...as per SiliconBeat, we're free to cite Matt Marshall that:

• Nanosolar raised a $20M round led by Mohr Davidow, and including Mitsui, Benchmark Capital and the US Army venture capital fund OnPoint.
• Miasole raised a $16M round led by Kleiner Perkins with participation by existing funders.

Matt Marshall's post at SiliconBeat is worth checking out -- he's right that the big news is that these thin-film solar manufacturers are getting close to ready for full production runs. Miasole in particular is getting close to ready for prime time (full disclosure: I am a minor shareholder), while Nanosolar is looking for commercialization in 2006.

Look for big news down the road from these and other thin-film upstarts. Silicon is just very expensive...

• Protonex announced that they added $2M to their Series B round from the $9M previously announced (and described here back in April), by adding funding from Venture Capital Fund of New England and Yellowstone Energy Ventures, and more money from that previously committed by Parker Hannifin Corp. Corporate venture funding has an important role to play in cleantech investing -- something to address in a longer discussion at a later, less-busy time.
  

• Here's a decent primer on "green tags." Between green tags (renewable energy certificates), carbon emission reduction credits, and other emissions credits, there are some new avenues opening up for energy efficient technology firms to gain additional revenue besides simply selling commodity electricity or capturing energy cost savings. Even in the absence of effective policy change in the U.S., such efforts to monetize the positive market externalities associated with clean energy technologies can help cleantech firms capture some of the additional value they are creating. It is a very early, but promising, market development -- which deserves a longer discussion at some point.

• Frost & Sullivan released a report which forecasts U.S. revenues for microfiltration membrane technologies (for water and wastewater treatment) will reach $1.3B by 2011. And then take note: The Chinese market for water technologies could be even larger. Who was it who said, "water will be the next oil?" Oh right, everyone says that now -- and for good reason. This deserves a longer discussion at some point.
  

• SunEdison announced the launch of a new $60M fund to finance solar installations, in conjunction with BP Solar. SunEdison reminds us that, while we all search for cost-effective technological solutions for manufacturing and installing solar systems, there is a potentially lucrative market in simply providing the capital and project management know-how. And that's true for a lot of other power generation approaches beyond simply solar. Such solutions require innovative financial models, strong knowledge of regulations and regulatory drivers, and a good ability to connect cutting edge technologies with installers and naturally-reticent end customers. But SunEdison is not alone in seeking the profit in such a role, there are several other groups with similar aspirations... We will have to discuss them and this broader topic down the road.

It's a bit busy around here right now, but there will be more on these and other topics when the opportunities present themselves...

Crossbow Technology, which provides wireless sensor networks for environmental monitoring, industrial monitoring, etc., announced that they have raised $12M in funding from strategic partners Cisco and Intel, and including "significant funding" from Paladin Capital Group.

Wireless sensors, advanced optical sensors, and machine-to-machine (M2M) technologies are all combining to enable automated decision making with richer data, better responsiveness, better accuracy, and lower costs. This in turn is driving increased efficiency across a wide range of applications. Real-time data across a broad network of measurement points is increasingly a reality, and it can have a lot of different implications for cleantech applications, technologies and markets. Even though these technologies are not necessarily pure "clean technology" plays by themselves (depending upon how restrictive a definition you may use), they are key enablers, and thus they should be of strong interest to cleantech investors.

In a move that other technology startups have also considered, PolyFuel has announced that they will be listing on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market for early stage companies. They will reportedly raise about 12M pounds at a valuation of 40M pounds.

Listing on AIM or other "venture exchanges" is an interesting new option for early stage companies that would ordinarily be looking at new private equity rounds. The jury is still out regarding what kind of treatment such moves will be given in the long run, what the implications will be for broader acceptance of cleantech investing, and what the implications will be for private equity investors.

At least for now, such listings generally appear to be being received well by the public markets, and they are also providing a nice opportunity for venture capital investors to gain some early liquidity opportunities and mark-to-market valuations.

AgraQuest, which offers natural solutions for pest management, announced today that they have raised $14.35M. Existing investor Otter Capital joined new investors TPG and Halcyon Capital in leading the deal.

AgraQuest had previously raised $9.4M in early 2003.

Houston-based alternative energy VC Contango Capital has announced they are raising a second fund (they closed their first fund in Jan. at a little over $8M). This second fund is targeted for $50M. The firm's current portfolio is heavily weighted in hydrogen and fuel cell technology plays.

There have been a few odds-and-ends news items in the past few days that follow up on topics we have discussed here before. Thus, in case you missed them, check out:

• This news release from Frost & Sullivan describing the need for increased spending on water infrastructure -- a nice follow-up to this post linking to Matt Marshall's good article on the attractiveness of clean water venture capital investing. The Frost & Sullivan report indicates that water infrastructure spending in the U.S. is already a $4B market, and is growing as regulatory and sheer operational needs mount. The report specifically points to membrane technologies and water meter reading as key areas for growth.

• Matt Marshall also has a very interesting post on SiliconBeat today referring to this post on Vinod Khosla which itself linked to an interesting story at BusinessWeek's Dealflow column.

• Regarding this post on biomass energy, here's a timely announcement from the DOE and USDA that they are going to promote the use of biomass-generated hydrogen.

• As mentioned a couple of times (here and here), solid state lighting is an area of interesting innovation. Here's another recent CleanEdge article describing ongoing progress in that technology.

• Finally, Konarka continues to get more press coverage, following on these mentions here, here, here and here.