Newsletter

Awards ceremony cheers the women who have helped develop the cleantech space, including leaders from Tesla Motors, Walmart, Grid Alternatives among others.

The change to the SBIR funding rules was spurred in part by the drying up of private-sector investment available to the cleantech space.

As clean energy grows globally, so, too, does the need to find ways to store it. Governments and corporations are backing a number of new storage breakthroughs.

Cleantech relevant stories in the news this week.

Worldwide sales of EV supply equipment will grow from about 442,000 units in 2013 to 4.3 million globally in 2022, with revenue reaching $5.8 billion, fueled by government programs and product innovation, says Navigant. Most demand is for home chargers, but the commercial charger market is growing with increased private investment.

Global PV installations are forecast to rise 18% in 2014, reaching 41 GW and generating installation revenue of more than $86 billion, says IHS. The growth is driven by low prices, new demand in emerging markets and continued growth in U.S., Japan and China, with markets in Europe continuing to slip.

As more data is generated from smart meters, utilities feel that increased data analytics capabilities will be key to improving reliability, efficiency and better customer engagement, according to IDC’s study of North American utilities.

Remote microgrids are highly lucrative and attracting an influx of firms looking to deploy them as cleaner technologies are reducing their reliance on diesel fuel. The largest number of remote microgrids are being deployed in the developing world, although activity is also increasing in Europe and North America.

Sail's joint venture partner, Stifel Financial, didn't come through with $100M in capital it committed to the project and is closing down its Canadian operations altogether.

The new venture capital fund will focus on early stage cleantech opportunities in South East Asia.