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silicon valley

Silicon Valley: Clean Tech's New Capital?

August 10, 2011 by Silvio Marcacci
with 862 views
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California’s Silicon Valley is known for launching the Internet revolution, but the region has also become the epicenter of America’s clean tech industry. Billions of dollars in venture capital funding to energy-related companies has helped the region weather the economic downturn by growing green jobs 109 percent over the last decade. energyNOW! correspondent Lee Patrick Sullivan visited Silicon Valley to find out how the region’s shift toward clean energy is empowering tech-savvy workers and entrepreneurs to take charge of America’s energy future. [read more]

As Venture Capitalists Bow Out of Cleantech, Corporations Step In

August 9, 2011 by Tyler Hamilton
with 775 views
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My latest Clean Break column looks at how venture capitalists — impatient with lengthy returns on their investments and worried about the economic climate — are retreating from the cleantech space to less risky investment opportunities. Picking up the slack are corporate investors such as ABB, GE, and Siemens, who are making large... [read more]

Closing the Energy Innovation Gap

March 2, 2011 by Christine Hertzog
with 1,003 views
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One of the many benefits of living in Silicon Valley is the proximity to innovation – game changing technologies or service models, creative people, and exciting new businesses.  Some people call it the world capital for innovation, which is an exaggeration, but not by much.  I’m an Executive in Residence at a technology... [read more]

Plugging Schools Into the Smart Grid

December 6, 2010 by Christine Hertzog
with 1,122 views
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A school district in Silicon Valley is adding a 1.26 MW photovoltaic (PV) solar installation across several campuses to deliver about 45% of their annual electricity needs.  The ground-mounted facilities will be placed as canopies in school parking lots, so the shading provided by the panels can also reduce the air conditioning... [read more]

Silicon Valley solar startups retool as China shocks market

October 12, 2010 by Todd Woody
with 683 views
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photo: The White House In The New York Times on Wednesday, I take a look at how the rapid rise of low-cost Chinese solar panel companies have forced Silicon Valley’s high-tech solar startups to retool for a global market they had not anticipated: FREMONT, Calif. — A few years ago, Silicon Valley start-ups like Solyndra, Nanosolar and... [read more]

Silicon Valley and the Smart Grid

May 17, 2010 by Christine Hertzog
with 231 views
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There is welcome evidence that the intellectual and financial resources in Silicon Valley are starting to seriously engage in Smart Grid activities.  Take a look at where Smart Grid investment funds are based.  Of course, the Federal government’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) stimulus fund kickstart of $3.4B... [read more]

The Greening of Silicon Valley: It Looks Like the Next Big Thing

May 3, 2010 by Big Gav
with 163 views
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Todd Woody has an article at Yale Environment 360 on the technology industry's interest in clean energy, noting "companies such as Google, Adobe Systems, and eBay are preparing for the next step — investing in off-site solar and wind installations and innovative technologies that will supply their offices and data centers with green... [read more]

The Cleantech Revolution: “Largest Market Opportunity in the History of the Planet”?

February 6, 2010 by Teryn Norris
with 438 views
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 By Ishan Nath Cross-posted from LeadEnergy.org A special three-part series in last week’s San Jose Mercury News, entitled “The Cleantech Revolution,” highlighted the enormous economic opportunity in the clean-tech sector and warned that the U.S. is quickly falling behind while Asia seeks to gain global market dominance. In its... [read more]

There's Plenty of Energy at the Bottom: Being a Meditation on Why Silicon Valley Won't Solve the Energy Crisis

April 20, 2009 by William Tucker
with 437 views
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[This article appears in the current issue of The American Spectator.]On December 29, 1959, on the threshold of the 1960s, Richard Feynman, "the best mind since Einstein" and interpreter of quantum mechanics, gave a lecture at the California Institute of Technology that is generally regarded to be the opening bell of the Information Age... [read more]