SAN FRANCISCO -- I’m in the hallways at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco today and here is what’s happening.

The Masdar Foundation, the massive investment and development organization funded by the government of Abu Dhabi, is raising a $700 million fund, according to a source. The foundation will partner with Deutsche Bank. Masdar partnered with Credit Suisse on their first fund, but there are more to come. The whole Masdar effort — which involves building solar factories, erecting net-zero energy cities, and starting a graduate school for energy efficiency with the help of MIT — is going to be billions. More on this later.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown spoke today. I missed his talk but ran into him (and his larger-than-life eyebrows) in the hallway. His office is putting together its own solar and renewable energy effort. Governor Schwarzenegger already has one. The efforts are somewhat similar, but Brown may focus a bit more on energy efficiency and distributed power, indicated Cliff Rechtschaffen, special assistant to the AG.

I also told Rechtschaffen about an idea from Matt Golden, CEO of Sustainable Spaces: give tax credits for energy efficiency and energy reduction that are equal to the solar credits. Right now, California residents can get whopping credits for solar, but less for reducing power consumption. Rechtschaffen said that is one of the ideas they are looking at.