Photo: Cala Systems Startup Cala Systems, which makes seriously smart heat pump water heaters, has secured $5.6 million in seed funding and commercially launched its product. The round was led by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and Clean Energy Venture Group, and included Burnt Island Ventures, Leap Forward Ventures, CapeVista Capital, Collaborative Fund, and Climate Capital. Cala’s efficient and intelligent heat pump system…

Photo: Ørsted In the US, Ørsted has entered into a joint venture with Mission Clean Energy, in its first-ever standalone battery storage partnership. Ørsted formed a strategic partnership with San Francisco-based Mission Clean Energy, a utility-scale renewable energy and storage developer, to advance 1 gigawatt (GW) of standalone battery energy storage systems across the Midwest. …

Solar power in New Mexico. (2023, December 24). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_New_Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM) and solar cell manufacturer Ebon Solar jointly announced that a nearly $1 billion solar cell factory will be built in New Mexico. Ebon Solar will invest an estimated $942 million to build an 834,000-square-foot solar cell manufacturing facility…

BP recently announced a deal for its global EV charging business, BP Pulse, to install and operate EV charging gigahubs on 75 sites with Simon Property Group, a real estate investment trust. This deal will deliver over 900 “ultra-fast” charging bays that support nearly every make and model of EV on the market today across…

Image: Sage Geosystems Sage Geosystems will launch EarthStore this year, which uses geothermal energy storage to produce clean electricity on demand. The Houston-based geothermal baseload and energy storage company has entered into a land use agreement with San Miguel Electric Cooperative for a 3-megawatt (MW) geopressured geothermal system energy storage facility. The EarthStore system…

The hydrogen internal combustion engine (H2 ICE) industry is showing signs of growth but needs to overcome key obstacles to see widespread adoption, research by Interact Analysis concludes. The market intelligence company claims in its H2 ICE – 2024 report that high fuel costs and a shortage of adequate infrastructure are major barriers to market…

Photo courtesy of Tom Brewster/BLM California President Joe Biden has more than doubled the volume of solar cells made overseas that can be imported tariff-free to support US panel manufacturers. Biden doubles+ imported tariff-free solar cells A White House proclamation released late yesterday increased the volume of silicon solar cells that can enter the…

Wallbox recently received a $45 million investment, which includes $35 million from lead investor Generac Power Systems. Wallbox said the investment provides capital to accelerate the company’s ability to manufacture and sell more of its chargers throughout the world, particularly in the North American market. This is the second minority investment Generac has made in…

Image: Oxford University Physics Scientists at Oxford University are coating a new solar power-generating material onto objects such as rucksacks, cars, and mobile phones. The potential of this breakthrough means that increasing amounts of solar electricity could be generated without silicon-based solar panels. The Oxford scientists’ new light-absorbing material is, for the first time,…

Engineers at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) have identified cybersecurity vulnerabilities with electric vehicles (EVs) using direct current fast-charging systems. The high-voltage technology relies on power line communication (PLC) technology to transmit smart-grid data between vehicles and charging equipment. In a laboratory, the SwRI team said they exploited vulnerabilities in the PLC layer, gaining access to…