Cash Money, Oil Money: The founders of Cash Money Records — Birdman and Ronald “Slim” Williams — have started an oil exploration company called Bronald Oil & Gas. — Business Insider

Siemens Targets Fifth of Smart Grid Biz: “Germany’s Siemens sees the world market for intelligent electricity networks roughly doubling to more than 30 billion euros ($40.98 billion) by 2014 and aims to take a fifth of that market.” — Reuters India

Rear-Wheel Drive Hybrid Cars in the Works at GM: General Motors’ two-mode hybrid powertrain, currently used only in trucks, “will migrate to rear-drive cars in the next generation, according to Tom Stephens, GM’s vice chairman of global product operations. — Automotive News via Edmunds Green Car Advisor

NOAA Hones in on Climate Change: “The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration launched a new climate service today, a reorganization effort aimed at improving long-range assessments of climate change, sea-level rise and severe weather. — Greenwire via NYT

Greentech IPO Scorecard: There are now more deals in the IPO pipeline than there have been for more than two years — and a number of those (Tesla, Codexis, Solyndra, Jinko Solar Holdings) happen to be high-profile public offerings in the greentech sector. — Greentech Media

The Obama administration released its proposed budget for the 2011 fiscal year this morning, and within the more than $3.8 trillion plan are several programs that could help shift the playing field for greentech startups and energy companies. To start, there’s direct support for the renewable energy, carbon capture and smart grid industries, through loan guarantees, research and development project funding and other programs. Glaringly absent is the $646 billion in revenues that last year’s budget assumed would come from a program for limiting and trading carbon allowances, signaling dwindling confidence that the Senate will pass a bill with a cap and trade system this year.

The administration has also proposed to take a nearly $39 billion bite out of tax breaks for the fossil fuel industry that some advocates of renewable energy sources like solar and wind argue have blocked the gateway to grid parity and fair competition. The bulk of those cuts — $36.5 billion worth through 2020 (a small fraction of the sector’s projected revenue) – are targeted at the oil and natural gas industry ), while Obama proposes cutting tax breaks for the coal industry worth some $2.3 billion in that time frame.

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After reading over electric vehicle startup Tesla’s S-1 filing on Friday, after it filed for an IPO to raise up to $100 million, it’s clear that Tesla has a few things in spades: a stellar brand, lots of losses, and pretty much a single plan to generate profits in the coming years, the Model S. The company has only sold 937 Roadsters (as of the end of 2009), will have a large gap between selling its current generation Roadster (which it won’t sell after 2011) and its next generation Roadster (which won’t be sold at least until 2013) and has no other third-party deals beyond the limited Daimler supply deal.

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If you’ve been following the moves of electric vehicle infrastructure maker Better Place over the years then you’re well aware that its world ambitions will need a lot of capital. On Monday morning the company announced that it is raising a whopping $350 million in a series B round to help it build out its network of charging and battery swap stations across nations like Israel and Denmark. That’s one of the largest rounds for cleantech ever, and is similar in size to the massive fund-raising done by thin film solar company Solyndra. Better Place has now raised about $750 million.

Better Place’s latest round will be led by HSBC Group, which will put in a whopping $125 million and will own 10 percent of the company’s shares. The round also will include new investors Morgan Stanley Investment Management, and Lazard Asset Management, and existing investors Israel Corp., VantagePoint Venture Partners, Ofer Hi-Tech Holdings, Morgan Stanley Principal Investments, and Maniv Energy Capital, among others. Better Place’s Chief Financial Officer Charles Stonehill said the funding “goes a long way toward validating and enabling,” their business model.

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What a year. Coasting on the momentum that propelled cleantech to the forefront of venture capital investment in Q3, the fourth quarter capped off a year that, when all was said and done, saw a total of $4.85 billion invested in the sector. However, as the GigaOM Pro team observes in the latest quarterly Green IT wrap-up, “Cleantech Was a Market Leader in Q4” (subscription required), some unease bubbled to the surface as the year drew to a close.

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Father of Energy Efficiency: The LA Times has an awesome profile of the 80-year-old Arthur Rosenfeld, who is retiring from the California Energy Commission, and which many call the father of energy efficiency — LA Times.

3i Going Fund Raising: London-based investors 3i, which have invested in a variety of clean power firms, are “planning to raise a 1 billion pound ($1.6 billion) fund to buy minority stakes in small businesses in a return to its investment roots, the Sunday Times newspaper reported.” — PEHub.com.

The Next Smart Grid Connection: Radio?: CleanBreak’s Tyler Hamilton looks at Toronto-based startup e-Radio, which uses FM radio waves for utility smart grid services. Hamilton reports that the company announced a deal with Canada’s national radio broadcaster, CBC Radio/Radio-Canada, “which would allow the use of its cross-country frequencies for smart grid control applications.” — CleanBreak.

CMEA Capital On An IPO Roll: CMEA Capital invested in A123Systems, Codexis and Solyndra, giving it a pretty good battery average for picking winners — Reuters.

Hybrids Not So Good At Cutting Fuel Consumption: “Hybrid cars may be as popular as ever, but they may not have much impact on the nation’s – or the world’s – oil consumption over the next two decades, according to J. Marshall Adkins and Pavel Molchanov, analysts for the financial services firm Raymond James.” — New York Time’s Green Inc.

Over the past nine years, solar plastic maker Konarka has been creeping toward commercialization, raising close to $200 million in private equity and government grants. When will it teeter over that brink of pilot production and move into full-scale commercialization? Well, for now some more funding: According to SEC documents, this week Konarka raised yet another round of $23.8 million from investors including Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Good Energies and 3i.

By my rough calculations, the company has raised close to $175 million in private equity and $20 million in government grants. That puts it close to the $200 million mark, which only a few greentech companies have achieved, including smart grid network maker Silver Spring Networks and thin film solar firm Solyndra.

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One more look back at 2009 — the $371 million IPO of lithium battery maker A123Systems back in late September, was the largest of last year, according to a report from Dow Jones VentureSource. Investors definitely had confidence in the company on September 24, 2009, and that morning A123 Systems’ stock leapt more than 50 percent to close at $20.29 per share after pricing at $13.50 per share.

First off, A123 Systems’ lead makes the IPO prospects for greentech firms, and particularly electric vehicle companies, in 2010 look pretty good. The IPO market in 2009 was still very “anemic,” points out Dow Jones VentureSource. A123 Systems represented about a third of the overall IPO market in 2009 (about $900 million in all of 2009, see graphic below).

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Crunching the numbers on venture capital investments in green technology companies in 2009, Greentech Media Research (GTM) finds the sector both weathered this year’s financial storm, and thrived in terms of total deals. More startups shared the wealth in 2009, with 356 deals, up from 350 deals in 2008 and just 222 deals in 2007

But the economy, of course did play a factor, in the overall money flowing. A total of $4.85 billion was poured into greentech in 2009, GTM reported this week. That’s significantly less capital than the sector saw in 2008 — a record-breaking year with $7.6 billion in investment.

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When politicians lace their campaign speeches with “green jobs” jargon, many point to the potential of the solar industry to offer manufacturing and installation jobs. But to be the leader of a cutting edge solar company, there’s one major qualification that keeps popping up: a history in the semiconductor industry.

Several events in the solar industry in recent weeks have reminded me just how valuable executives with chip chops are to the solar biz. They can bring decades of knowledge of low cost chip manufacturing that can directly translate to the solar industry, as well as experience working with suppliers of silicon itself.

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