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The advanced energy industry lends itself to the development of disruptive technologies that will make the global energy system more clean, secure, efficient and affordable. Fast Company came up with a list of the world’s 50 most innovative companies. We present the advanced energy companies that made the list!

The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) has announced it has attracted projects worth more than $625 million in private-sector follow-on funding after its investment of approximately $95 million. In addition, at least 24 ARPA-E project teams have formed new companies to advance their technologies, and more than 16 ARPA-E projects have partnered with other government agencies for further development. Read more here.

China outspent the U.S. for the first time in the $15 billion smart grid market in 2013. Global smart grid investments reached $14.9 billion in 2013.  According to numbers from Bloomberg New Energy Finance, China spent $4.3 billion on smart grids whilst the U.S. spent 3.6 billion. Smart metering also accounted for just under half of the total smart grid spending worldwide, with distribution automation and other integrated demonstration projects rounding out the total. Read more here.

Princeton University, NRG Energy, ICETEC Energy, Concord Engineering and the International District Energy Association have come together to found a consortium - Microgrid Resources Coalition to promote the growth of microgrids in the U.S.

The U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs says that it intends to file a final environmental impact statement for the proposed RES Americas Moapa Solar Energy Center on the Moapa River Indian Reservation in Clark County, Nevada. The proposed project is aimed at constructing a 200 MW solar generation facility, water line and associated infrastructure on reservation land. It will also obtain grants of right-of-way on BLM lands for 230 kV and 500 kV transmission lines and associated access roads. Read more here.

GE announced that it is putting $10 billion more into its advanced energy R&D program as part of its Ecomagination initiative. This new commitment will bring total investment in the initiative to $25 billion by 2020. Two-thirds of the $10 billion will focus on natural gas and includes a push to improve power plant efficiencies and two new R&D partnerships with natural gas companies aimed at reducing waste and resource use in gas extraction. The other third will go to reducing the cost and increasing the output of GE’s wind turbines. Read more here.

“Chairman Camp’s proposal is an important, if provocative, contribution to the tax reform discussion,” said Malcolm Woolf, senior vice president for policy and government affairs at Advanced Energy Economy, a national business association. “Unfortunately, zeroing out advanced energy tax credits would impede our progress towards building a high performing energy system that is essential to America’s long term economic prosperity.”

Construction work has began on a 12 ton per day food waste to biogas anaerobic digestion facility at the Crapo Hill Landfill in Dartmouth. MA. The project, which is being developed by the Boston based firm CommonWealth Resource Management Corporation is aimed at providing supplemental fuel at the site’s existing 3.3 MW landfill gas to energy plant. Read more here.

Austin Energy has signed a 300 MW 18-year wind power purchase agreement with Lincoln Renewable energy for the 160-turbine wind farm in Castro County, Texas. This agreement replaces a 170 MW 25-year agreement that Austin signed with E.ON Climate & Renewables last June as a result of its March 2013 request for proposals for wind power projects. According to an Austin Energy memorandum to the Austin City Council, E.ON declined to execute the 170 MW power purchase agreement because of tax and financing issues related to the proposed project. Read more here.

SolarCity reports that it ended 2013 with the completion of 12 percent more projects than anticipated. It also cut installation cost by 30 percent. The company also reports an 87 percent growth in fourth-quarter earnings from the year before and completed 280 MW of solar energy systems in 2013. Read more here.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a challenge to the Midcontinent Independent Transmission System Operator's cost allocation scheme for regional power line projects ruling. The challenge was brought on by utilities and regulators in Illinois and Michigan in hopes of countering a lower court’s June ruling which approved the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) decision. FERC has decided to allow MISO to spread the cost of building of regional “multi-value”  among its members. Many multi-value projects are designed to promote wind generation from remote areas. Read more here and here.

The oldest cooperative utility in the U.S., Farmers Electric Cooperative (FEC) of southwestern Iowa is set to lead as the nation’s largest solar utility. It’s also the most reliable utility in Iowa. FEC Manager Warren McKenna shares how the organization became America’s largest solar utility here.

Tesla reported a company record of $761 million in revenue in its fourth quarter earnings. According to CEO Elon Musk, this exceeds the target of 25% gross margin he set earlier in the year and earned 33 cents per share. It also says that it expects a 55% jump in sales in 2014 and improve its gross margin to 28% by the end of the year.  Read more here and here.

Hawaii is inviting companies to pilot their pre-commercial technologies at the Hawaii Ocean Science and Technology (HOST) Park in Kailua-Kona. HOST is a model of sustainable development that  allows companies to run their facilities on solar, use cold deep seawater to cool buildings and hold meetings at the LEED-Platinum Gateway building. HOST is interested in energy storage because it is also in the process of developing a microgrid for the campus. The project will be managed by the Natural Energy Lab of Hawaii Authority (NELHA) and is a partnership between the State and County of Hawaii, and Hawaii Electric Light Company. Read more here.

First Wind has secured $206 million in financing to for the development of Route 66 Wind project in Armstrong and Carson counties, Texas. The wind farm is expected to generate around 150MW of electricity and will supply power to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).

SunEdison has launched yieldco, an IPO aimed at unlocking the true value of its solar assets  and providing leverage as it taps into big capital markets. The terms of the IPO are yet to be determined but it will be an offering of common stock for a new yieldco vehicle. Reports over the past couple of months have suggested that a SunEdison yieldco could raise $300 million. Read more here.

Umair Irfan, E&E reporter

President Obama announced that he is directing the EPA and Department of Transportation to develop the next phase of fuel economy standards for medium and heavy-duty vehicles. These new standards will apply to vehicles manufactured after 2018 and will include fuel saving technologies across all components of a vehicle.

FERC approved a preliminary permit for the Turnagain Arm Tidal Energy Corporation for a tidal project in Alaska. The permit will allow the company to continue explore the feasibility of the tidal energy project. The proposed project would have an estimated average annual generation of 1,271,950 megawatt-hours. Read more here.

A look at the geothermal industry in 2014 shows an increase in the use of geothermal energy globally and a slowdown in growth in the US. This is forcing US companies to take projects overseas. Top players to look out for in 2014 include East Africa, Central America and Indonesia as several financing agencies have announced initiatives to spur growth in these parts of the world. According to Karl Gawell of the Geothermal Energy Association, one of the main issues in the US is the inability of Congress to decide on long term meaningful legislation. Read more here.

Rod Kuckro, E&E reporter

Washington, D.C. – At $1.1 trillion in estimated global revenue, advanced energy grew at a rate more than double the global economy last year, according to a market report commissioned by Advanced Energy Economy (AEE). In the United States, the advanced energy market excluding wind energy experienced double-digit growth the last two years – outpacing the economy by a factor of four – while wind energy saw a boom and bust in that two-year period due to inconsistent federal policy.

The co-founders of Opower, Dan Yates & Alex Laskey share the 5 top trends to look out for in utilities this year:

The Solar Foundation released a new report showing a massive growth in jobs in the solar industry in both traditional and US markets. The report also shows that, good policies such as the solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC) and Net Energy Metering (NEM) are more important than sunshine. California and Arizona remain the top states for solar employment. Read more to find out how other states fared.

GTM Research released a new report on distributed energy storage in the commercial sector. Greentech Media sums up four driving the commercial energy storage market. These include; demand charge reduction for commercial and industrial customers, the effect of the growth of solar power generation on energy storage technology, the frequency of regulations in select markets and, state-level initiatives such as the California Self-Generation Incentive Program. Read more here.  

The world’s largest solar plant, the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System has opened in the Mojave Desert on the California-Nevada border. The plant can produce 392 megawatts, enough to power 140,000 homes.

SolarReserve has began the commissioning phase of a Crescent Dunes solar energy project near Tonopah, Nevada.  The 110MW project will generate around 500,000 megawatt hours per year, as a result of the advanced energy storage technology. According to the SolarReserve CEO, Kevin Smith, this is a milestone for both the project and the solar industry. Read more here.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that Smarter Grid Solutions has won a contract to work with Con Edison to increase the resiliency of electrical grids during a variety of contingencies and emergencies. The project will also support the increased connection of distributed energy resources. Read more  here .

SunPower reports that it recorded huge profits in 2013 and expects to produce even better results this year. The news might be evidence of a turnaround in the solar market and the emergence of home solar roofs as well as new forms of financing in the sector. SunPower also recently raised $220 million fund from Bank of America Merrill Lynch to boost a program that enables homeowners to use solar electricity without paying for the equipment and installation costs. Read more  here .

New York has opened the largest green bank in the nation - New York Green Bank. The bank is aimed at stimulating private sector financing and accelerating the transition to a more effective clean energy system.

“We at Advanced Energy Economy extend our congratulations to Senator Ron Wyden as he becomes chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance,” said Malcolm Woolf, Senior Vice President of Policy and Government Affairs for AEE. “Senator Wyden has been a forward-looking thinker and an active supporter of advanced energy solutions throughout his career. We look forward to working with him and the committee in moving toward an energy tax structure that takes a targeted, technology-neutral approach to provide stability and certainty for the business community for the long term, and restores recently expired advanced energy tax credits for business stability and certainty in the short term.

The 2014 Detroit Auto Show showed a renewed interest in electric vehicles. It also showed how niche vehicles are becoming increasingly important to automakers’ future fortunes. Read more here.

The use of wind power in the United States shot up in the fourth quarter of 2013 as result of the construction of new wind farms. This was in response to the extension of the Production Tax Credit in 2013 as well as investments in technological advancements that led to a 43 percent fall in the cost of wind energy. Read more here.

EnerNOC is investing heavily in the series A funding round for San Francisco-based solar software startup, Genability. It has entered into a licensing agreement to gain exclusive rights to some of Genability’s software. The software helps a customer know what they might save by installing solar panels on their home or office building.  

Prior to the state of the Union, AEE sent a letter asking Congress to extend several expired tax credits. The letter was featured in Politico’s Morning Energy.

The need for energy storage technology is growing as the need for a complement to increasing solar and wind generation grows, and investors are taking notice. Energy storage is a valuable commodity: it could also serve as backup power for businesses that want to reduce the amount they pay as electric utility. As the amount of solar and wind connected to the grid grows, batteries are one of many storage technology that are beginning to take flight. Read more here.

In 2014, many renewable energy dollars will go into what is being described as “cleanweb investments.” These are products and services that drive efficiency: be it in homes in the form of  clouds, or access to capital in the form of crowdfunding. Funding in clean energy will also go into large-scale solar and wind projects. Thirdly, investors will put their monies in ventures they feel good about. Read more here.