Fumio Ohtsubo, who runs the Panasonic conglomerate, told Bloomberg that the company will invest $1 billion in green technologies, particularly solar panels, energy storage systems and green technologies for the home.

It's good to be proven right. For the past few years, we've been writing that Japanese conglomerates – and in particular Panasonic – will make a concerted push into green. These companies have the technology and have honed them in their domestic market. Plus, they have the manufacturing footprint.

Panasonic already provides batteries to Toyota for the Prius and will sell lithium-ion batteries to Tesla Motors for the Model S. In Japan, and maybe Europe, the company hopes to get its construction division to produce green homes in a few years. The homes will come complete with energy-efficient appliances and TVs (see a video of its water-saving washing machine here). One idea it is working on is DC-to-AC hybrid wiring for solar homes.

Earlier this year, it started selling home fuel cells that turn methane into hydrogen (for electricity) and heat in conjunction with utility Osaka Gas. And, like a lot of TV manufacturers, it has begun to tout energy efficiency as a selling point in TVs. Some of its plasma TVs consume only 142 watts, explained Pete Fannon, vice president of technology, policy and government regulation at Panasonic.

The company also recently announced plans to release a LED light bulb that costs $40, consumes about 7 watts, and emits as much light as a 60-watt incandescent.

Need more? Panasonic also participates in electronics recycling facilities and is a member of a number of smart grid panels in the U.S. And it's buying Sanyo, which will make it a big player in solar.

Panasonic, though, will also have to battle with the sluggishness that comes with conglomerate-itis. The acquisition, after all, comes as a result of financial losses at Sanyo. A year ago, and the year before that, I interviewed Ohtsubo and other Panasonic executives about plans to bring their green homes to the U.S. There was a definite reticence. Japan, yes, he said, and likely also Europe. 

Other Asian conglomerates also seem intent on capitalizing on the movement toward green. Toshiba, a major manufacturer of LEDs and batteries, said it may begin to make acquisitions in LEDs. TSMC, the Taiwanese chipmaker, has been scouting for acquisition targets in solar and LEDs in Silicon Valley. Samsung has also begun to ramp up green activities and says it will be the largest solar manufacturer in the world by 2015, a path paved in party by its expertise in TV manufacturing. Some large Asian conglomerates are creating building management systems.

Admit it. You've never spent much time thinking about the difference between flourine and nitrogen triflouride.

Solar manufacturers and chip makers have traditionally employed nitrogen triflouride to apply chemical layers in chemical vapor deposition chambers. It's an extremely harmful chemical. Although CVD chambers are vacuums, some gas invariably escapes. Swapping it with flourine reduces greenhouse gas emissions (see more on the video from Intersolar here).

Masdar PV, the solar manufacturer within the Abu Dhabi's Masdar Group, has adopted flourine control systems for its amorphous silicon solar panel lines. The two companies also stated that flourine reduces processing and cleaning time, which in turn reduces the cost of the panels.

There have been a number of interesting announcements in factory chemistry this year. Dow Corning, for instance, started selling a silicone encapsulant for solar panels that it says speeds up factory throughput (thereby cutting panel costs) and protects panels better than traditional encapsulants. Small startup Armageddon Energy, they with the modular solar rack, have also taken out some of the weight from their solar panels by swapping out glass for a flexible film.

Masdar began producing solar panels this summer. It was running two shifts six days a week at its factory, which is capable of producing 65 megawatts of solar panels per year, CEO Rainer Gegenwart told us in October. The plan is to expand the production to 85 megawatts by 2011. The Abu Dhabi factory, at 65 megawatts, could be built in 2010, though that depends on how well the market will have recovered. 

The company is shipping panels with 6 percent to 6.6 percent efficiency. The panels make use of a layer of amorphous silicon to convert sunlight into electricity. Next year, it plans to start making panels with two layers of amorphous silicon, and Gegenwart expects the efficiency to fall between 7 percent to 7.8 percent.

You know green has gone mainstream when military contractors talk about it.

Wednesday, Lockheed-Martin executives will outline the company's strategy with regard to alternative energy, energy storage, and efficiency. (More at this link here. We initially said tomorrow. We regret the error.)

Lockheed, Bechtel and other mainline contractors have long been on our list of alternative energy companies to watch. Although startups often come up with innovative, clever ideas, it will be up to these large outfits to transform the concepts into reality. They are the only ones with the technology, talent, time and money. Lockheed has employees who've spent more time in land use hearings than probably all of the solar startups put together.

So far, Lockheed hasn't seen unimpeded success. It signed, and then cancelled a deal to build at 290 megawatt solar farm with Starwood. Clearly, though, that's not the last deal for the company.

As a result, expect to see green become a barbell market: A lot of small companies competing to get acquired or sign strategic alliances with large companies. And in the middle you'll see First Solar.

SAN MATEO, Calif. -- Former Vice President Al Gore says the White House will try to get a climate bill passed by late spring 2010 or earlier.

"The window for 2010 probably closes around when spring ends," he said during a speech at GreenBeat taking place in San Mateo. Things are looking a bit up. Senators Joe Lieberman (Gore's former running mate) and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina are already working with Democratic senators to write a piece of legislation that will get at least some bipartisan support. It will probably include more subsidies for nuclear power, but otherwise will be similar to the Waxman-Markey bill that the U.S. House of Representatives passed earlier this year.

If the White House can get a Spring victory, it can go to a international conference in June with a solid U.S. position on climate legislation. Otherwise, the next big international event for the White House to present what the U.S. has accomplished comes in Mexico City in late 2010.

While green power is important, Gore added that infusing the grid with intelligence will likely have a larger impact.

"The single largest solution is efficiency," he said. "The reason efficiency is the largest source of low carbon or no carbon energy is the fact that we waste so much energy."

Distributed generation and power will also increase the need for grid improvements. The average age of transformers in the U.S. is 42 years old. Lots of new products, jobs etc. Whirlpool has smart appliances coming.

Right now it takes 1 gigawatt worth of power just to provide power to TVs that are plugged in yet turned off, Gore stated.

Things will outnumber people on the internet, he stated. By early next year, there will be one billion transistors for every person in the world.

Other highlights of the speech so far: We face a masssive climate change and he used to listen to Minnie Pearl on the Grand Ol' Opry.

Dow Chemical, the chemical manufacturer that plans to release roofing tiles with integrated copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar cells next year, has inked a multimillion dollar research alliance with Caltech to experiment with next generation solar cells.

The goal will be to identify relatively earth-abundant materials that can be exploited to develop future, cheaper solar cells. Caltech doesn't get the same sort of adulation in the press as MIT or Stanford, but the school has given birth to a few interesting energy startups. Secretive Alta Devices which has a next generation solar cell comes to mind. So does concentrator company Soliant, which is just going commercial.  

Dow has become a quiet name to watch in solar. Although startups have jumpstarted the green market, the capital and manufacturing requirements needed to make solar cells or wind turbines mean that old-line industrialists and conglomerates increasingly may come to define the market. Earlier this year, Dow released a silicone (not silicon) encapsulant for solar cells that improved protection while increasing factory output. Honeywell also released coatings.

Disclosure: When I practiced law, I worked on some Dow Corning cases, but it's not like I remember anything.

A consortium of Chinese and U.S. companies want to build a 600-megawatt wind farm in Texas that they say will create jobs in the U.S.

Well, some.

The project, which will cost an estimated $1.5 billion, will create 2,800 jobs, backers told the Wall Street Journal. Fifteen percent – or around 240 – will be in the U.S. The rest will be in China. The wind farm is being developed by a joint venture formed by Shenyang Power Group, the U.S. Renewable Energy Group and Cielo Wind Power. Shenyang will own 49 percent of the project. It will employ turbines from A-Power Generation. Jinxiang Lu is CEO of both SPG and A-Power. Commercial banks in China will provide financing.

The backers will also seek stimulus funds and tax credits.

The deal is fascinating and bears worth watching for several reasons. First, the deal – like the deal between Duke Energy and China's ENN to build solar farms – will not just involve bringing comparatively inexpensive wind turbines or solar panels to the U.S. Chinese companies and banks will likely be actively involved in building and managing these power plants. In other words, Chinese companies will be involved in the sort of higher-value services that white-collar America craves.

Second, alternative energy appears to be China's opportunity to establish brands worldwide. Companies like Toyota, Sony and Toshiba helped Japan move from a back-end manufacturer to a maker of goods in its own right. South Korea's economy was greatly enhanced when Samsung and LG became respected leaders in consumer electronics. China hasn't really had a brand yet. Many thought Haier, the electronics maker would be the first, but that hasn't happened. But in alternative energy, Suntech is already a brand name in solar and some of the companies listed above will likely become familiar, at least in some regions in the U.S.

Don't get me wrong. I actually admire Chinese companies. The quality and ambition of the entrepreneurs behind companies in China has consistently impressed me. They also pay their CEOs less than U.S. companies. The companies behind the wind venture also wouldn't be the first international entries into the stimulus derby: Spanish and South Korean companies have received millions through U.S. joint ventures. But it is an interesting trend. In the near future, one of the best places to work might be a U.S. subsidiary of a Chinese company.

Solar companies may start looking inward, and around the Mississippi, for new business.

That's the word from Rosalind Jackson, one of the people at the advocacy and policy group Vote Solar. At Solar Power International this week, Vote Solar spent a lot of time talking to various state officials and the interest in solar in the middle of the country.

Missouri voters passed a referendum for renewable power and the legislature is now assigned the task of coming up with companion legislation and regulations to make it happen. Illinois is expected to build out 750 megawatts of solar capacity. Kansas is studying net metering. Earlier this week, Ohio and Michigan issued reports predicting green tech job growth.

"Pennsylvania," she said with emphasis.

Ontario, just North of this region, is already a booming solar spot. Over time, one can likely expect to see these states adopt the tax credits and other incentives adopted elsewhere.

So if you want to expand the market share for your microinverters or thin film BIPV tiles, you might want to start introducing yourself to the electrical contractors and others in the Jefferson City area.