With car companies gearing up to launch a new generation of plug-in hybrid and electric cars over the next five years, the time has come to pick sites for manufacturing the vehicles. Given that many of these factories come with promises to create hundreds or thousands of jobs in the surrounding area, stakes have been high in the competition among cities, states and countries to woo the automakers in recent months. To plot out where the next green car boom will be, we’ve put together this map — we’re at 25 sites and counting, including places that companies have named to their “short list” (yellow flags) and those announced as a final choice (green flags). Some factory plans still require additional funding to go through, so we’ve noted time lines and funding issues for the projects. And as Tesla Motors has demonstrated with its Model S factory site selection (initially in California, then New Mexico then back to Cali), these plans can change.

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5 Energy Storage Players That Won Smart Grid Stimulus Funds: These energy storage firms were thrust into the spotlight this week when Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced the latest round of grants under the $4 billion stimulus program for smart grid projects.

Tesla IPO: A Test for VC Model in the Auto Biz: If and when Tesla goes through with its long-discussed goal of going public, will also offer a glimpse at the role IPOs will play in the nascent green car market.

Report: Cost of Solar to Drop By Half By End of 2009: By the end of this year, “capital markets will loosen up” and solar equipment costs will continue to decline, delivering a 50 percent drop in overall solar costs compared to the end of 2008, according to a new forecast from New Energy Finance.

First Solar Keeps on Selling Off Solar Projects: In the latest indication of its strategy to develop and sell off projects, First Solar announced this week that it has sold its high-profile, 21MW solar energy project in Blythe, Calif., to NRG Energy, a merchant power producer.

10 Things to be Thankful For in Greentech: Start easing your mind back into the world of renewable energy, climate change and green technologies with these ten things in greentech to be thankful for this year.

The Department of Energy earlier this week announced $18 million in funding grants from the recovery act to support innovation coming from small clean energy businesses. Here’s a look at three of the recipients focused on the green building industry: Chelix, KaZaK and Trinity Thermal Systems. The technologies developed could find ready customers in the growing U.S. green building retrofit market, which is expected to reach $2.1 billion-$3.7 billion on an annual basis by 2014.

Chelix ($150,000): will develop transparent paints that are highly reflective and if applied to roofs could reduce the amount of heat buildings absorb. The Hawthorne, NY-based company (its R&D is based in Sunnyvale, Calif.) aims to develop a “full polymer system,” essentially advanced plastic materials, that can reflect the invisible heat radiation contained in sunlight. Yingqiu Jiang, general manager for Chelix, tells us that the company believes it can “break” these polymers into a pigment, or white powder, that could then be mixed with a clear ink to create a transparent paint.

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Despite all the attention on battery technology for energy storage for the power grid in the latest round of smart grid stimulus funds, current battery technology is just too expensive to be mass deployed right now, according to analysts at Black and Veatch. “Unless battery technology makes dramatic advances soon, B&V doesn’t see them being much of a factor in helping states like California meet their RPS goals looking out to 2020,” the firm told us in an email. Here’s a handy-dandy chart showing just how much cheaper compressed air energy storage (CAES) technology, flywheels, and pumped hydro are (further descriptions of these technologies here) compared to battery technology (NAS stands for a sodium sulfur battery, which are some of the cheaper forms of batteries already in use for the power grid):

After you take time to appreciate your family and Thanksgiving feast, start easing your mind back into the world of renewable energy, climate change and green technologies with these ten things in greentech to be thankful for this year. In addition to these ten trends and events, of course, we’re thankful for our insightful readers. So we hope you’ll share in the comments section the things in greentech that are worth your thanks in 2009.

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Sometimes a week in the fickle world of international climate change politics can deliver a whole new ball game. Last week politicians and pundits were decrying that the Copenhagen climate talks, which are now 12 days away, would not include a formal pact given the U.S. Senate had failed to pass its climate bill. Without a decision on the bill many worried that the U.S. would not commit to specific greenhouse gas emission reductions. But this week, the Obama administration announced that it will set a provisional emissions target in the range of 17 percent below 2005 levels and President Obama will attend the Copenhagen event on December 9th.

Both are relatively small steps considering the U.S. is the only industrialized country that has yet to commit to binding emissions targets, and the Obama administration will still be awaiting support from Congress to finalize the commitment. But Obama had previous only said he would attend the event “if his presence would help produce a meaningful result.” For Yves de Boer, the UN climate treaty chief, the attendance of Obama at the conference “is critical for a good outcome,” he said at a press conference in Bonn, Germany this morning.

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Obama Heading to Copenhagen: The White House announced today that President Obama will attend the UN climate talks next month in Copenhagen “and commit the U.S. to a short-term emission reduction target ‘in the range of 17 percent’ below 2005 levels, providing new momentum for negotiations that had been faltering.” — Washington Post

Cali Unveils Cap and Trade Draft: The California Air Resources Board has released a preliminary version of its first-in-the-nation “cap and trade” plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions. — The Sacramento Bee

Will the Smart Grid Save Energy for Consumers?: “So far, the smartening up of the grid has focused on saving utilities money and preventing blackouts and brown outs. Necessary things, to be sure, but not exactly the efficient utopia that’s often promised by smart grid proponents.” — Solve Climate

China Strengthens Push for Green Energy Exports: The battle over clean-energy tech “is increasingly becoming a scrap for governments as much as for private-sector firms.” The latest play: China’s Export-Import Bank signed a $2.9 billion deal to boost exports of an energy-efficiency and renewable-energy project developer. — WSJ’s Environmental Capital

GM Working to Turn Up Chevy Volt Volume: On a prototype of the Chevy Volt, General Motors it testing a gentle horn tone that automatically activated as people pass near the car as part of an effort to alert the blind and other pedestrians to the presence of the car when it’s running in near-silent, low-speed electric mode. — Green Car Advisor

Solyndra, the well-funded maker of tube-shaped solar panels based in Fremont, Calif., has just scored a deal with Milan, Italy-based solar integrator Sun System. Under an agreement that Solyndra says could be worth up to $105 million over several years, Sun System will use the 4-year-old startup’s cylindrical thin film systems for commercial rooftop installations in southern Italy.

Today’s agreement will help Solyndra continue to ramp up its presence in Europe, where the company set up headquarters in January as part of an effort to get more business in the region’s most active photovoltaic markets, including France, Germany, Greece, Italy and Spain.

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The second largest defense contractor Boeing was one of the few tech providers and the only defense firm that won grants in the $620 million round of smart grid stimulus funds announced yesterday (most of the winners, like in the $3.4 billion round of funding announced back in October, were utilities). So what is Boeing’s strategy for the next-generation of digital technology for the power grid?: Use its defense background to move into network security for the smart grid, while its bread and butter defense business faces budget cuts.

Yesterday the Department of Energy awarded Boeing $8.56 million (for a project valued at $17.17 million) to “demonstrate an advanced software technology with military-grade cybersecurity,” for optimizing transmission system operation. In a list of adjectives describing Boeing’s smart grid technology, the DOE put “cybersecure,” as the first term. Boeing has also been working with New York utility Con Edison, which won $45.39 million from the stimulus package yesterday for a demo project that will build a “secure interoperable open smart grid demonstration in New York and New Jersey.”

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