Busy week, so excuse the laundry list of news items of interest:

• Seattle Biofuels' Martin Tobias and others have formed the Northwest Energy Angel Group to fund regional clean energy startups. Two articles cover the group here and here. Will this signal the beginning of a trend of other regional cleantech-focused angel groups? The role of angel investors in cleantech is a topic we've touched on before.

• Amen, Bob.

• Following up on the recent stories about Kleiner devoting more capital to cleantech investments, here's an interesting interview.
  

• Here's a good overview of alternative energy investment opportunities, courtesy of Joel Makower. On that topic, the Cleantech Capital Group's Cleantech Index now is officially trading -- put ticker ^CTIUS into your stock tracker...

• Matt Marshall spotlights ethanol...

• Finally, a couple of interesting columns on solar. First, a good catchup on the industry by pundit Peter Fusaro. Secondly, a report that the looming silicon shortage is driving M&A in the industry. Fast-moving trends are rapidly changing the shape of the industry.