Making the automation systems in commercial buildings smarter – that’s the idea behind startup Scientific Conservation, which today announced a new $15.65 million funding round led by DFJ Growth Fund Managing Director (and Internet exec entrepreneur) Barry Schuler.
GridPoint — the smart grid startup that’s raised lots of money and has a lot to prove — has now raised yet even more funding: a $23.6 million round according to a filing. That brings 8-year-old GridPoint’s total financing to over $240 million since its founding.
Over the past year China has emerged as one of the largest smart grid markets in the world and according to a report out this week will grow from $22.3 billion in 2011 to $61.4 billion in 2015. What’s a key way in? Partnerships.
According to a recently-released independent report from the California Council on Science and Technology, which compiled a lot of the already available research done on the subject, there are no known health risks associated with living with a smart meter.
The company behind the sometimes-annoying WeatherBug app has emerged with a new plan to build what it says will be the world’s largest global sensor network that will track green house gas emissions. AWS Convergence Technologies, now Earth Networks, will invest $25 million into the network.
Silver Spring Networks, which builds smart grid networks for utilities, today announced a reseller partnership with Control4, a startup that provides home automation gear and services. This deal between the two leaders in these spaces shows how the smart home sector is maturing.
Intel Capital and Braemar Energy have invested an undisclosed amount of funding into Viridity Energy, a startup which makes software that dynamically manages power loads on the grid in terms of energy pricing, renewable energy generation and energy storage.
Swiss grid giant ABB has put $10 million into car charging company ECOtality and linked a North American manufacturing agreement. Looks like ABB is picking its preferred winner for the U.S. car charging network to come.
Did the proprietary wireless technology Z-Wave just do a leap frog move into the smart energy home over a more standards-based approach like ZigBee? Verizon confirmed with me late last week that its inaugural smart home energy pilot will initially be based around Z-Wave.
Last summer, GE and a group of VCs launched a $200 million fund for a smart grid challenge that plans to allocate financing to entrepreneurs and startups innovating around the power grid. This morning at CES, GE announced another phase: the eco-home.
