The servers use Sun’s Solaris Operating System and virtualization technologies to help maximize the system. Warren Mootrey, senior director of volume SPARC systems products, told us that for server managers who do not want to switch to Sun’s operating system, the company will still offer a line of servers powered by quad-core Intel (INTC) Xeon processors.

Sun has been making a major effort recently to work on energy savings initiatives for its products, offices and data centers. The company even created Openeco.org, a community site for business and energy efficiency. Check out the actually compelling blog, written by Sun’s VP of Eco Responsibility David Douglas.

“The restructuring we are proposing, while very difficult due to the impact on employees, would be one of the most important things we’ve done in the 100-plus-year history of GE’s lighting business,” said Jim Campbell, president & CEO of GE’s consumer & industrial division, in a release.

Over the last four years, GE says it has invested more than $200 million in energy-efficient lighting. With the restructuring, the company will increase its focus on R&D in LED, organic LED and “high efficiency incandescent light bulbs.” The proposed restructuring would affect a number of GE facilities and positions globally, including some 1,400 employees, but the shift away from a business centered on inefficient incandescent lighting was inevitable.

Since lighting accounts for 22 percent of the energy usage in the U.S., according to the Department of Energy, energy-efficient lighting technology — from fluorescent to light-emitting diodes — is literally lighting the future.

“Fluorescents are so over,” Barnaby Feder of the New York Times recently declared. We agree. Advancements in the brightness and efficiency of LEDs over the past year signal that one day soon these semiconductor lights will make up a significant part of the general illumination market. Costs are still a major issue, but the whole cost equation for purchasing these lights is different because they last for years, instead of a few months like we’re used to with the typical incandescent bulb.

GE’s restructuring announcement follows ongoing rumors that GE is considering an acquisition of LED-maker Cree. As Forbes.com recently noted, GE is competing in the LED space against the world’s largest lighting company, Royal Philips Electronics (PHG). An acquisition of Cree, American Technology Research analyst Andrew Huang was quoted as saying, would enable GE “to quickly leapfrog Philips.”

Royal Philips looks to be ahead of GE when it comes to ownership of LED intellectual property for making the actual chips. Philips took full control of LED company Lumileds two years ago. Last month, they acquired Color Kinetics, the leader in LED lighting for computer-controlled advertising and entertainment displays. Right now, GE has to shop externally for its LEDs and currently buys the chips from a variety of sources, according to Cree CEO Chuck Swaboda, whom we chatted with earlier this week.

On Wednesday, as CREE CEO Chuck Swoboda met with us to discuss his company’s progress in LEDs for energy efficient lighting, Bloomberg reported that the company’s stock had dropped the most in 10 months (falling more than 11 percent to close at $28.97) after Canaccord Adams analyst Jed Dorsheimer cut the stock to “sell” and noted that Cree was unlikely to meet sales estimates for the current quarter. Prior to that, Cree shares had soared on speculation that General Electric (GE) would buy the company.

Here’s an excerpt from our chat with Swoboda:

Q: Energy-efficient lighting is taking off as a viable alternative to traditional incandescent lights, but fluorescent lighting is leading that competition. Wal-Mart (WMT) just reached its goal of selling 100 million compact fluorescent light bulbs, and they did that three months ahead of schedule. How does LED technology fit into the equation?

A: The LED we sell today is 100 percent more efficient than the one we sold 17 months ago. In the past year, it’s gone up 70 percent. The technology is moving at an incredibly fast rate. If you look at electricity demand in the U.S., 22 percent is from lighting. It’s a huge piece of the energy pie. If you take what’s possible with LEDs, you could reduce the amount of this energy consumed in lighting by 62 percent.

Q: Aren’t LEDs too expensive to compete with the traditional incandescent light bulb?

A: If you look at the total amount of energy consumed by light, over 75 percent of it is not residential. It’s commercial and industrial. We’re targeting how you drive the biggest impact. As far as the bulb itself, that’s one of the last places we’ll see [LED technology.] If we convert everything else but the bulb, the vast majority of energy savings will have been realized.

Q: Last time I spoke with you, Cree was announcing a partnership with the city of Raleigh, North Carolina, to install LEDs in government offices, parking structures and other public buildings. Where else can the Cree technology be found?

A: There’s a Friendly’s restaurant in Massachusetts that used 5,100 watts of electricity with incandescent light. The same restaurant with LED fixtures uses 930 watts. They’ve got better light quality and use significantly lower power. This is not a subsidized program, this is Friendly’s deciding on making a straight-up business decision. It’s happening. These same fixtures come in a version you can buy for your home. One of these six-inch can lights cost $90, and under residential use will last more than 20 years.

Q: Who are your main competitors?

A: It’s basically the traditional bulb companies. Although some of them have investments in LEDs, none of them have the opportunity to pursue driving the adoption of LEDs. Even if I’m a bulb company with some LED activities, I make money every day I sell a bulb. I make a lot of money selling that bulb. So they have a business model challenge.

Q: As I’m sure you’re aware, there’s been a rumor that General Electric was considering buying Cree, but a recent analyst report said that’s not true. Can you tell us any more about this?

A: I can’t speculate on that specifically, but conceptually I think we take a different look at it. We see lighting as this giant industry that’s been around for a long time. We believe that because of what we’re able to do with the technology, we’re in a pretty neat position to drive adoption. I can tell you that we’re going to be pretty successful in lighting. What [GE] may or may not do is a better question for them.

Q: How do you think the rest of the traditional lighting industry will respond to the growing adoption of LED and other energy-efficient lighting?

A: Any time disruptive technology takes over an industry, something like 20 percent of the incumbents survive in the business. The people who drive the technology have the best opportunity here. What do the incumbents do? That’s a question for them, whether in lighting or anything thing else. Are they willing to adapt their business model to be successful?

Q: A lot of people say that LED lighting for general illumination purposes isn’t ready yet. What would you say to that statement?

A: This isn’t not ready. This is happening. We’re saving energy. I don’t know any technology available in the next five to 10 years that can do more to change the energy equation than LED lighting.

Braemar Energy Ventures

Formed in 2002, nine of Braemar’s prior portfolio companies, including energy management firm EnerNOC (ENOC), have since gone public and an additional eight companies have been sold. Braemar’s current portfolio investments include Solicore (thin film batteries), Verenium (cellulosic ethanol), Stion (thin film solar), and Enerkem Technologies (syngas).

Compiling a list of the top 10 women in cleantech proved to be a difficult task. But as you’ll see from the brief profiles of those that we selected, their recognition is more than well-deserved.

1. Nancy Floyd, Founder and Managing Director of Nth Power: When Nancy Floyd started Nth Power in 1993, women were even less common in the industry that would become known as cleantech. A serial entrepreneur, Floyd decided to start her first venture firm with a focus on clean energy technology because she was already an expert in the space.

Prior to Nth Power, Floyd founded NFC Energy Corp., one of the country’s first wind development firms, which when it was sold three years later, generated a 25-fold return.

Floyd understands why it’s uncommon to find many women in the field. “You just don’t have many women with backgrounds that investors would back,” she told us. “You’re looking at energy industries that have been male-dominated for years and years. It’s not easy for anybody, but for investors to write a check, they’re going to want to see relevant background.”

2. Lissa Morgenthaler Jones, CEO of LiveFuels: Years ago, Jones would have never dreamt that one day she’d be running an algae biofuels startup. The daughter of one of America’s earliest venture capitalists, David Morgenthaler, Jones majored in economics at Princeton University and went on to win national regard as the top mutual fund manager in the U.S. for her management of the Monterey Murphy New World Biotechnology Fund. After a few other ventures and a short break, Jones founded LiveFuels in 2006. She hopes to help get the cost of algal biofuels to a point where they’re competitive with fossil fuels by 2010. Jones told me earlier this year when I interviewed her for Red Herring that for women CEOs in Silicon Valley, “…it gets a little easier day by day, but only by nanometers.”

3. Marianne Wu, Partner, Mohr Davidow Ventures: Wu focuses on cleantech investments for MDV, a venture capital firm that has backed the likes of Nanosolar (thin film solar), Jadoo Power Systems (fuel cells), ZeaChem (cellulosic ethanol), and other clean energy companies. Prior to joining MDV, Marianne was vice president of marketing at ONI Systems. She earned both her doctoral and master’s degrees from the School of Engineering at Stanford University. When we asked our sources to recommend the key women in cleantech right now, Wu always topped the list.

“As a woman, I find working in cleantech really gratifying,” Wu told us in an email. “I can marry my entrepreneurial, technical, and social interests. It’s a very diverse sector that draws from business, policy, and a broad array of technologies including biotech, material science and IT. I really enjoy combining all these different disciplines. They say women are better at multiplexing and enjoy it more. If so, I think cleantech really suits women.”

4. Diana Propper De Callejon, General Partner, Expansion Capital: With more than 14 years of work experience in clean technology, Propper is no newcomer to the industry. Her experience spans across energy, water, advanced materials and transportation. As part of her work at Expansion Capital, a cleantech venture firm, Propper serves on the board of directors of optical sensors firm Tiger Optics and Orion Energy Systems, an energy efficient lighting company that filed for an IPO in August to raise up to $100 million.

5. Julia Judd Hamm, Executive Director of the Solar Electric Power Association and Chair of the Solar Power Conference and Expo: Julia Judd Hamm makes our list for organizing Solar Power, one of the largest solar conferences in the U.S. This year’s conference had over 8,000 registered attendees, up from last year’s 6,500. Previously, she worked as a senior associate at ICF International, an energy and environmental consulting firm, where she supported the EPA with implementation of its Energy Star program.

6. Whitney Rockley, Principal of New Energy and Clean Technology Ventures, Nomura International: In February, Whitney Rockley relocated to London from Canada — where she worked as VP of finance with non-profit TEC Edmonton and helped establish an early-stage technology fund — to join Nomura, where she now works as a Principal of New Energy and Clean Technology Ventures. Prior to TEC, Rockley worked at EPCOR, a power and water company that owns power generation, transmission and distribution networks in North America. As director of corporate venture capital at EPCOR, she started and managed an energy and water venture fund. She also led and developed the company’s greenhouse gas emission reduction portfolio strategy.

7. Susan B. Leschine, Founder and Chief Scientist of SunEthanol: A senior faculty member in the Microbiology Department at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Dr. Leschine is internationally known as an authority on the biology and diversity of cellulose-digesting microbes. Her research formed the basis for SunEthanol’s Q Microbe biodigesting technology and in August, the company raised its Series A funding round to commercialize the finds of Leschine’s research.

8. Rachel Segalman, Charles Wilke Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley: We learned of Segalman’s research work when she was recognized this year in Technology Review’s TR35, a list honoring the top innovators under age 35. Segalman’s research involves producing cheap electricity from heat. Since most of the energy in fuels is wasted in heat, figuring out a way to turn that waste energy into actual useful fuel or electricity is a worthwhile challenge. Segalman has discovered that cheap organic molecules can be used to generate electricity from heat. Voltage amounts are small for now, but Segalman and her research team are constantly experimenting and modifying the molecules to see if they can improve the electricity output.

9. Christine Bergeron, Vice President, Investments, Chrysalix Energy Management: Bergeron has worked for Chrysalix since its inception in 2001. Now she leads the firm’s investments, which have included Novazone, Fat Spaniel Technologies, Akermin, and HydroPoint Data Systems. She currently serves on the board of Akermin and is also a director and member of the investment and finance committee of E+CO, a public purpose investment company that supports local enterprises supplying sustainable energy in less-developed countries. She is also a board member at LightHouse Sustainable Building Center, an enterprising non-profit society dedicated to advancing sustainable building practices.

10. Lorraine Bolsinger, Vice President of General Electric’s (GE) Ecomagination: A former engineer, Bolsinger previously headed up marketing for GE’s aircraft engine division before shifting gears to run GE Energy’s “Ecoimagination” initiative, which launched in 2005. Bolsinger is now responsible for partnering with customers, researchers and organizations with a goal of bringing to market technologies that will help its customers meet environmental challenges.

Hydrogen Storage: Speaking of hydrogen fuel, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, have developed a model that might help speed up the development of hydrogen-fueled vehicles. The UCLA team has developed an algorithm that helps fuel cell makers design and determine what materials work the best to store hydrogen – release.

Nano Energy: Mobile devices and the networks connecting them are going micro, and power sources are shrinking to accommodate the trend. Researchers at the University of Illinois have shown that a nanowire can produce power by “harvesting mechanical energy.” – release.

Wind energy developer

It also marks the latest deal in the wind energy sector. Earlier this week, Goldman Sachs (GS) made a “significant investment” in wind turbine developer Nordic Windpower, and General Electric (GE) said it will supply SkyPower with 200 wind turbines in a deal valued at about $400 million.

New York-based EverPower, founded in 2002, is currently developing more than 1.5 gigawatts of projects in seven states. Some of the money raised will be used to secure turbines for projects totaling 130 megawatts in Pennsylvania and New York. The funding will also be used for six additional projects in the same region. Finally, funds will be used to support expansion into the west, with the opening of a development office in Portland, Ore., that will oversee projects in Oregon and its neighboring state of Washington.

“The investment will enable Nordic Windpower to become a market and technology leader in the $20 billion global wind energy industry,” Steve Taber, Nordic Windpower CEO, was quoted as saying.

Goldman Sachs knows the benefit of investing in wind power. Last month, the investment bank reported third-quarter profits of $2.85 billion, which included a $900 million sale of wind power company Horizon Wind Energy.

While returns on investment are decreasing for the wind industry, investors are still betting on wind projects as states continue to mandate that utilities add more renewable energy to their power portfolios.

As we reported in August, Goldman competitor JPMorgan (JPM) has invested $1.2 billion in wind this year (as of that report), which accounted for half of the total number of deals in the sector, according to Dow Jones Cleantech Investor.

In other wind power news today, a unit of General Electric (GE) said it will supply SkyPower with 200 wind turbines to be installed in Canada and the U.S. in a deal valued at about $400 million. GE has shipped more than 6,500 of the machines for projects around the globe.

Comverge, like its competitors EnerNoc (ENOC) and ConsumerPowerline (which raised its Series A round last week), aims to keep the electric grid stable by using software and hardware that helps building managers turn off a limited amount of power when electricity demand on the grid exceeds available supply.

With this acquisition, Comverge brings the total amount of energy it manages to about 1,500 megawatts, double the 750 megawatts managed by EnerNOC. ConsumerPowerline also manages about 750 megawatts of power. The purchase also adds a 47-megawatt ConEd contract, expanding Comverge’s traction in the New York market.

Public Energy Solutions, previously part of PSEG Energy Technologies, has been providing energy efficiency products and programs to electric utilities for over 10 years. The company has provided services at 75,000 customer sites for the equivalent capacity of 73 megawatts. The contracts it currently has are expected to generate some $42 million in revenues.

In June, Comverge acquired Enerwise Global Technologies, expanding into the commercial and industrial space (they previously focused on residential buildings only) and making it a direct competitor with EnerNoc, which has always focused on the commercial and industrial market.

ConsumerPowerline

Following a year of successful IPOs for competitors EnerNOC (ENOC) and Comverge (COMV), it may seem like in raising its first round, ConsumerPowerline is late to the game. But ConsumerPowerline is no newcomer to the energy management space. Founded in 2000, they’ve simply managed to survive, until now, on $350,000 in angel funding and revenues.

Like EnerNOC and Comverge, ConsumerPowerline develops demand response programs and technology for building owners and operators. Demand response technology makes it possible to limit unnecessary power usage in a building when demand on the grid exceeds the supply of available electricity. Grid operators can buy these “negawatts,” or watts that don’t have to be produced, as an alternative to using expensive peaker plants to produce more power and avoid blackouts.

ConsumerPowerline manages 750 megawatts of power. In comparison, EnerNOC is also managing about 750 megawatts, and Comverge, with its recent acquisition of Enerwise, manages about 1460 megawatts. While ConsumerPowerline hasn’t made any acquisition announcements yet, a spokesman for the company told us that the company is “going to be very aggressive for reviewing opportunities in the marketplace.”

Miasole makes thin film solar out of copper, indium, gallium and selenium (CIGS), and these startups have been raising significant funds as of late. Miasolé competes with the likes of Nanosolar (with $100 million in funding so far, plus $20 million from the DOE), Heliovolt ($85 million in funding), and Solyndra (over $79 million). Now Miasole’s funding adds up to over $100 million.

Why all the cash? Getting this technology into large scale manufacturing is proving to be difficult. Delays have plagued some CIGS makers, and they’re all in a race to be the first to market. Despite the investments, these companies have struggled to move into production. Earlier this month, semiconductor veteran Joseph Laia replaced Miasolé founder, Dave Pearce, as CEO.

Thin film technology promises to be cheaper than traditional solar technology because it uses little or no silicon, and in some cases, can be printed on flexible materials. But there’s a trade-off, as those developing the technology are still struggling to boost its efficiency levels.

Nuclear in Texas: For the first time in three decades, energy companies are vying to take the lead in building new nuclear power plants in the U.S. – The New York Times.

Cheaper Solar: Everyone is trying to figure out how to bring down the high costs of solar, and the topic was the centerpiece of much discussion at the Solar Power conference on Monday – CNET.

Big Blue’s Big Green: Joel Makower takes a look at IBM’s eco initiatives in this detailed Q&A — Green Biz.

Water Management Gets $$$: HydroPoint Data Systems, a water-management company, raised more cash, adding on to its $19-million Series B round the company raised last January – release.

Like that date that kept you waiting while you nervously fixed your hair, the Tesla Roadster is officially late. Customers — among them San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom — will now have to wait until 2008 before the $98,000 electric hotrod is ready to leave the Tesla factory.

The San Carlos, Calif.-based company, which has raised around a $100 million in funding, says it now plans to ship 50 cars in the first quarter of 2008, followed by 600 more over the course of the year. A little better news is that during testing one of the roadsters ran for 245 miles on the combined EPA cycle on a single charge.

Tesla previously planned to have the cars ready to ship this fall. In the company’s last letter to customers, in August, former CEO Martin Eberhard noted the production schedule was subject to crash and durability testing. Then Eberhard stepped down from his leadership post, and was replaced by Marks, former CEO of Flextronics (FLEX) and investor in Tesla Motors, as interim CEO.

Despite the fact that the cars aren’t yet on the market that hasn’t stopped over 600 customers from lining up. But we also wonder if there are more delays, how long their patience will last. Tesla also said it will soon stop taking reservations for the 2008 Roadsters and initiate a traditional waiting list. Each place in line will cost $5,000 for additional Roadsters “if and when an increase in production is announced.”

H20 Investment: Stonybrook Water Purification secured $500,000 of a $4.1 million Series A round, from Battery Ventures, TianDI Growth Partners, T2 Venture Partners and Modern Water PLC. — PE Hub.

Australian Energy Plan Problems: A day after the Australian government committed to new clean energy targets, the Tourism Minister claimed that wind power is not a good choice for the country — The Australian.

Landfill Gas to Energy: Houston, Texas-based Waste Management says it will open more landfill gas to energy facilities. The program will result in the creation of 60 more renewable energy facilities across the country — release.

Mohr Davidow’s $580M Fund: Mohr Davidow Ventures, which funded cleantech startups including fuel cell maker Jadoo Power and Nanosolar, says they’ve raised $580 million for a ninth fund — PE Week Wire.

Wal-Mart’s

By quantifying the energy used, Wal-Mart hopes to make its whole supply chain more energy efficient and is starting by focusing on energy usage in seven “ordinary products that people commonly use” – DVDs, toothpaste, soap, milk, beer, vacuum cleaners and soda.

The superstore operator, often criticized for its labor policies and impact on local economies, is actually making substantial commitments with its sustainable energy initiatives and has even been convincing some environmentalists as of late. The company is so big that any urging on its part to get product producers to minimize their carbon emissions is likely to have some success.

Wal-Mart’s announcement comes alongside the release of CDP’s Global Corporate Climate Change Report for 2007, a survey that included responses from 77 percent of the world’s 500 largest companies. The report found that 76 percent of these companies have a green house gas emissions reduction program in place, compared to 48 percent last year. At the same time, Sun Microsystems (JAVA) decided to tout the launch of their Open Eco site, where companies can discuss steps they’ve taken to reduce their carbon emissions and new ideas for energy efficiency.

Nanosolar says the funding is the “largest net amount” any company is receiving as part of the agency’s Solar America Initiative. CEO Martin Roscheisen, whom we previously interviewed, writes in his blog that “the competition was stiff and included every single significant solar company in this country, including SunPower (SPWR), First Solar (FSLR), [and] General Electric (GE).”

In the short-term, the grant will provide Nanosolar with about $9.5 million through October 2008. That’s chump change compared to the company’s total funding to date, raised from venture firms like Benchmark Capital and Mohr Davidow. Trying to manufacture copper indium gallium selenide-based thin film technology on a large scale is a costly endeavor. And it’s a well-funded space, filled with many multimillion-dollar backed competitors including Heliovolt and Miasole.

Miasole is reportedly in the process of raising more funding, too. CNET cites unnamed sources close to the company as saying the funding is underway, and we’ve had our own suspicions for awhile now that the company is raising a big round. One can only guess exactly how much.

Thin film technology promises to be cheaper than traditional solar technology because it uses little or no silicon, and it can be printed on flexible materials. But there’s a trade off, as those developing the technology are still struggling to boost its efficiency levels.