In a recent post to this blog, I pointed out that competitors in the lighting controls market include very different types of companies in both size and overall business scope. I decided to create a graphic view of the situation using everyone’s friend from elementary school math, the Venn diagram.

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Last week the Interior Department released draft voluntary federal guidelines on the impacts of wind energy on wildlife. But neither the wind industry and bird conservationists are happy.

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) today released a statement to say it cannot support the guidance on wildlife (more…)

From 2005 to 2010, Portugal was able to raise the amount of renewable energy in the country up to 45 percent. Portugal has always been very adamant about the inclusion of using renewable energy sources. The first part of the plan was introducing natural gas to replace coal and oil and energy market liberalization to the private market. Now, Portugal is solely (more…)

(Reuters) – Europe’s new energy strategy could lead to a 25 percent cut in greenhouse gases by the end of this decade and could ultimately cut fuel import bills roughly in half, a draft strategy paper shows.

The document was leaked amid renewed debate about whether the EU should (more…)

Those of us who have seen the film documentary “Crude” were heartened yesterday as a court in Ecuador ordered the oil giant Chevron to pay $8.6 billion for dumping billions of gallons of toxic oil waste into Ecuador’s rain forest. The judgment is one of the largest ever imposed for environmental contamination in any court. (more…)

BrightSource Energy, Inc., developer of utility-scale solar thermal power plants, has raised an additional $90 million in its most recent equity financing, according to a U.S. securities law filing.

Keely Wachs, a spokesperson for BrightSource Energy, reports that the Company has now raised $420 million in equity financing to date.

The number of smart meters in Asian markets will increase from 52.8 million in 2010 to more than 350.3 million by 2016 as governments and electric utilities across the region increasingly emphasize the technology, according to a new market report.

That represents an annual growth rate of (more…)

The Mexican government is funding an initiative to demonstrate industrial algae production to find out how viable it is for use in large-scale jet fuels production.

“Manhattan Project”, as the initiative has been dubbed, has recruited OriginOil, a California-based company that works to make algae competitive with petroleum. (more…)

Some companies are taking action to address climate change in spite of international gridlock. Bombardier is one of those companies, having received accolades in Canada for it’s commitment to sustainable business practices to taking innovative engineering approaches to getting employees involved. (more…)