solar power has been one of the fastest growing energy industries in recent years, but still remains tiny compared with oil, gas and coal because of its higher cost. With Total's financial heft behind it, San Jose, Calif.-based SunPower said solar energy would become competitive with fossil fuels more quickly.

"It's a vote of confidence … Read more

Scott McNealy, who co-founded and led Sun Microsystems for many years before its sale to Oracle last year, is once again engaging in the technology world.

Fittingly for the one-man sound bite factory, McNealy has taken to Twitter, dishing up snarky remarks and relishing the fact that not being CEO of a company means he doesn't have to be politically correct. And he's involved in business again, too, as chairman of stealth start-up WayIn.

McNealy isn't dishing on WayIn, but some details are bubbling up.

WayIn start-up Mike Schmitz, who says he's senior director of consumer … Read more

BOSTON--For the most part, the world's energy system is highly centralized. Tata Power of India is exploring whether smaller-scale distributed energy can work in a country where hundreds of millions of people don't have access to electricity.

Earlier this month, I met with Avinash Patkar, the chief sustainability officer of Tata Power, which is the power division of India-based Tata, an industrial giant with businesses in steel, software, autos, chemicals, and telecommunications.

As electricity service is extended to more people in India, Tata Power is projecting rapid growth from about 3,000 megawatts of capacity now to 25,… Read more

Drawing from nature, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Daniel Nocera thinks he can draw cheap and clean energy from water.

At the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Nocera yesterday presented results from research on making an "artificial leaf" to split water to get hydrogen fuel and oxygen. The goal is to use the solar cell to make hydrogen, which would be stored and then used in a fuel cell to make electricity.

"The artificial leaf shows particular promise as an inexpensive source of electricity for homes of the poor in developing countries. Our goal is … Read more

Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome are the three most popular browsers, and we have trouble finding a compelling reason to try other browsers when these three--particularly Chrome--do what they do so well. That doesn't stop people from developing alternatives, though, and thus we find ourselves with SunDance Web Browser. This browser's maker openly admits that it's based on Internet Explorer, but nothing about it seems to be an improvement over IE.

The interface is plain and typical for browsers, so we can at least say that it's intuitive. It's somewhat dated-looking, though, without the sleekness … Read more

In the last eight months, Morris County, N.J., has undergone a significant energy change of which many of its residents are probably not even aware.

The partners involved call it the "Morris Model." It's a new financing model that allows municipalities to partner with solar-energy companies to incorporate solar energy into their energy portfolio for little outlay.

In June the Morris County Improvement Authority (MCIA) announced it was entering into this Morris Model financing plan with Tioga Energy and SunDurance Energy to install about 3-megawatts worth of solar panels by offering up something it already had: … Read more

MENLO PARK, Calif.--Mark Zuckerberg is moving into Scott McNealy's old digs.

Later this year Facebook will move into the nearly vacant office complex formerly home to Sun Microsystems near the foot of the Dumbarton Bridge, Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman announced today at Menlo Park City Hall. The first groups will make the short trek from downtown Palo Alto to Menlo Park starting in June or July, the company said in a press release, confirming what was already fairly common knowledge.

After Oracle acquired Sun, it laid off thousands of employees and started moving others farther north up … Read more

The Department of Energy announced a $27 million research program to slash the cost of solar power by 75 percent in 10 years, making utility-scale solar the same or cheaper as fossil fuel-generated electricity.

Energy Secretary today detailed the SunShot initiative, choosing SunPower co-founder and solar industry pioneer Richard Swanson to speak with him during a conference call. Silicon Valley-based SunPower received DOE research funding dollars early in the company's development and now makes the highest efficiency solar panels.

SunShot seeks to bring down solar costs to $1 per watt installed, by focusing on advances in materials and manufacturing … Read more