by David Heyerman on January 21, 2009
- $36 Billion in assets is not necessarily a bad thing to have going for you during a recessionary economy. So what exactly is PG&E going to do with their cash? CEO of the California utility, Peter Darbee announced at this week’s Fortune Green conference that the giant is looking into investing in/buying solar power plants.
- This is quite different than usual as we’ve seen utilities invest in wind in the past, but not solar. PG&E does have some hangups to deal with along the way, however.
- The Investment Tax Credit (ITC) grants a 30% tax credit to solar investments and has helped startups immensely in reducing costs to build their facilities. Only problem is the ITC doesn’t extend to utilities. Darbee let the audience know that he’s going out of his way to try and get the ITC modified to include utilities. He also noted than if the regulation does not get changed, they’ll simply establish a subsidiary to PG&E that will qualify for the credit…..very monopolistic of you PG&E…..considering it’s for solar, I’ll let it slide.
- We’ve already heard the CEO of Ausra talking about utilities stepping in and buying plants. Even though the solar sector is somewhat ironic right now, which companies do you think PG&E will be looking at?
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by Jason Wilk on December 27, 2008
- AT&T on Saturday began offering refurbished iPhones for the lowest prices in the country. Just how cheap are they? $99 for a black 8GB iPhone 3G and $199 for a black 16GB iPhone 3G.
- We have been talking about a $99 iPhone for quite some time now, first citing that Walmart may be the one scoring such a deal. Those rumors turned out not to be true, as Walmart begins selling the iPhone tomorrow for just shy of retail prices: $197 for an 8GB iPhone 3G.
- Here is how AT&T is defining refurbished:
Refurbished phones are previously owned devices that have been unused or lightly used and returned during the 30-day trial period. Each refurbished phone is independently quality tested and loaded with the latest software to meet current factory standards. Some refurbished iPhone 3G devices will have minor scratches.
Refurbished iPhone 3G devices carry a warranty of 90 days or more. For details about the warranty on your refurbished iPhone 3G go towww.apple.com/support/oss/.
- The offer to grab a refurbished phone is limited. Fortune cites the sale ends Dec. 31 or when AT&T runs out of stock, whichever comes first. Keep in mind that Warranty on refurbished phones only last for 90 days, which is always a risk. If you are still looking to buy a new iPhone, BestBuy is offering the lowest prices in the country still.
by Jason Wilk on December 17, 2008
Microsoft takes the main-stage to battle Adobe and a slew of startup companies trying to be the leader in Web video and collaborative animation/web design tools. The WSJ outlines the major online destinations that have gone with each service this year. For example, Netflix, CBS, The Olynpics (via NBC.com) have all gone with Microsoft’s Silverlight player this year stealing further business from Adobe.
“Adobe’s Flash player is installed on about 98% of Internet-connected PCs, and Silverlight is only installed on about 25%, according to Adobe and Microsoft. Adobe executives said this gives the smaller company about a two-year head start. But Microsoft is “willing to invest” in order to win certain “trophy sites,” said [Bob Muglia, senior vice president of the Microsoft unit responsible for Silverlight].
Places like CBS are raving about Silverlight, saying it is saving costs greatly over Adobe’s flash player. This is bad news for Adobe who has been receiving their share of bad news this year. Another big loss came in the mobile department. They have spent two years now trying to deploy their ‘flash lite’ technology to mobile phones, only to see minimal adoption. Most importantly, Apple will have nothing to do with flash on the iPhone yet, which Adobe has been banking on for quite some time. All the bad news has caused Adobe to lay off over 600 employees as well as scale back on the MacWorld Expo in January. Some say they won’t even be having their Adobe Max conference next year. Will Adobe Flash be a thing of the past?
by David Heyerman on December 9, 2008
- Tesla is delivering it’s 100th production vehicle today, and what has the company decided to do regarding this below average display of internal efficiency? They’re throwing a party….woo, hoo.
- Nice to know that all that covertible debt cash they’re raising is going towards speeding up the production process, and not towards lavish galas to celebrate mediocrity.
- Apparently the recipient of this vehicle is quite interesting as it’s not a Hollywood celeb….any guesses? I’ve got Al Gore….stay tuned, update coming this afternoon.
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