Some news items of interest this morning:

• ZipCar announced they have raised $10M to expand their operations out to the West Coast. The car-share company is projecting $15M in revenues this year, and raised this most recent round from Benchmark Capital (prior funding came largely from angels).

• Speaking of Benchmark, their early investment in Nanosolar is cited in this interesting article on nanotech and solar (something we've written about before). Today's amazing stat: The photovoltaic industry grew 54% last year, according to Strategies Unlimited.

• Cool Clean announced that they raised $3.5M in equity funding from strategic partner Air Water (will provide a link to the announcement when available). The raise reportedly happened a while back, but the announcement came today.
  

Current Communications has raised a large round (reportedly around $100M) from investors including Goldman Sachs, Google, and The Hearst Corp (update: also included previous investors EnerTech Capital Partners and Liberty Associated Partners). Current has broadband over powerline (BPL) offerings that allow internet access through electrical lines in your home and through the power grid.

Why is this of interest to cleantech investors? Because of the applications it enables. As the "smart grid" and demand-side energy management technologies develop and mature, one consistent obstacle to mass adoption is the lack of a consistent communications media to serve as the backbone of such smart networks. It's difficult for an electric utility to roll out remotely-controlled energy efficiency technologies across an entire neighborhood, for example, when the utility has to access and control those technologies across a hodgepodge of DSL, cable, dial-up, wireless, etc. technologies which the different residents may each be using. Instead, if every home were connected to the internet via BPL (often in addition to their existing broadband connection), it would make the utility's job a lot easier and cheaper.

Many telecom investors, perhaps including Current's new backers, are expecting that BPL will be a "third pipe" into the home that will successfully compete with cable and DSL to provide entertainment and information services. The utility would build the pipe, and then lease the access out to someone like Earthlink, a satellite TV provider, or competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) for IP telephony. By itself, that is not necessarily a cleantech play.

But if a utility does roll out a BPL network, it enables a lot of cleantech applications: smart metering to help residential and commercial energy efficiency decision-making, remote control of lighting and HVAC, power grid monitoring, power grid automation, indoor air quality monitoring, water usage monitoring and control, etc. (Take a look at how Current describes some of these applications from their perspective) And indeed, many utilities are counting upon that as part of the justification for rolling out BPL networks, for both internal business cases, and justifications to their public utility commissions.

Current Communications' funding may not be a "cleantech" investment per se. But it's an indicator that BPL may finally be getting ready for prime time (there are a surprisingly large amount of utility roll-outs and pilot programs out there already -- note: opens a PDF), and that has implications for other cleantech investment opportunities.

Check out this Q&A with Technology Partners' Ira Ehrenpreis on the Red Herring site today. Ira's always a strong supporter of cleantech venture investing, and also always good for a good quote or two... "This is an under-innovated sector."

Cleantech venture investors Sustainable Asset Management (SAM) Private Equity announced that they have been awarded management of Ontario Power Generation (OPG's) portfolio of nine direct energy venture investments.

This follows on October's announcement (note: opens a pdf) that SAM would be taking over the energy venture portfolio of the Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec.

Together, these announcements show SAM is increasing their role in cleantech investing in Canada.

Two market studies from last week:

• WinterGreen Research released a study which concludes that the market for "fuel cell components" will reach $100B by 2013. Up from an estimated $171M in 2004.
  

• Freedonia released a study which concludes that "world fuel cell demand" will reach $2.6B by 2009, and $13.6B by 2014.

Clearly there remains some significant uncertainty around the growth and adoption path for fuel cell technology...

From last week:

• ReVolt, manufacturer of a rechargeable zinc-air battery that aims to replace lithium-ion batteries, raised 7M euros in VC funding last week. The company, based in Norway, raised the capital from Northzone Ventures, Sofinnova Partners, Techno Venture Management and Viking Ventures.

• Hy-Drive Technologies, an Ontario company which has developed a system for improving internal combustion engine performance (by injecting hydrogen), announced they have raised about C$2.6M via a PIPE transaction.
  

Many thanks to Kjartan for doing such a great job keeping things up to date here over the last couple of weeks... It was particularly great to read his post about the Energy Tech Investor Conference, which I hated to miss. But a couple of weeks of reading, relaxing and recharging were exactly what the doctor ordered, so a big bottle of liquid thanks is on its way to you, Kjartan!

It seems like the momentum around cleantech investing built visibly even during these past two weeks, with lots of media coverage and new deals.

In the most recent example, Business Week came out July 4th with another article talking about the increased activity in cleantech investing, and clean energy investing in particular. As is becoming the norm, good quotes by familiar faces, and a discussion about rising energy prices as a key driver.

What's interesting and a bit different in this article, however, is the mention at the tail end of the article that -- especially related to solar investments -- "the current rush to invest could create a bubble similar to the one that happened with fuel cells a few years ago."

We're probably a long way from that. A handful of big bets, placed in a very promising and potentially huge market, do not a "bubble" make. But it's a sign that the debate is moving strongly past the "does it even make sense to invest?" question, into the "is it too late to get in?" question. Especially from a broader cleantech perspective, of course, the answer to that latter question is a resounding "no".