Let there be light. The Obama administration unlocked $346 million in stimulus funds for energy efficiency earlier this week, including $50 million for advancing solid state lighting, or SSL, technology. The Department of Energy designed the program as “a coordinated development of advanced manufacturing techniques” and an effort to “reduce the first cost of high-performance lighting products.” So it doesn’t exactly have semiconductors written all over it.
But according to a recent report on GigaOM Pro (subscription only) from analyst Katherine Austin, President of KDA Consulting, SSL represents a big opportunity for chip makers as the technology gains a foothold in everyday applications beyond consumer electronics and displays.

We give a lot of props to the entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers and investors that are building the greentech tools of tomorrow. But we don’t often offer a lot of praise for the legislative process or the policy makers that have been driving clean energy and climate policy (OK, except
The fact that former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, now a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, isn’t a big fan of the current energy bill that
At this point, the Senate still has to negotiate and vote on

