Boston keeps heating up

It’s getting to be tough to keep up with all the New England cleantech cluster-building efforts.  The latest REBN-East event in Boston was this past week, and was the biggest one yet.  A huge crowd showed up to talk renewables, trade business cards, and enjoy the generous hospitality of Foley Hoag—sponsors and hosts of the event.  Dan Primack even showed up...  The REBN event took part right on the heels of an MIT Enterprise Forum Energy Special Interest Group panel session that also got a good crowd… good collaborative cross-pollination is what is really driving the regional cleantech cluster efforts right now.  And then last night NEEIC held another very enjoyable regional bridge-building dinner (this time between Boston-area and Rhode Island cleantechies).  Look out, California…

Speaking of which:

• Woburn, MA based Wilson TurboPower, which has developed an industrial heat exchanger with dramatic energy efficiency benefits, has raised $3mm in angel financing, according to Clean Technology Investor.  The company is also working on components for a new microturbine design.

• GridPoint, the developer of an electricity storage/ demand response appliance for homeowners, has raised a $32mm Series D with participation by Goldman Sachs, Altira Group and Standard Renewable Energy Group.

• PEWW brought to our attention that Climpact, a French provider of information about the financial impacts of climate change, has raised a EUR 1mm round of financing from Elaia Partners of France.

Other news and notes:  Joel Makower writes about Google’s innovative approach to financing the emergence of a PHEV industry…  This is a terrific idea, directly addressing one of the critical capital gaps in the biofuels innovation path…  Government action in the U.S. to address climate change is looking more and more inevitable...  Finally, would London really ban cars?