This week we’re thrilled bring you the Best of Earth2Tech, a new feature that will highlight the most interesting news about green entrepreneurs and innovators that the folks at Earth2Tech covered.
Startup MiaSole makes thin sheets of cheap solar by sputtering chemicals onto a thin roll of steel, using a similar technique to how potato chip bag makers get that silver coating inside the bag. It’s one of the cheapest methods around, and while the startup has gotten a bad rap in the past, it’s now shipping products to customers.
Obama’s visit to Solyndra’s solar factory made us reflect on how the Department of Energy’s $535 million loan guarantee to Solyndra could actually be a big mistake, given Solyndra has one of the highest costs of manufacturing of its solar gear. Policy wonks aren’t actually that good at picking technology winners.
Here’s our timeline for the long — and bumpy — road that Tesla has taken to finally find a home to make its Model S, its mainstream electric vehicle, now to be produced at the NUMMI plant in California.
KiOR is a stealthy biofuel maker that disclosed to us this week it’s official pitch. It’s taken millions of years to carbonize vegetation and biomass into carbon-based fossil fuels like oil. Well, KiOR says it can do that process in seconds using a powder catalyst.
Who’s the latest politician to jump on the greentech investing bandwagon along with Al Gore, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice? Former Prime Minister Tony Blair. This week he told an audience in Sausalito that he will act as a Senior Advisor to Khosla Ventures, which is led by the famous and controversial Vinod Khosla.
Inhabitat earns big time street cred with one paragraph….”Obama’s visit to Solyndra’s solar factory made us reflect on how the Department of Energy’s $535 million loan guarantee to Solyndra could actually be a big mistake, given Solyndra has one of the highest costs of manufacturing of its solar gear. Policy wonks aren’t actually that good at picking technology winners”…..so true and we have to remember it, let’s keep government out of our movement. There is plenty of private money on the sidelines waiting to go to work and you can include your money with it. let’s not trade big oil for big grid!