We talk a lot about new energy opportunities and technology breakthroughs here on Earth2Tech, and less about the high risks involved in developing new cleantech markets and commercializing unproven technologies. But at the Berkeley-Stanford CleanTech Conference this week, there was a lot of discussion over the tensions between venture capitalists backing new technologies and the utilities, regulatory and industry groups in charge of bringing the clean power to the people.

Sue Kateley, executive director of the solar industry group California Solar Energy Industries Association, said she was concerned about venture capitalists flushing money into companies that promise to offer and install solar for free (no up-front costs) to consumers. “The free reckless solar thing can kill the industry,” Kately said, explaining that she saw similar business models that went under in the energy boom decades ago.

Utilities’ motivations can come into conflict with those of venture capitalists when it comes to the price of contracts for utility-scale renewable deals like solar thermal power plants. Roy Kuga, VP in the energy supply division of California utility PG&E, said that while the company would like to deliver the most competitive price for customers, venture-backed startups are looking for higher-priced contracts in order to deliver the kind of financial returns that venture firms want (startups Ausra, BrightSource, eSolar and Infinia are all venture-backed).

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Although a public offering from a solar installer met a chilly response on the Street this week, one of cleantech’s most mature industries, wind energy, might have an IPO of its own soon. Riding high on record wind installations, Noble Environmental Power, a developer and operator of wind farms in the Northeast, has filed for a $375 million IPO on the Nasdaq under the ticker “NEPI.” (Hat tip PEHub)

The company says it currently operates 282 megawatts of wind power capacity across three wind parks in New York and plans to have 465 megawatts of capacity come online by the end of the year. With another 1,205 megawatts in development, the company says it will have nearly 2 gigawatts of capacity by 2010. All of this is part of America’s booming wind energy market, which grew 45 percent last year and is on track to set a new record this year with 1,400 megawatts of capacity installed in the first quarter, according to new figures from the American Wind Energy Association.

Headquartered in Essex, Conn., Noble will have its IPO underwritten by its majority owner JP Morgan, as well as Lehman Brothers and Credit Suisse. Founded in 2004, Noble hasn’t set an IPO date but intends to debut sometime later this year.

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Following yesterday’s cloudy performance by solar stocks, this morning some solar players announced a deal that could help them weather the storm. Residential solar designer and installer Akeena is teaming up with residential solar financier Sun Run. The partnership will connect Akeena’s “LEGO-like” Andalay panel system with Sun Run’s power purchase agreement financing, maintenance and monitoring services.

Los Gatos, Calif.-based Akeena, one of the larger solar installers, has invested in creating an integrated racking and mounting system, and had previously not been using power purchase agreements to sell its systems. San Francisco-based Sun Run has developed a business selling fixed power rates amid rising energy costs, focusing on the residential market. Using PPAs to sell solar is popular in the commercial business — Tioga Energy, MMA Renewables and Sun Edison all use a PPA model — but not so in the residential space. Sun Run’s main competitor, SolarCity, offers solar lease agreements, allowing the startup to offer residential solar with no money down.

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As the debate over whether countries should mandate more or less biofuels rages on, Finland’s diesel car drivers — at least in the Helsinki area — now have a chance to fill up their tanks with a new diesel fuel blend whose biodiesel content is at least 10 percent. Neste Oil, Finland’s biggest oil refiner, launched the new biodiesel blend commercially this week, called Neste Green diesel; the biofuel is a mixture of fossil fuel diesel and Neste Oil’s NExBTL Renewable diesel, which is based on renewable raw materials such as palm oil, rapeseed oil and animal fats.

Neste Oil aims to become the global leader in renewable diesel. The company is currently producing NExBTL in one refinery in Porvoo, Finland; a second plant is also under construction elsewhere in the country. A third, which the company claims will be the biggest biodiesel production plant in the world, is currently being built in Singapore. Neste is also said to be looking for investments to build additional plants in the future, potentially in the Benelux countries in Western Europe or in the U.S.

Many, however, oppose the shift to biofuels made partly of palm oil, arguing that it, too, is far from environmentally friendly. Today a European Union directive mandates that each member country should have at least 2 percent of bio or renewable ingredients in transport fuels.

In Helsinki, Greenpeace activists welcomed the new Neste Green diesel by locking the fuel pump nozzles at Neste fueling stations. Wearing orangutan suits, activists claimed that the increased use of palm oil is resulting in cutting down of rain forests and destroying the living environment of endangered orangutans.

“Another Sunny Year for Solar Power”: A new report from the Worldwatch Institute estimates that global production of PV cells grew by 51 percent last year to 3,733 megawatts - Worldwatch Institute.

Beijing Olympics “Basically” Carbon Neutral: China’s Technology Minister Wan Gang said the country will be offsetting the estimated 1.18 million tons of carbon the Olympics are expected to generate by planting trees and controlling vehicle use. - International Herald Tribune.

Check Local Gas Prices on Your Mobile: Websites tracking gas station prices are nothing new, but now they’re jumping to mobile devices and offering extra information like fuel consumption calculators and alternative fuel finders - Wall Street Journal.

Sugar-Based Fuel Second Largest Energy Source in Brazil: Preliminary data from Brazil’s annual National Energy Balance report estimate that sugarcane ethanol and bagasse accounted for 16 percent of Brazil’s total energy output in 2007, second to oil derivatives at 36.7 percent - Green Car Congress.

Prius Owners Love Their Prius: J.D. Power and Associates have awarded the Prius with the award for highest customer satisfaction in the UK for the second year in a row. Now we just need to find a test to see how smug they are too - Autoblog Green.

The economic slowdown continued to cloud the solar stock market today. Akeena Solar (AKNS) released its first-quarter results, reporting a widened loss of $4.6 million, or 16 cents a share, and warned that it sees softening demand for the remainder of the year. Meanwhile shares of Real Goods Solar (RSOL) made their debut on Wall Street, opening at $9, down from their IPO price of $10, which priced at the bottom of the $10-$12 range. The stock has continued to fall in after-hours trading, dipping, at last check, to as low as $8.65.

This comes a week after First Solar reported healthy earnings only to see its stock go on to lose some 8 percent, leaving Kevin Kelleher and market analysts wondering what had happened.

Akeena CEO Barry Cinnamon said in a press release announcing the latest quarterly results that the “looming recession and tightening credit are weighing on consumers’ decisions to invest in residential solar installations — even with the price of energy skyrocketing.” And while revenue was up 95 percent over the first quarter last year, margins were down due to higher panel costs and likely investment in Akeena’s proprietary rack system, Andalay.

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It’s time to see how our favorite gadget makers and Internet search engines fare when it comes to their commitment to fighting climate change. While Greenpeace has its green electronics guide, the non-profit Climate Counts released a new scorecard on companies this week, which includes a list of electronics makers and Internet/software firms ranked according to the actions they’ve taken to reduce carbon emissions and combat global warming (hat tip to CNET). IBM and Google lead their peers, while Apple, eBay and Amazon lag far behind.

At the top of the electronics category are IBM, Canon and Toshiba. IBM recently told us that they have been working on environmental stewardship since 1971, so no surprise there. But way at the bottom are Apple, Nokia, and a little further up, Dell.

Apple has come under fire from environmentalists in the past, and the company has been trying to change its ways. But apparently when it comes to carbon emissions, not so much. Dell, on the other hand, was one of the first computer companies to commit to reducing its carbon footprint, so we’re not sure why it scored so low. Dell has also consistently had a pretty good track record for recycling, and recently started showing off its new eco PC, which is 81 percent smaller than a standard desktop and uses 70 percent less power.

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While many cleantech startups are working on making cleaner burning fuels for our cars, a biotech firm Down Under is engineering cleaner digesting grasses for our cows. Gramina, a joint venture between Australian Molecular Plant Breeding and Kiwi PGG Wrightson Genomics, is genetically engineering pasture grass to be more digestible so that cows grazing on it burp up less methane, an extremely potent greenhouse gas. (Hat tip Science Daily)

Cows produce methane as the microbes in their gut break down the cellulose of the grasses they eat. Just as lignin and cellulose are difficult for ethanol producers to breakdown, so too is it in the cow’s stomach. And actually researchers at Energy Biosciences Institute are looking to cow stomaches as a model for how to process plants into fuel.

Gramina is working on making grasses that maintain their structural integrity but have less lignin. The firm’s researchers hope that suppressing the expression of the enzyme ‘O-methyl transferase’ in the grass will make it easier to breakdown — and therefore produce less methane during digestion.

The joint venture won a Aus $1.8 million grant (or about $1.7 million USD) from Australia New Zealand Biotechnology Partnership Fund for their research in April. Gramina is also working on making grasses that grow better in warmer climes, in the expectation that climate change will be changing the temperature of grazing lands.

If you’ve got a YouTube account, a camera, and a deep-seated yearning to get behind the wheel of a plug-in hybrid, Google wants to hear about it. Google.org’s RechargeIT program is hosting a contest soliciting videos from wannabe plug-in drivers, as well as testimonials from proud plug-in owners, on YouTube. The winning videos will be featured on RechargeIT’s web site and win yet-to-be announced prizes.

RechargeIT, Google’s plug-in hybrid demonstration program, is working with the California Cars Initiative, a nonprofit based in Palo Alto promoting 100+MPG plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. The submitted videos will be incorporated into RechargeIT’s Plug-in Hybrid Locator map, which already features 104 plug-ins all over the States, many of them DIY projects.

It doesn’t look like the contest has officially launched, but the submission page is up and CalCars encourages you to submit right away, as your video might get featured in promoting the contest.

Google.org has been working with battery startup A123 and conversion module maker Hymotion to convert the search giant’s own hybrids to have plug-in capabilities. RechargeIT has four plug-in vehicles that it has been road testing and collecting data from via embedded Linux computers, and it has recently started sharing that data. It’s still a little early to draw any big conclusions, but Google has enjoyed showing off its next-gen cars. Now, it wants to see yours.

Utilities plan to use solar power from both the massive solar plants that are being built in the California Mojave desert, as well as large scale distributed rooftop solar projects, like the one Southern California Edison is planning. So which technology is better? Centralized solar systems that use the sun’s heat to generate electricity, or hundreds of rooftops covered in solar panels strung together to generate power?

Roy Kuga, the vice president of the Energy Supply Division at California utility PG&E, had some interesting ideas about the pros and cons of each technology at the Berkeley, Stanford CleanTech Conference Series on Wednesday. Basically, while solar thermal plants provide lower solar prices, higher efficiencies and better energy storage, distributed solar rooftop programs are quick to deploy, and less costly when it comes to transmission lines and water needs. Check out the detailed list below:

Distributed Photovoltaic Solar Rooftop Projects:

Pros:

• These projects can get up and running fast. Around 8 months, Kuga says, noting that the solar industry is also trying to bring down this time dramatically.
• Distributed projects are not dependent on building long transmission lines to remote locations (such as the desert).
• Distributed projects are also not dependent on the high water needs that solar thermal plants require for cooling.

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