Ocean power has suffered some setbacks recently, such as Pelamis’ bellyflop in Portugal and the UK’s WaveHub losing a developer, but the industry isn’t slowing down — in fact, it’s been a busy month for tidal technology. While there are only a small number of wave or tidal power projects in oceans and rivers right now, and large-scale projects remain a few years away, the race is on for companies hoping to get a first-mover’s advantage.

Alstom jumped into the tidal game this week when it teamed up with Clean Current Power Systems, and Verdant Power said earlier this month that it has moved closer to expanding its New York project. And developers of the Bay of Fundy site in Canada, which will include a turbine from Clean Current, are busy setting the stage for the first turbine to go in the water this fall.

Vancouver, British Columbia-based Clean Current now has a big-name partner in its corner, which could give it a leg up over the competition. France’s Alstom, a major railroad and power infrastructure company is getting an exclusive worldwide license to Clean Current’s technology for ocean power applications, and plans to commercialize its first tidal power products by 2012. Financial terms weren’t disclosed, but Alstom is not taking an equity stake in Clean Current as part of the deal.

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The portable fuel cell market has been rough for some companies, but investors are still interested — startup UltraCell said this week that it raised $3.8 million for its methanol-based portable fuel cells. It plans to use some of that cash to expand its Ohio manufacturing plant.

UltraCell’s fuel cells aren’t commercially available yet, according to a company spokeswoman, but it’s aiming to produce hundreds of fuel cells a month by the end of this year. She said the Dalton, Ohio, plant will have the capacity to churn out several thousand fuel cells per month.

The funding was led by UltraCell’s existing investors, including BASF Venture Capital, OnPoint Technologies, Espirito Santo Ventures and the Miami Valley Venture Fund. Based on technology developed at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the fuel cell maker has raised a total of $30 million since getting its start in 2002.

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The idea of nuclear-in-a-box sounds like a joke, but investors and potential customers are taking Hyperion Power Generation very seriously — the company is valued at a whopping $100 million by investors, according to the Denver Post. The company is backed by Altira Group, and though Hyperion hasn’t disclosed how much financing it has raised to date, CEO John “Grizz” Deal told us he is looking to raise a Series B round of funding, with plans to raise a Series C in about two years.

Although nuclear power produces radioactive waste, it doesn’t release greenhouse gases and it has vocal supporters in the new administration, including Energy Secretary Steven Chu. So it’s not so far-fetched for investors to see the potential of Hyperion’s nuclear option.

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Better Place may be making the most noise in the electric car charging field, but it isn’t the only game in town. And now there’s a new player — one-and-a-half-month-old GreenlightAC, which unveiled plans yesterday to deploy electric vehicle-charging stations in the Washington, D.C., area, although it has yet to reveal if it has any customers lined up. Based in D.C., GreenlightAC is reportedly set to close on a $500,000 first round of angel investment, and expects to release a prototype of its car-charging station, called the ChargeBar, this month.

The company says its ChargeBar will work with standard plugs (both 110 volt and 220 volt) for electric and plug-in hybrid cars, but unlike Better Place or Coulomb Technologies, GreelightAC isn’t building its technology around a subscription-based service. And it’s not going for the curbside market, either. GreenlightAC is focusing on garages for both office and residential buildings — installation sites that Mark Duvall of the Electric Power Research Institute and Bob Hayden, clean transportation adviser for the City of San Francisco have said will be easier and cheaper than curbside stations. GreenlightAC says it handles the installation and maintenance of the chargers, while the building owner pays for the electricity — about $1 for an 8-hour charge, according to the company’s web site.

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Fuel cell-powered cars may have fallen from favor in the U.S., but that doesn’t mean fuel cell technology is dead. Germany’s P21, which is focused on building fuel cell systems for cell towers, just picked up €10 million ($13.6 million) in funding for its technology, joining a growing list of companies looking to pair phone companies with fuel cells.

Yellow&Blue Investment Management led the round for P21 — which was formed through a management buyout from Vodafone — joining existing investors Target Partners and Conduit Ventures. And P21 already has at least one deal under its belt, setting up seven hydrogen-powered fuel cell systems for cell phone carrier O2 in Germany last year.

Most phone companies depend on batteries and diesel-powered generators as sources of backup power for their towers, as well as for primary power in spots that are off the grid, but fuel cells could offer more power than the battery and diesel options, as well as zero emissions when compared to the diesel generator.

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The UK government today unveiled a plan to outfit most of the homes and small businesses in England, Scotland, and Wales with smart meters by the end of 2020. The plan, which could cost an estimated £8.11 billion ($12.3 billion) and involve some 50 million gas and electric meters, currently stands as the largest smart meter rollout in the world. And it represents a huge opportunity for smart grid technology vendors, as whichever companies win the contracts to supply the meters and smart grid infrastructure could build an entire business off the deals.

There are already some UK smart meter trials underway at utilities including British Gas, Npower, and EDF Energy, with meters coming from BGlobal, PRI, and others. But while the established players in the field may have an inside track, smart meter hardware and network startups such as Silver Spring Networks and Trilliant are likely to be interested in acting as suppliers to the UK government’s plan as well. Silver Spring said just last month that it had struck a deal to work with PRI on a smart meter using Silver Spring’s network interface cards.

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Energy efficiency may be the low-hanging fruit of the cleantech industry, but it’s a hard sell in these tough economic times. A report released today from Johnson Controls and the International Facility Management Association on energy efficiency in buildings says that while businesses in North America are showing more interest in energy efficiency, they aren’t actually following through and spending money on it. According to the report, most businesses just can’t spare the cash right now, which could mean hard times are ahead for startups trying to make it in the energy efficiency industry.

The report shows a 10 percent drop from last year in the expected use of facility capital budgets for energy efficiency projects; spending from overall operating budgets is expected to drop by 6 percent this year. It’s based on a survey of more than 1,400 executives — mostly in the U.S, but some in Canada as well — who are responsible for energy efficiency at their respective businesses.

Some energy efficiency startups are flush with cash— Powerit Solutions said yesterday that it picked up $6 million in new funding— but others could be facing a long drought. Business leaders that were surveyed expressed belief that a turnaround could hinge on more incentives and legislation from the government, and most of those leaders said it could take up to two years for mandates on energy efficiency or carbon reduction to become a reality.

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Solar and wind companies trying to build big projects on U.S. public lands can breathe a sigh of relief — the long line for a permit from the Bureau of Land Management can finally start moving. The bureau, part of the Department of the Interior, said this weekend that it plans to use $41 million in stimulus funds to help reduce a backlog of pending applications for large-scale solar and wind projects on land it manages.

The cash was announced by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar as part of a larger $305 million initiative at the bureau to restore public lands and watersheds. The initiative also includes funding for energy efficiency improvements at the bureau’s facilities, as well as some small-scale solar projects in Nevada, which are not part of the application backlog.

The backlog includes applications for 199 solar and 241 wind projects, Interior Department spokesman Frank Quimby told us. He said there are 65 projects in solar and wind that are far enough along in the development process that they can directly benefit from a speedier application process. Moving those projects along will certainly bring everyone else closer to the head of the line, although Quimby points out that not every application will be approved.

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The U.S. wind power industry has huge potential, both onshore and off, but it’s clearly looking for a hand from the government to get through these tough times. First there’s the billions in tax credits from the stimulus package that will benefit the wind industry. In addition the Department of Energy said this week that $93 million of stimulus funding will go directly toward wind power development. Meanwhile, at least one wind company is looking for a loan: Wind turbine maker Clipper Windpower recently applied for $300 million in loan guarantees from the DOE.

But will all that money be enough? Like most businesses these days, Clipper and other wind power companies have been hit by the down economy. Slumping demand has prompted layoffs at even the biggest players in the industry. Earlier this year, Clipper said it expected a 15-20 percent drop in turbine production vs. 2008 and laid off about 90 workers — 11 percent of its workforce.

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Wave Hub, basically a giant underwater socket under development that wave power developers can use to feed power into the grid, has lost its second partner so far this year. Energy company E.ON, which had planned to use a Pelamis system for the UK project, said today that it wants to test the Pelamis device in Scotland first rather than plugging straight into the Wave Hub.

Wave Hub is meant to be a shortcut for developers to connect to the grid. Companies that have signed on for the project are hoping to more easily prove the commercial viability of wave technology and eliminate the time and cost of applying for grid connections individually. It’s due to go in the water about 10 miles off the Cornwall coast in southwest England next year, with the first wave power devices to hook into the Hub in 2011.

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