It’s easy to get lost in the solar development bubble that is California so it’s always good to be reminded that there are huge markets outside the Golden State. Mill Valley, Calif-based Solar Power Partners, a commercial solar developer, owner and manager, plans to expand nationally using $100 million in equity and debt financing and another $60 million in committed project financing, the company announced Monday.

Founded in 2006, the company has moved quickly; CEO and President Alexander von Welczeck tells us the company has already completed 19 projects. SPP currently has another 22 projects in development that it plans to complete by the end of November, by which time the company expects to have nearly 15 megawatts of installed capacity operating in California, Hawaii, New Jersey and Connecticut. While SPP will be looking to expand nationally, von Welczeck says the Northeast is an area that holds particular promise for SPP. Check out the company’s own solar map to see the layout of it’s projects. (We do love a good solar map!)

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RGGI Auction Sells Out at $3.07 a Ton: All 12.5 million allowances auctioned last week by the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, North America’s first cap-and-trade system, sold for $3.07 each, raising some $38.5 million for the member states – Green Inc.

McKinsey Sees Clean Coal Viable in 2030: A new report from McKinsey & Co. estimates that carbon capture and storage technologies at new power plants will be economically feasible in 2030 at a cost of $43 to $65 per ton of abatement. So, in short, hurry up and wait – Green Car Congress.

Kia Eying Ultra-Capacitors for Fuel Cell Car?: The South Korean automaker is reportedly considering ultra-capacitors as an energy storage device for its next-gen fuel cell vehicles with a total voltage of 450v – Telegraph via Autoblog Green.

DOE Puts $17.6M into Early State PV Projects: As part of President Bush’s Solar America Initiative, the Department of Energy has announced up to $17.6 million in funding for six different photovoltaic module developers who are working on new solar designs – DOE.

Mr. Musk, We Have Ignition: Tesla Motors Chairman Elon Musk saw success with his cosmic venture and has successfully launched his privately-funded SpaceX Falcon 1 into orbit – Register.

The New York Times new blog Green Inc. just launched and already features a nice profile of a stealthy solar startup PVT Solar, which is backed by cleantech investor Vinod Khosla. The two-year-old Berkeley-based company is working on turning the wasted heat of standard solar systems into valuable heat for inside the home or to heat hot water.

Details are very scare, and the company does not have a web site up with any descriptions, but the PVT is reportedly testing an electronic system to move the heat around the home where it’s needed the most, and part of the system could use stones underneath the panels to absorb the heat.

An increasing number of startups are using the smarter systems of the infotech world to boost the efficiency of solar systems. Enphase Energy uses distributed inverters and a monitoring system to tell which panels aren’t performing as well. Fat Spaniel similarly enables renewable power generators to monitor solar systems, but through software and services. We don’t know much about PVT’s plans, but we’ll look into it more.

We wanted to thank everyone who attended our rockin’ party at West Coast Green last week — the event was a smashing success and we hope everyone had a great time. (Anyone have a report on the Hunter Lovins’ after party?) Our team snapped these photos, so check out the gallery and spot yourself having a drink with the innovators of the green building industry.

We also wanted to announce that our 23-page report on the Smart Energy Home, on how networks and hardware will deliver the home energy revolution, is up online and available to purchase here. The report provides a look at 25 up-and-coming companies in the smart home energy space, recommends 6 steps that the industry needs to take to boost innovation and delivers an overview of the trends that are driving this revolution.

The failed passage of a financial bailout bill has taken a harsh toll on most corners of the stock market, but few sectors saw steeper one-day declines Monday than solar stocks. That’s largely because there was a second piece of bad news coming from Congress that had special meaning for the solar industry.

Much like the bailout debacle, the House of Representatives and the Senate can’t find agreement on how to extend energy tax credits that are key to a more mainstream embracing of solar panels among businesses and homeowners. Incentives such as tax credits and subsidies are crucial to lowering the costs of solar power to make it competitive enough to reach a large scale.

The perception that Congress had been dragging its feet was a big factor in driving down solar-stock prices this year. Now legislators are taking action, but the arguing and sniping from both houses is threatening to delay a bill possibly into early 2009. More details on the political deadlock can be found at Congressional Quarterly and Bloomberg.

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As wind farm developments have soared in the U.S., turbine makers are finding they can barely keep up. Northern Power Systems said its parent company, Wind Power Holdings, has completed a $37 million round of financing to boost its turbine manufacturing business, led by RockPort Capital Partners and Allen & Company.

Barre, Vt.-based Northern Power says it plans to use the funding to not only scale up manufacturing of its small-scale 100 kilowatt Northwind 100 turbines but also accelerate development of a much larger 2.2 megawatt turbine which it plans to sell to industrial wind farm developers. Currently, the company says its Northwind turbine is available within a six-month lead time, a pretty quick turnaround considering that giants like GE are reporting a $12 mbillion backlog on wind turbine orders.

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Working through the weekend, Congress approved a $25 billion aid package for America’s sputtering auto industry. On Saturday, the Senate voted 78 to 12 to pass the auto bailout plan, which the House had passed earlier in the week. The President is expected to sign the bill into law this week. The bill kicks off with $7.5 billion in tax payer money from the Department of Energy in low-interest loans to help the auto industry, predominantly the Big Three, retool to make more fuel efficient cars.

These loans have been a long time coming. The program was actually written into law in last year’s energy bill aimed at helping automakers meet the new fuel efficiency standards of 35 miles per gallon by 2020. The legislation passed over the weekend finally approved the appropriations to fund the program. The DOE now has 60 days to map out the details, but the DOE thinks it will likely take at least 18 months before GM, Ford, and Chrysler get the money.

Presidential hopefuls Obama and McCain have already voiced their support of the loan program. Obama has said throughout his campaign that as president he would work to help Detroit get out the mess it made for itself. His plan included $4 billion in loans and tax credits to car makers for factory retooling. But already Detroit is lobbying for another $25 billion in aid. How’s that story go about when you give a mouse an industry a cookie bailout?

When we profiled mobile entrepreneur Andreas Zachariah and his GPS-based carbon footprint application in April, his company, Carbon Hero, was still in the early phases of testing the application. Zachariah tells us this morning that the company has signed on a major corporate customer and is looking to raise its first round of funding, potentially in the range of $1.5 million to $2 million.

Those funds will go toward continued development of the Java-based mobile application, which automatically updates carbon information without the user having to manually input data. The application, now named Carbon Diem, uses GPS location info to automatically monitor your transportation. The app can tell if you drive, fly, take the train or walk, and it fills in your travel info and how much carbon your choice emitted; Carbon Diem then compares your carbon profile against different averages and calculates your improvements.

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Warren Buffett continues to stock up on energy bets. Earlier this month a subsidiary of Buffett’s investment firm Berkshire Hathaway, MidAmerican Energy Holdings, agreed to acquire Constellation Energy, and this weekend it came out that MidAmerican plans to spend $230 million to buy 10 percent of BYD, a Chinese firm that makes next-generation batteries, electric cars and consumer electronics parts.

MidAmerican’s investment was reportedly to support BYD’s green technology investments. BYD is supposed to start selling its electric vehicles in China this year and in Europe by 2010. The news caused a jump in the shares of BYD subsidiary, BYD Electronic, which makes cell phones parts.

MidAmerican and BYD are supposed to have a news conference on Monday and provide more details. Given Buffett is widely regarded as one of the best investors of our time, we’re hoping to see a lot more alternative energy bets in the future.