Solar

It's easy to feel overwhelmed by the vast waste of materials at the gargantuan Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Mobile phones frozen into buffet ice sculptures just scratch the surface of the showcase of an industry that thrives on planned obsolescence.

Three years ago, I'd asked the planners of CES about its waste management, receiving befuddled looks in return. But then I stopped worrying and learned to love my free CES vinyl laptop bag, stuffed with plasticky swag that will outlast the bones of any great-grandchildren I may ever have.

Sure, there were e-waste recycling awards back … Read more

Google announced on Tuesday plans to put hundreds of millions of dollars into alternative energy. The question now is whether the company is advancing the state of the art or just imitating everyone else who is dumping loads of money into the field.

The answer is some of both.

One of the first companies to get funding from Google will be eSolar, which will make solar thermal plants based on the heliostat design. In this concept, an array of flat mirrors gathers and directs sunlight onto a water tower. The water boils into steam, which turns a turbine to make … Read more

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is kicking off a competition to award $200,000 to entrepreneurs in the green-energy field.

The MIT Clean Energy Entrepreneurship Prize, announced Wednesday, combines two existing prizes and increases the prize money.

The revamped contest pulls in sponsorship from the U.S. Department of Energy and NStar, an electric and gas utility based in Massachusetts. In addition to receiving cash or services, competitors will also get mentoring from experts as they develop their business plans.

Sponsors hope the competition will accelerate the pace of innovation and energy.

"We want to help these entrepreneurs get … Read more

Hewlett-Packard announced on Tuesday investments in renewable energy as part of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its operations.

The computing giant said it will install a 1-megawatt solar array in its San Diego facility.

SunPower will install its solar panels and sell the electricity the panels generate to HP at fixed rates under a power purchase agreement. The system will save HP $750,000 over 15 years and offset 1 million pounds of carbon dioxide per year, the equivalent of taking 100 cars off the road each year.

The San Diego installation will be made up of 5,… Read more

First Solar, which makes cadmium-telluride solar cells, is having one of those years that corporate managers and investors dream about.

Revenues more than tripled in the third quarter to $159 million from a year ago while profits rose to $46 million, or about ten times what they were the year before. Plant expansion is occurring rapidly and the company's stock has gone from $20 to over $200 in a year. The stock price seems vastly inflated when you look at traditional price-earnings ratios, but it's not the first time people have bet big on a growth stock. It'… Read more

SolFocus has now raised a total of $63.6 million in series B funding to move into production of its solar power plants.

An extra $11.6 million in funding, announced Tuesday, complements the $52 million in series B funding the company announced in September. Altogether, the company has raised $95 million in venture capital.

SolFocus, which was spun out of Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) is perhaps the most high-profile company to pursue solar concentrators, where mirrors and lenses magnify light in order to squeeze more electricity from very efficient solar cells.

These solar installations--usually ground-mounted machines, are typically … Read more

Call it building-integrated solar power for cookie-cutter housing.

DRI Energy has developed roofing tiles with solar cells built in them. For commercial customers, it has solar panels that literally glue onto flat roofs. The products, branded under the Lumeta name, will be available in the second quarter.

The green tech company sells to builders of commercial constructions, like retail outlets and office buildings, and developers of tract housing, large developments of new homes.

The problem with installing solar electricity in these types of developments is that builders don't want to work solar panels and the racking systems, said Stephen … Read more

Promethean Power, a company spun out of MIT to build a solar-powered refrigerator, has secured initial funding from an Indian conglomerate that will help manufacture and distribute the product.

The Solar Turbine Group is a nonprofit organization formed by students from the Massachusetts Institute of technology that developed the system Promethean Power intends to commercialize.

STG has already built some of its solar turbines in the African country of Lesotho which are used for creating hot water and electricity.

The system uses parabolic troughs to generate the heat from sunlight to heat a liquid, which creates steam to turn a … Read more

Financiers who track the solar industry are showing very different views on the near-term potential of solar power.

Venture capitalists are poised to lavish $1 billion on solar-related start-ups this year, according to Eric Wesoff, an analyst at GreenTech Media, who presented at the company's Solar Market Outlook conference on Monday in Waltham, Mass.

At the same time, some financial analysts who track public solar companies are concerned that valuations are too high and that changes in government policies could dampen future growth.

On Monday, the stock prices of several public solar companies took a hit after the Solar Energy Industries Association issued an alert … Read more