Novinium, Nanosolar, Range Fuels, Tendril, 6N, and other deals

• Novinium, which has technology for extending the life of electric and telecom cables, has raised a $6mm Series C, led by Nomura’s New Energy and Clean Technology Ventures, and including existing investors.  The Seattle region continues to be hot for cleantech…

• Cellulosic ethanol developer Range Fuels announced a Series B round “greater than $100mm”, confirming what VentureWire wrote back in March.  Of course, VWire today mentions that the round size is actually $130mm.  It’s worth noting the little PR war going on in cellulosic ethanol these days, where all the emerging startups are claiming aggressive cost targets and estimating higher targets for their competitors.  But they’re all gravitating toward the $1-1.25/gallon range, it seems.  ...At least in terms of targets.  The proof will be in the pudding.

• Good Energies has led a $20mm Series B investment into Canadian silicon producer 6N Silicon.  Existing investors Yaletown and Ventures West also participated.  They raised their Series A back in July of last year.

• Energy efficiency/ smart home system developer Tendril Networks has raised a $12mm Series B, led by RRE Ventures.  This appears to be an extension of the $5.25mm Series B they announced way back in 2006.

• Munich-based Clean Mobile, a developer of fuel cell systems for small vehicles like scooters, has raised a $5.1mm Series A.  Earlybird Venture Capital and Silicon Valley Technology Group led the financing.

• Fuel cells for backup power is the application being pursued by ReliOn, which announced a $17mm third round of financing.  Backers include Oak Investment Partners, Enterprise Partners Venture Capital, Wall Street Technology Partners, and Chrysalix.

• GTM’s Funding Roundup from today also has news on several other deals:  Another $15mm for GridPoint… Aptera launching production… and Onzo getting a big P.O. in addition to financing.

• Oh, and one last little one to note: Nanosolar raised $50mm from EdF... with a rumored valuation of $2B.  Meanwhile, earlier this week Jonathan Shieber of VWire reported that fellow CIGS developer Solyndra is looking to raise $150mm at up to a $1B post-money valuation.  Wow.  I mean…  Wow.

Other news and notes:  Bill Green on why Green is better than Green (forgive my bloggy pun and check out the linked interview, it’s a good read)...  Tim Draper thinks cleantech has a long runway ahead...  Finally, a small collection of some good cleantech-related April Fools jokes from the web—here, and here, and of course here.