Oorja, Range Fuels, Luminus Devices, RecycleBank and others

• Methanol fuel-cell developer Oorja announced today that they are emerging out of stealth mode, with some other operational announcements as well.  Cleantech.com mentioned that the company has raised a total of $21mm so far in venture financing from Sequoia Capital, DAG Ventures, McKenna Management and Spring Ventures.  We first mentioned the company back in 2006.

• Jonathan Shieber at VentureWire reported this week that cellulosic ethanol producer Range Fuels has raised $100mm.  Khosla Ventures put in $25mm, and another investor led the round with another $25mm, with the rest of the funders not noted.  This round size suggests that the post-money valuation these investors put on Range Fuels may have been about the same or more than JP Morgan’s price for Bear Stearns…

• Los Alamos Renewable Energy, which is using concentrated sunlight to produce hydrogen, has raised a $20mm round of financing, according to VentureBeat.  Funders besides local New Mexico VC Sun Mountain Capital were not mentioned (although they were speculated) in the article.

• Coskata, which we mentioned recently in conjunction with their strategic investment from GM, has apparently completed their latest round of financing with $19.5mm, according to PEWW.  Globespan, GM Capital Partners, Khosla Ventures, Great Point Ventures and Advanced Technology Ventures all participated in the round.

• LED developer Luminus Devices has raised a $72mm Series E.  Braemar led the round, which also included participation by CMEA, Paladin Capital Group, and previous investors.

• RecycleBank, which sets up systems where residential recyclers get discounts from companies like Coke and Whole Foods, raised a $30mm round of financing led by Kleiner Perkins, according to VentureWire.

• Cleantech investors in the news: Daniel Leff is joining Globespan as a venture partner, to focus on cleantech…  And Google may invest in enhanced geothermal.

Other news and notes:  Business Week says clean energy is getting affordable...  Meanwhile clean energy markets continue to grow like gangbusters, according to CleanEdge and other coverage like SolarBuzz...  Just thought this write-up of Stion was pretty in-depth, so thought I’d provide a link...  “Green Construction Red-Hot with VCs”...  Meanwhile, here in Massachusetts, some very interesting efforts to encourage the implementation of “zero net energy buildings”, as well as more effort on Beacon Hill to promote clean energy adoption...  Paul Dickerson of the EERE summarizes how they’re looking to work with VCs...  Finally, could the Bear Stearns situation impact cleantech venture markets?