Blog
SMUD Support Clean Tech in Small Business
We all know SMUD as a utility and recently CleanStart has shared how SMUD has leveraged its resources to promote clean energy, sustainability, and community development. While these all provide ways a startup can engage with SMUD, there are some ways you can do...
Global Entrepreneurship Week Excites Students
Do you think you could start to build a clean tech business in 60 minutes? We challenged students to do just that at an event we had this week kicking off Global Entrepreneurship Week at CSU Sacramento with the College of Engineering and Computer Science. Dozens of...
Big Solar Big Tilt
Ever look at giant solar carports and wonder “Wouldn't they be more effective if they followed the sun?” “Why can’t someone make something that allows them to follow the Sun?” Well, someone has. Scarlet Solar. Most solar tracking systems you see are complex with...
Sustainability Innovation Award Goes to Hank, Two Others Honored
At the annual Innovation Awards, AI-based startup “Hank” received recognition as the Sustainability Innovation of the year. Hank is saving building owners over 30% of their energy bills by tuning their existing energy management systems through close monitoring and...
Big Bang! Kicks-Off its 20th Cycle, Doors Wide Open to Free Workshops
On October 22, 150+ people turned out for launch of the Big Bang business plan competition put on by the UC Davis Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. It looks like it will be another record-setting year for prize money and the number of applicants. Last...
Local Teams Do Well in Latest Pitch Contests
Last week there were two important pitch contests for cleantech companies and three of our local ones competed. On October 22, judging was done for CalSEED prototype grants of $450,000. Empow Lighting (a clever LED replacement panel for fluorescents in existing...
CVIE Forum Showcases New Companies
I recently had the pleasure to go to an event hosted by our partners at Fresno State’s Wet Center and BlueTech Valley. The Central Valley Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum an event that people need to check out. In its fourth year, this was a hidden gem,...
Building Energy Management—The Real World
Thursday Oct. 24, we had a full house at Hacker Lab to hear three very interesting talks on building energy management in the real world vs. what we think is going on. Kristin Heinemeier of Frontier Energy hit us with the reality that few of the fancy energy-saving...
Clean Tech Stocks Having a Great Year So Far
Results for the major clean tech stock indexes are blowing away the S&P 500.