Amy Westervelt's Climate Chronicles

The term “cleantech” is often dismissed as being far too general to encapsulate all the sectors that fall within it—water, energy, smart grid, electric vehicles, green building materials, the list goes on—but there are nonetheless cross-cutting similarities among the start-ups.

There’s typically the charismatic leader who’s got venture capital connections in Silicon Valley, the brilliant head of engineering who stays behind the scenes (not always willingly), and in most cases plenty of money and buzz before the company even has so much as a prototype. At least that’s how it usually goes in the United States.

In the United Kingdom, it’s almost exactly the opposite.

California utilities can now purchase some of the benefits of renewable energy without actually purchasing the energy itself.

That’s the gist of a move yesterday by the California Public Utilities Commission to allow utilities to use tradable renewable energy credits (TRECs) to meet the state’s ambitious renewable portfolio standard.

The state’s utilities had previously been allowed to use renewable energy credits (RECs), but those RECs had to be bundled with renewable energy generation. Tradable RECs, on the other hand, can be unbundled from renewable energy generation.

It’s an important distinction.

Stadiums, transportation, food and souvenir vendors, communications infrastructure … hundreds of elements go into planning the Olympic Games.

From the point of view of London’s economic development agency, Think London, that means hundreds of opportunities to test and showcase sustainable, energy-efficient technologies, products and services.

Perhaps more importantly, the Sustainable Games may be a way to attract green businesses and cleantech companies to London — permanently.

NanoH20, a four-year-old startup that spun out of nanotech research at UCLA, could be deploying thousands of its membranes in desalination projects all over the world in the near future. The company was tapped late last year by giant French environmental services provider Veolia to participate in a five-year pilot test of its membrane under various seawater conditions. If the membranes deliver the cost savings they are expected to, Veolia will be looking to install them on its future water projects.

It sounds like a great deal for any startup, but at last week’s Cleantech Forum in San Francisco, Veolia Senior Vice President of Research and Innovation Philippe Martin called it simply “opportunistic.”

“We need to do more,” he said in a keynote address at the forum. "We need [to do] much more. We need to team up and partner. We can provide them with scale-up opportunities.”

That's when the venture capitalists and startup CEOs in the crowd sat up and took notice.

Philippe went on to announce the launch of his company’s Veolia Innovation Accelerator (VIA) program, through which it will be actively looking for companies with products and technologies it can use it is water, waste, energy and transportation management businesses.

EVO Electric’s chief technology officer shared an important bit of news with a room full of venture capitalists at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco: The three-year-old British startup had just formed a key partnership with luxury carmaker Lotus. The Lotus Group officially unveiled the partnership this morning, announcing that its concept Evora plug-in hybrid, on display at the Geneva Auto Show, will include two EVO electric motors and an EVO range extender system.

It’s the first electric vehicle announcement in quite awhile that touches on something other than batteries or plug-in infrastructure, a fact that either hints at a dearth of technology or results in that section of the market, or an excessive secrecy among those working on motor, drive train and range-extender technology.

At the Cleantech San Francisco Forum today, market research firm The Cleantech Group announced a $3.2 million round of funding. That in and of itself isn’t all that interesting, but what the group plans to do with the money is: It plans to focus on connecting corporations with the research and advice they need to adopt new green technologies and connect with cleantech startups.

When venture capital fell off a cliff last year, the government stepped in and its efforts, in turn, helped to bring some private investment back to the cleantech space. There’s still a financial drought, however, so startups are increasingly looking to big corporations that might be interested in purchasing their technology, product or, in some cases, company. Perhaps more importantly, corporations are equally as eager to find cutting-edge technologies.

At a panel this morning, executives from Coca-Cola, Sodexo, Duke Energy and Boeing discussed what they’re looking for and the pros and cons of the relationship between corporations and startups — from both sides.

If you think IT and sustainability are two totally different worlds, think again.

Most of what is referred to as “smart” these days — smart transportation, the smart grid and smart cities, for example — is made intelligent by processors, sensors and analytical software, and of course the servers that make it all possible. So it’s not surprising to see tech giants like IBM wanting to create a smarter planet, Cisco wanting to craft smart tech solutions for utilities and companies, and plenty of other, smaller companies wanting a piece of the action.

But while the money and hoopla surrounding all things smart can cloud the issue a bit, the point is that infrastructure in this country is sorely in need of an overhaul. In its Smarter Cities Virtual Leader Forum today, IBM recapped what it’s doing to make education, transportation, government, energy and healthcare smarter. It sees cities as systems of systems.

It’s not always the usual suspects making headlines for good “green” behavior. In fact, according to a study released by New Scientist, oftentimes the companies consumers think of as environmentally responsible aren’t really, while companies that consumers might not think of as particularly eco-conscious are doing quite a bit.

On the other hand, a marketing campaign focused on a company’s sustainability initiatives can open it up to criticism for not doing enough, whereas a company that flies under the radar on the green front generally receives a big pat on the back when they do make some step toward sustainability.

The recent announcement from Whole Foods, Inc., that it would be working to eliminate Canadian tar sands oil from its supply chain, contrasted with the announcement last week from supermarket chain Safeway is a perfect example.

The solar efficiency problem may be solved, not by some amazing new material, but by existing and surprisingly cheap components.

Such were the findings of IBM researchers who recently achieved 9.6 percent efficiency with cells made from copper, tin, zinc, sulfur and/or selenium.

The efficiency of any solar cell refers to its photoelectric conversion rate; in other words, its ability to convert sunlight into electricity. While higher efficiency rates have been posted in the solar world (the highest so far is a 19.3 percent efficiency announced by Mitsubishi today), the IBM cell set a record for solar cells made with such low-cost and readily available materials.

Cities around the world could soon be tapping shipping giant FedEx’s logistical expertise as they develop more sustainable transportation systems. The company is joining forces with EMBARQ, The World Resources Institute Center for Sustainable Transport, and will spend $500,000 over the next two years to help support the program’s efforts in Mexico.

Why Mexico? There are a few reasons. First, EMBARQ launched there, and its work in Mexico City over the past eight years has helped inform work done by its other centers throughout the world. It also has strong partnerships with government and private agencies throughout the country.

Mexico’s role as the host of the next big global climate summit starting in late November may have attracted FedEx’s attention, as well.