First, a quick note: I've differed with Vinod Khosla a couple of times on this site in the past. But let's give him his due as well.  Read the story I've linked to here, and be inspired. Such drive and audaciousness is what venture capital is really all about -- and what makes great entrepreneurs. Especially in cleantech, where so many customers are change-resistant, all entrepreneurs and VCs should read this story and take it to heart.

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What exactly is a 'venture capital investment'?  

A definition seems obvious ('startup capital') but of course becomes devilishly difficult to place within specific boundaries. Generally speaking, VC as a subset of private equity is...

I've had a lot of good conversations recently with managers from large companies that are now eagerly looking into cleantech as a potentially strategic area. Many Fortune 100 companies, of course, have been all over cleantech for a few years now.  But it's still significant to note that a new wave of additional corporate strategy managers are looking anew into the sector and trying to determine if there are opportunities within it for growth for their company.  It's a really encouraging signal. And of course, I happen to agree with them that there are opportunities here.

Way way way back in the last century, I actually started my "cleantech" (of course, it wasn't called that back...

After two weeks away from everything, I'd planned on writing this post Sunday night. Somehow, I got a bit distracted. The 2011 news cycle has been incredibly intense so far, and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

In any case, there's been a lot of news over the past few years about the smart grid and how utilities and startups and VCs are working to make the grid more data-driven, flexible, automated, etc. Very often, the discussions about the timing and pace of smart-grid rollout are focused predominantly on utilities and major vendors of transmission and  distribution equipment, including smart meters.

But while that's a large and important aspect of the smart grid...