Want to transform urban transit? Take a cue from Google, and invent a better algorithm. Service-based transportation networks offer a key for cities to address urban traffic congestion, encourage adoption of alternative transit and slash greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector, says Ryan Chin, a PhD candidate in the Smart Cities research group at MIT. And it will likely be the company with the best algorithm for managing fleets of cars, bicycles, scooters and other transit options, and up to millions of users, that finds a way to cash in on the “Mobility on Demand” trend.

As Chin explained to me for an article on GigaOM Pro this week (our subscription-based research service), the MoD concept involves a comprehensive system in which city residents would be able to rent an electric car, scooter or bicycle when and where they need it in order to bridge the “last mile” gap in many public transit systems (e.g. getting between the subway station and your final destination).

Continue reading this story

It’s that time again — when the year-end roundups start rolling in. On the Time 50 Best Inventions of 2009 list published today, green energy innovations are out in force.

Some of the 10 green picks on the list of 50 inventions, like the YikeBike electric bicycle and the World First Formula 3 race car design that uses materials derived from carrots and cashews, seem unlikely to have much impact long term. But others, such as the solar shingle from Dow Chemical, the energy dashboard from EnergyHub (or similar devices from competitors) and NASA and Cisco’s “Planetary Skin,” show 2009 has been a powerhouse year for a range of green innovations.

The best part of Time’s list? You can interactively rank the inventions yourself on the site on a scale of 1 (not important) to 100 (very important). How would you rank these 10 green innovations?

Continue reading this story

Something’s gotta give. In a time of uncertainty about the future supply and demand for fossil fuels, a surge of activity in energy technology and the prospect of stricter emission regulations barreling down the pike, the global market for transportation fuels is poised for disruption.

According to a new report out this week from technology and consultancy giant Accenture, one or more — but almost certainly not all — of a dozen low-carbon transportation fuels now under development could transform that market (which accounts for about half of global primary oil consumption and up to 30 percent of global carbon emissions) within a decade.

Continue reading this story

The idea of modeling government funds after venture capital has swirled, in various forms, around the Obama administration since back in the campaign days. Now comes the latest twist: The Obama administration has named a former VC, Jonathan Silver, to head up the Department of Energy’s highly competitive loan guarantee program and green car loan program, which have awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in direct loans and guarantees to venture-backed companies including Tesla Motors, Fisker Automotive and Solyndra.

Silver’s appointment to the role of executive director of the loan programs comes as part of an effort, the DOE says, to “strengthen and streamline” the agency’s operations. Having left the Washington, D.C.-based firm Core Capital Partners (where he was the managing general partner) last year, Silver will now oversee the application process, analysis and negotiation for loans and guarantees under the two programs, as well as staffing. According to a release from the DOE, he will also manage “the full range of the Department’s alternative energy investments.”

Continue reading this story

Taxi2, a new cab-sharing service unveiled today by Virgin Atlantic, represents a new spin on an old idea for the age of Car 2.0, in which vehicles, communication networks and information technology increasingly intersect. The free, web-based service, just launched in beta testing for Virgin’s New York and London routes, matches passengers based on their flight info and destinations.

Founded by Ed Maklouf, who also created a text messaging startup called Siine, Taxi2 is partnering with Virgin as part of the airline’s UK government-backed VJAM program. It’s not a total solution, but Taxi2 could provide a piece of the puzzle for reducing emissions from transportation by offering an alternative to airport shuttles, personal vehicles and solo cab rides for travelers.

Continue reading this story

One year ago, two key trends dominated the solar industry: economic uncertainty and scarce credit. If solar companies were to survive, they needed to scramble to adapt their strategies to both. Today, the economy is more stable and credit is freer, and so the industry faces two different trends. The first — a supply glut of solar products — has been in the making for years, and it keeps pushing prices down. The second is only beginning to emerge, but could take root: Demand has picked up for solar installations, especially in homes.

That’s the picture being portrayed in solar earnings reports, and the conference calls to discuss them this week. Real Goods Solar said on Thursday that its revenue in the third quarter rose 122 percent compared with the same period last year, including the addition of companies it’s acquired in the past year. Excluding those acquisitions, revenue still grew 41 percent. John Schaeffer, Real Goods Solar’s president, said a lot of the increase came from homeowners. In a statement, he noted that the company saw “the return of strong demand for residential solar” during the third quarter.

Continue reading this story

Five years from now, Singapore may have a model of urban transportation that’s smart, green, and full of lessons for cities around the world. That’s the goal of a new project from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the National Research Foundation of Singapore called the Future of Urban Mobility.

The pair announced plans last week (h/t Green Car Congress) for MIT to collaborate with three universities in Singapore to develop models and tools for planning and operating an urban transportation system using networked computing, controls, advanced simulations, devices for gathering and analyzing real-time information and other technologies.

Continue reading this story

MicroMedia Filtration, a developer of advanced water treatment systems, said today that it has closed its first round of funding (no word on how much) from SAIL Venture Partners. The Lake Forest, Calif.-based company was founded in 2003 and is already shipping its treatment systems to municipalities and commercial clients. With its technology in place, MicroMedia plans to use the funding to “significantly expand its growth objectives” by adding to its management team and marketing plans, Ken Stedman, founder and president of MicroMedia, said in a statement.

Stedman didn’t give more details about what those new growth objectives might be, but the company is clear about the value proposition of its wastewater treatment technology. The company says its system operates on 80 percent less power, has as little as half the capital costs and is physically smaller (important for space-constrained real estate developers) than competing technologies. The filtration system is also modular, with individual systems treating between 250,000 and 1 million gallons per day, offering flexibility and the ability for clients to scale up as demand changes.

Continue reading this story

Carbon capture technology is like a half-baked web tool, according to Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt: in need of some “debugging.” The chief of the search engine giant made the comments at Google’s headquarters this morning, where he interviewed Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. Chu, who was visiting the Googleplex to talk about today’s ARPA-E funding announcements, responded by saying that while today’s carbon capture tech remains much too expensive for broad deployment, a relatively bug-free and affordable system — made up of dozens of different technologies — is not out of reach.

Chu has called for focus on (and investment in) carbon capture before, telling an audience of energy ministers at the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum earlier this month that an “aggressive timeline” for developing the technology is needed to address climate change. At that event, in London, he said the tech needs to be ready for “widespread, affordable deployment” within 8-10 years.

Continue reading this story

Thanks to strong backing from the U.S. government, cleantech investing actually delivered a solid third quarter compared to the rest of the venture-backed sectors, including information technology and biotech. So what happens once the millions from the stimulus package dry up? The third-quarter wrap-up on Green IT from GigaOm Pro looks at what happened this quarter as stimulus funds rolled out, cleantech became the largest venture investment sector for the first time ever and talk of a bubble around the current darling of the space—smart grid—loomed large.

But the quarter wasn’t all about the smart grid. Battery companies — focused both on vehicles and consumer electronics — fared well, drawing attention from venture capitalists, the government and larger companies looking at batteries as a good business to be in. A123 Systems’ IPO was the big story in batteries this quarter, and it actually exceeded expectations. Lithium-ion batteries — the technology of choice for the upcoming generation of electric vehicles — have gained enough momentum to spark concerns about limited lithium resources.

Continue reading this story