As anyone interested in energy technology knows, electric utilities are -- generally speaking -- slow technology adopters. They operate under a mandate to be conservative, not to be innovative, since the most important thing they have to do is make sure the lights stay on. Electric utility engineers are not very risk-seeking, to be sure, and you can't blame them for it.

This often means that promising technologies aimed at utility customers may have a hard time getting initial market traction. No utility wants to be first to try out a new technology. And even when they do move, they are going to test the technology in a series of limited trials and beta tests over a long period of time before they actually start buying the products at any significant scale. Thus, technologies such as "smart grid" systems (automation of the electricity transmission and distribution network, including fault detection, efficiency optimization, etc.), which may get a lot of positive press and investor attention because of their innovativeness and potentially compelling value propositions, can still often take too long to develop for venture investors to make their expected returns. It can be very tough to time the market in such situations.

So it was interesting to see this take on likely adoption paths for the smart grid, by the Center for Smart Energy. They note that the technology adoption cycle for utilities is often 20-25 years, but argue that the smart grid is primed for a rapid adoption phase in the next 5-10 years. They've broken down the systems into several useful categories, and -- to an extent -- provided some thoughts about the timing and pace of adoption for each. One could quibble with some of their timing thoughts (for example, knowing how conservative utilities necessarily are, you might expect information security to be a critical issue earlier in the adoption cycle than CSE indicates), but it's an intriguing summary. And a good introduction to the smart grid for those getting up to speed on the topic in general.

Solicore, which manufactures flexible batteries for use in applications such as smart credit cards, announced a $15M Series C led by Rho Ventures. $12.7M has already been raised in the round, which is expected to close soon.

With $40M raised to date, investors such as Rho and DFJ, Braemar, Firelake Capital, OPG Ventures, Air Products & Chemicals and others are making a big early bet on the company, which could be poised for strong growth if smart cards, RFID and similar applications see rapid adoption.

Power Efficiency Corp. announced today that they raised a $2.43M private placement, of which approx. 25% was provided by Summit Energy Ventures. Power Efficiency Corp. designs and manufactures energy saving motor controllers, which include a soft start for constant speed-variable load AC induction motors. The company reports that savings from these controllers are typically 15-35%, but can be as high as 45%.

Seattle Biodiesel, a biodiesel refinery startup in the Pacific Northwest, announced that they have raised $2M from Ignition Partners and Chairman/ CEO Martin Tobias. Tobias is also a Venture Partner at Ignition Partners. Ignition Partners typically focuses on software investments, so the investment in Seattle Biodiesel is a bit of a change. The company plans to turn a profit by the end of the year, and I know Martin has some big plans for the company going forward...

CMR Fuel Cells has announced that they have raised a Series B, of undisclosed amount. The UK-based company is developing fuel cells for portable and small stationary power generation markets. Investors include Conduit Ventures, The Carbon Trust, and the Generics Group.

For those who are following the world of cleantech investing with some interest, Peter Fusaro provides one man's thoughts about the market and current investment strategies in this provocative column. Many may agree or disagree strongly with some of Peter's comments, but either way it's well worth reading, given his expertise in the market... Readers of this site are invited to comment and provide their reactions.

In terms of drivers of cleantech investing, Tyler Hamilton's Clean Break page today points out this very interesting press release, describing a recent scenario analysis of oil prices under a moderate disruption of oil supply -- a removal of 3.5M barrels out of the world market of 83M barrels per day, which is not that inconceivable (see this Department of Energy list of historic oil disruptions for examples). As the study concluded, such a scenario could realistically drive gas prices up to $5.74 per gallon, and oil prices up above $150 per barrel. Were that to happen, the impacts for clean technology investments, particularly those targeting energy generation or efficiency, would be tremendous. For anyone looking to make a case for cleantech investing, this is more ammunition: The cleantech investment thesis isn't just a long-horizon assumption of increasing energy prices, it's also the near-term very real possibility of significant energy price spikes.

Two cleantech companies announced raises recently:

• GreenFuel Technologies, which uses algae and industrial emissions to create biofuels, announced a $2.4M bridge financing, as the company works to complete a Series B round. The company also recently brought on a chief executive. New investors provided at least some of the funding; the company had previously been backed by Access Industries and private investors.
  

• HydroGen, which produces phosphoric acid fuel cell products, announced that they have gone public via the acquisition of a shell company, in the process raising $13.5M from a group of investors including at least one institutional investor. The firm is now trading publicly as OTCBB: CSTC (at least before a likely ticker change). This kind of process for becoming publicly-traded appears to be increasingly popular, but becoming a publicly-traded company so early has its pros and cons.

Finally, while I pointed to the SF Chronicle article on nanotech-based solar startups yesterday, I should have also linked to this educational side-bar. Both articles probably should have mentioned Miasole as well (Nanosys, Nanosolar and Konarka are mentioned). Miasole is a local company that is also involved in nano-scale deposition for PV cell manufacturing, and which recently took in a large round of financing.