Cleantech news as it happens — check back for regular updates:
- First Solar today announced it’s acquiring OptiSolar’s solar power pipeline, with a total potential generating capacity of more than 20 gigawatts;
- The Sunday Times this weekend published its first ever Green Rich List, a compilation of the top 100 cleantech entrepreneurs. Tops on the list are Warren Buffet (wind energy), Bill Gates (renewable fuels)and Ingvar Kamprad (renewable energy);
- The top winners of this year’s Greener Gadgets competition have been announced;
- Low-carbon energy projects can begin seeing their first loan guarantees within a week or two, according to US Energy Secretary Stephen Chu;
- Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick is proposing that motorists parking at Logan International Airport be assessed a $2 “carbon fee”;
- Arup and the Administrative Committee of China’s Wuhan Economic & Technology Development Zone today signed an agreement to plan a “Demonstration Industrial Park for Energy Saving and Environmental Protection”;
- The US Environmental Protection Agency has awarded PepsiCo a 2009 Energy Star Sustained Excellence Award;
- Businesses might have to lower their IT service expectations to keep costs under control, a Gartner analyst says;
- The state of the economy is leading to an increase in Internet searches using terms such as “unemployment,” “bankruptcy” and “foreclosure,” Minyanville reports;
- The US Geological Survey is seeking volunteers across the country to track the effects of climate change on plants and animals;
- A researcher at the University of Illinois says he’s engineered a new type of corn with fewer seeds but many more leaves and a larger stalk that would make it a good biofuel source;
- The EE Times has announced the finalists for its 2009 ACE (Annual Creativity in Electronics) Awards.