Tag Archives: future
The Future of Coal Integrated Gasification Combined Cycles
In the U.S. and some other markets around the world, the future of coal generation appears uncertain as concerns about emissions including sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrous oxides (NOx), mercury, and carbon dioxide (CO2) have slowed new construction. Yet reserves of coal remain robust in many key electric markets including China, India, Russia, and the U.S. [...]
98% of Canadians Believe in Climate Change
A new opinion poll released this week suggests only two per cent of Canadians who responded believe climate change is not occurring. A further nine per cent believe climate change is occurring naturally. And 54 per cent feel both humans and Mother Nature are playing a role. The survey was conducted by Insightrix Research for [...]
China’s SIPO: Embracing Green Patents
The State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) of China recently enacted a prioritized examination program for invention patent applications directed to a number of technology areas, including several categories of green technologies (see the translated program administrative measures here). The new fast track, which launched August 1st, is open to applications directed to energy saving and environmental protection inventions, [...]
London’s Greenest Building
There has been a conscious environmental movement over the past few years that has been picking up much steam in a wide variety of sectors. In 2009, the city of London saw an excellent environmental building addition, the 7 More London development next to Tower Bridge. Following its completion, 7 More was rated the most [...]
Bill Gates Funds Solar Toilet
The practice of open defecation and dirth of sanitation in developing nations kills 1.5 million children under the age of 5 every year, according to philanthropist Bill Gates. So Gates and his wife, Melinda, are devoting $6.5 million to research and development project meant to reinvent the toilet for countries that lack the infrastructure to [...]
FUTUREWATCH: Zero-Power Display Technology from Halation Photonics
Picture a future where your bathroom mirror doubles as an information resource, displaying the weather forecast and your daily agenda, and where your vision is precisely enhanced by tunable eyeglasses and windshields. This is a future that Halation Photonics aims to enable. Applied Venturesis proud to join Halation as an investor. The majority of mobile [...]
Developing Resource Efficient Cities
As home to more than half the world’s population, cities consume 75% of natural resources, produce 50% of global waste and account for between 60-80% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The importance of developing sustainable cities is clear. Generating sustainable patterns of consumption and production will have to be guided to a significant extent by [...]
SolFocus Looking to Close a $35M Round E
Advanced Equities is helping concentrated photovoltaics (CPV) systems vendor SolFocus raise its Round E of venture capital financing. Advanced Equities calls itself a “Venture Capital Investment Bank” and relies on its network of accredited investors and high-net-worth individuals to bring funding to long-in-the-tooth startups hungry for capital. Advanced Equities has been called in to fill [...]
Global PV Monitoring Market: Ready to Launch
The highly competitive global PV monitoring market, which includes inverter suppliers, independent monitoring vendors, and project developers that integrate hardware and software to manage a PV system’s operations data, is forecasted to be a 23-gigawatt global market in 2012, according to GTM Research’s latest Global PV Monitoring 2012 report. While European independent monitoring vendors currently [...]
Green Criticism Surrounds Mitt Romney
Republican Presidential hopeful, Mitt Romney, is on the offensive. He’s been dogging President Barack Obama over what he calls an “unhealthy” obsession with “green jobs”. Romney has been critical of the federal program that endorses solar manufacturer Solyndra. And he’s been teasing Obama’s vision of a boom in employment, citing a European study to argue [...]
SunPower Announces $325M in Residential Solar Projects from Citi and Credit Suisse
In a remarkably clear trend, SunPower (NASDAQ: SPWR) just announced $325 million in new commitments for residential solar lease projects from Citi and Credit Suisse. SunPower joins in the recent cash infusions from banks for firms such as SolarCity, SunRun, OneRoof, Clean Power Finance, and Borrego Solar totaling more than $600 million in what is [...]
Suntech Achieves 1GW in America
Suntech Americas announced this week that it achieved its first gigawatt of installed solar in the Americas. The global company, with headquarters in China, opened its American branch in 2007 and manufactures 50 megawatts of solar photovoltaic panels at its plant in Arizona. It took about five years to install the first gigawatt on this [...]