9. Q-Cells, Solar Trust of America File for Bankruptcy; Serious Energy Sheds Staff
Solar manufacturers Q-Cells and Solar Trust of America filed for bankruptcy, leaving the fate of a 1,000 MW California solar thermal project in doubt. Meanwhile, media reported that green building firm Serious Energy was dropping staff related to its building energy efficiency and financing lines of business, and focusing on its core green drywall and windows business…
8. EPA Honors Coke, Microsoft, Whole Foods, 21 Other Companies in Green Power Leadership Awards
Coca-Cola Refreshments, Microsoft, Whole Foods and Lockheed Martin were among the winners of the EPA’s 2012 Green Power Leadership Awards. Made in conjunction with the nonprofit Center for Resource Solutions, the awards are designed to recognize organizations, programs and individuals that significantly advance the development of green power sources…
7. ‘Father of LEED’ Slams Energy Dashboards
Building energy dashboards often miss – or mask – the root cause of a building’s energy-efficiency problems, and there needs to be a radical shift in the way such products are designed, built, evaluated and sold, according to several leaders in building automation and energy management…
6. Routes Revealed for Natural Gas Highway
Clean Energy Fuels Corp. unveiled the route plan for the first stations in America’s Natural Gas Highway, a liquefied natural gas network of at least 150 stations. The company said it expected to have 70 LNG stations open by the end of the year. But while it completed 76 by December, only 10 of these were actually open and operating…
5. GE Renames Converteam Efficiency Business
GE rebranded Converteam, the French process control and automation business it acquired in September 2011, renaming it Power Conversion. GE said the Power Conversion business will help it maximize its expertise and expand its presence in the energy efficiency, electrification and automation sector, which is valued at $30 billion and growing above global GDP…
4. Salesforce Worst of ‘Dirty’ Cloud Companies, Greenpeace says
Salesforce, the world’s largest vendor of enterprise cloud computing, received the worst ratings in a Greenpeace report that claims cloud computing companies are perpetuating the use of fossil fuel. The non-profit estimated that just four percent of the company’s power comes from renewables. Meanwhile, Apple showed marked improvement from last year…
3. GE Splits Energy Group Into Three Standalone Businesses
General Electric again, this time announcing it is splitting up its energy infrastructure division into three standalone businesses. The change will remove a management layer, align the units with the industries to which they sell and cut overhead costs by about $300 million. GE vice chairman and GE energy infrastructure CEO John Krenicki is departing the company after 29 years…
