Green buildings

A new type of solar thermal system for homes that can provide heat, hot water, and electricity is being tested in Boulder, Colo., over the next few months.

Cool Energy says its SlowFlow system could provide the average U.S. home with 80 percent of its heat, 100 of its hot water, and 60 percent of its electricity needs.

It's being developed with help from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and electricity and natural gas giant Xcel Energy.

The system consists of solar collectors, a Stirling engine, a hot water heater, a space heater, an insulated … Read more

Scientific Conservation, a company that specializes in energy consumption forecasting, has received $15.65 million in Series B funding, the start-up announced Tuesday.

The company is just one example of the way traditional IT is now intersecting with green tech.

Scientific Conservation offers software as a service (SaaS) that allows the company to monitor a building's energy consumption in real-time, apply that data to energy management diagnostics and analytics, and then use that created knowledge to predict the building's energy consumption in the future.

The result is a customized energy plan for a building that is always being … Read more

The next time someone tells you that you need all sorts of expensive equipment for energy-efficient buildings, make sure to mention air sealing.

Most people know that adding more insulation to an attic is a good way to cut your energy bills and environmental footprint, but restricting the flow of air into a building is also very valuable, say green building pros.

On a fittingly chilly day last week, I was reminded how important air sealing is when I had a blower door test done at my house. The test, which measures how leaky a building is, showed me that … Read more

Active Power is offering an updated version of its flywheel generator specifically designed for backing up microprocessor-based equipment, the company announced today.

Its CleanSource UPS (uninterruptible power supply) system is available in 480-volt (300 kVA and 600 kVA) and 400-volt (250 kVA and 500 kVA) configurations.

"Designed based on customer feedback, the G-Series is an enhancement to our current generation of UPS technology and is a cost and feature optimized solution for the 300 to 600 kVA power range," Active Power CTO Uwe Schrader-Hausmann said in a statement.

A flywheel generator uses electricity from the electric grid to … Read more

As more companies realize the savings involved in running large commercial buildings more efficiently when it comes to energy, sales of automated building energy management systems are poised to soar.

The U.S. market for such systems will grow to $2.4 billion annually by 2016 compared to seeing $900 million in revenue for 2010, according to the "Building Energy Management Systems" report released today by Pike Research.

Products include optimization software for a particular building's needs, as well as analytics that tap in to smart grids to predict peak supply and demand scenarios and adjust internal … Read more

BOSTON--Among green-building cognoscenti, the Passive House standard is setting a new bar for architects and designers making eco-friendly buildings.

The Passive House concept, which is well established in Europe, is now getting a foothold in the U.S. with a method that promises overall energy savings of about 70 percent overall and a 90 percent lower heating load without on-site solar power.

While the U.S. Green Building's Council's LEED certification touches on energy, water, materials, and location, Passive House, which started in Germany as Passivhaus, brings rigorous requirements focused entirely on building energy efficiency. Because of that … Read more

Rather than rely on blinds, Soladigm has a glass product that uses sensors to tell windows how to adjust light.

The Silicon Valley-based start-up said Tuesday that it raised $30 million in private equity to move forward on its plan to manufacture auto-tinting windows for energy-efficient commercial buildings. The series-C round of funding was led by DBL Investors and Nano Dimension and includes money from General Electric and existing investors Khosla Ventures and Sigma Partners.

Earlier this year, Soladigm secured $44 million in loans and grants from the state of Mississippi to construct a factory to make its "smart … Read more

Buildings are the next frontier for computerized instrumentation, leading to a collision between building management incumbents and IT companies looking for new markets, according to a report.

Lux Research tomorrow is expected to release a report that predicts a wave of acquisitions at the intersection of buildings and IT.

Building control companies Siemens, Honeywell, Johnson Controls, and Schneider Electric are likely to purchase smaller companies, as they already have. Meanwhile, IT companies IBM, Cisco, Microsoft, and Google will continue to look for a foothold in building energy efficiency.

In the past few years, several new and established companies have moved … Read more

The Philadelphia Eagles stadium will run on self-generated energy as of September 2011.

The football franchise made the announcement today at a press conference Webcast from Lincoln Financial Field that was attended by Eagles owners Jeffrey and Christina Lurie, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell, and SolarBlue CEO Lee Maher.

The Eagles franchise believes Lincoln Financial Field will be the first major stadium in the world to convert completely to self-generated energy.

The team has partnered with renewable energy company SolarBlue, who is now "the official energy provider of the Philadelphia Eagles," according to … Read more