Science and Enterprise

Tag: cleantech

  • Challenge Seeks Electric Power Utility Service Enhancements

    A new challenge on InnoCentive seeks ideas to improve the process for electric power utilities to deploy two types of electricity services in a timely, cost-effective manner. The challenge has a payout of $15,000 and a deadline of 8 July for submissions. InnoCentive in Waltham, Massachusetts is a company the conducts open-innovation, crowd-sourcing competitions for…

  • Bay Area Consortium to Fund Large-Scale Solar R&D

    The Bay Area Photovoltaic Consortium (BAPVC) unveiled its first research grants aimed at making utility-scale solar power cost-competitive by the end of the decade. The new funds from the consortium — an industry-backed venture led by Stanford University and the University of California-Berkeley — total $7.5 million. The grants will support 18 projects at BAPVC…

  • $525M Venture Fund to Back Tech, Science Companies

    The venture capital company Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in Menlo Park, California has closed a $525 million venture capital fund for equity investments in early-stage green technology and life sciences, as well as digital enterprise companies. The fund, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers XV LLC (KPCB 15) will be led by 10 of the…

  • Low-Cost Nanoscale Catalyst Splits Hydrogen from Water

    Researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, part of the U.S. Department of Energy, have developed a new electrocatalyst that generates hydrogen gas from water cleanly and with much less expensive materials than current catalysts. Their findings are described online this week in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition (paid subscription required). Traditional methods…

  • Report: Investment Increasing In Water Technologies

    A new report by the London Environmental Investment Forum says venture capital (VC) investors are showing more interest in technologies related to water used in extractive industries, such as oil, gas, and mining. The report, “Water Innovation in Extractive Industries,” can be downloaded from the organization’s Web site. London Environmental Investment Forum is owned and…

  • Energy Institute Unveils Prototype Alternative Battery

    The CUNY Energy Institute, part of City University of New York, has built an operating prototype zinc anode battery system, as an alternative to traditional nickel-cadmium batteries. The institute plans to start a company to commercialize the technology later in the year. The battery project is led by engineering professor and institute director Sanjoy Banerjee…

  • Glare-Free Water-Resistant Nanotech Glass Developed

    Engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a new type of glass that eliminates almost all reflection and causes water to bounce off. The team of MIT graduate students, faculty, and former postdoc — now at North Carolina State University — published their findings earlier this month in the journal ACS Nano (paid subscription…

  • Computer Science Spinoff Develops Energy Footprint Gauge

    A company started by a computer science professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute in Blacksburg offers organizations a free software tool to measure their total energy use. MiserWare, also in Blacksburg, was founded by Kirk Cameron (pictured right), a computer science faculty member at Virginia Tech, which offers a free program that can measure an organization’s…

  • University Start-Up to Generate Power with Stored CO2

    A spin-off company from University of Minnesota is commercializing a process for generating electricity with geothermal energy from stored carbon dioxide captured at coal-fired power plants. Heat Mining Company LLC, in Rapid City, South Dakota, is based on a technology invented by Minnesota faculty Martin Saar (earth science) and Thomas Kuehn (engineering), and earth science…

  • Energy Department Seeking New Power Storage Technologies

    The U.S. Department of Energy is looking for new methods for storing electric power, for use in plug-in passenger cars and to improve the performance of the nation’s power grids. The $30 million research program is being offered by the department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E). The agency’s Advanced Management and Protection of…