The March/April, 2011 issue of technology review (published by MIT) contains a special section on the 50 Most Innovative Companies. This is an online directory of 50 public and private companies, updating a list that the review introduced in 2010. The companies straddle the biomedicine, computing & communications, energy, materials, transportation, and web & digital media sectors and range from well-known technology players such as Apple and IBM to Web 2.0 companies, including Facebook and Twitter, to up and comers in “green” energy and materials, like 1366 Technologies and Serious Materials. Such a company list offers ideas for technological inspiration, job and career possibilities, and investments.
As part of its special series, Power Hungry: Reinventing the U.S. Electric Grid, the NPR website features an interactive map of the U.S. Energy Grid, showing sources of power in separate layers by resource type (coal, nuclear, gas, etc.) as well as additional maps for power plants, solar power, and wind power.
The July 27, 2009 issue of Business Week (BW) features a list of 25 young companies that are shaping the alternative energy landscape. From Cambridge, MA’s Greenpoint Energy to Vancouver’s Clean Current Power Systems, these startups are selling products and services in the Green Cars, BioFuels, Hydro, Solar, Smart Grids, Batteries, and other industries which either are just emerging or being vastly reshaped.
Despite the current Great Recession and constrained investing climate, the entrepreneurs behind these companies are able to obtain venture backing (which goes beyond VC firms to include the U.S. Energy Department and
major corporations like Chevron and Google) and clients willing to take risks (a supplementary article in the same BW issue offers tips on getting investors- or being one – in such ventures). As such, they may provide insights to students in Tufts’ engineering and entrepreneurship programs who are pursuing opportunities in alternative energies.