The award of hundreds of millions of dollars in grants and loans for electric vehicles, batteries and charging infrastructure in the last few months has provided a major boost for companies working in the space. That’s true for Scottsdale, Ariz.-based ECOtality, whose subsidiary eTec (with several partners, including Nissan) won a nearly $100 million grant from the Department of Energy in August to deploy 11,210 charging stations — tripling its total number of installations — in five states over the next three years. But the grant didn’t come cheap.

According to ECOtality’s first report of financial information since the grant award, released yesterday afternoon, the company saw revenue drop to $1.9 million during the three months ending September 30, down from $2.9 million in the same period last year — a change that ECOtality attributes largely to “the effect of the slowing economy and the focusing of resources on securing the DOE contract.” Meanwhile, operating expenses for the quarter jumped to $11.4 million, up from just $1.9 million a year earlier — an increase the company attributes primarily to bonuses paid to three executives after eTec snagged the DOE award.

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General Electric started churning out plans earlier this year for cleaner heavy-haul locomotive technology, announcing its intention in May to produce batteries for hybrid trains in upstate New York and unveiling a new, more fuel-efficient locomotive model. This morning, the conglomerate has announced a set of agreements with various companies and the government of China that will help GE ramp up its locomotive business in the country — and potentially lead to a larger role for both GE and China on the road to a high-speed rail buildout in the United States.

GE has announced two deals related to rail this morning, including an agreement with China’s Ministry of Railways to advance partnerships that would allow the company to pursue high-speed rail projects in the U.S. with manufacturing provided by a Chinese partner (GE doesn’t currently manufacture locomotives for these types of projects). And it’s formed a joint venture with CSR Qishuyan to develop, build and service GE’s most fuel-efficient line of diesel locomotive engines, the Evolution Series, in China and eventually other countries as well.

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Carbon capture and water desalination couldn’t seem further apart. One seeks to grab large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions and sequester them away from the planet’s atmosphere, and the other is a process for separating salt from seawater. Where’s the connection? It lies in the labs of Hayward, Calif.-based startup Porifera, a spinoff from the Lawrence Livermore National Lab that’s working to commercialize carbon nanotube membrane technology.

Since its founding last year, Porifera has been focusing on applications using carbon nanotube membranes — tiny, ultra-slippery, hollow arrangements of carbon atoms that allow gases and liquids to flow through at a rapid pace, while blocking larger molecules — for desalination. And just last week, the Livermore lab announced that Porifera has secured an exclusive license for the technology, which members of Porifera’s executive team helped develop.

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Want to transform urban transit? Take a cue from Google, and invent a better algorithm. Service-based transportation networks offer a key for cities to address urban traffic congestion, encourage adoption of alternative transit and slash greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector, says Ryan Chin, a PhD candidate in the Smart Cities research group at MIT. And it will likely be the company with the best algorithm for managing fleets of cars, bicycles, scooters and other transit options, and up to millions of users, that finds a way to cash in on the “Mobility on Demand” trend.

As Chin explained to me for an article on GigaOM Pro this week (our subscription-based research service), the MoD concept involves a comprehensive system in which city residents would be able to rent an electric car, scooter or bicycle when and where they need it in order to bridge the “last mile” gap in many public transit systems (e.g. getting between the subway station and your final destination).

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It’s that time again — when the year-end roundups start rolling in. On the Time 50 Best Inventions of 2009 list published today, green energy innovations are out in force.

Some of the 10 green picks on the list of 50 inventions, like the YikeBike electric bicycle and the World First Formula 3 race car design that uses materials derived from carrots and cashews, seem unlikely to have much impact long term. But others, such as the solar shingle from Dow Chemical, the energy dashboard from EnergyHub (or similar devices from competitors) and NASA and Cisco’s “Planetary Skin,” show 2009 has been a powerhouse year for a range of green innovations.

The best part of Time’s list? You can interactively rank the inventions yourself on the site on a scale of 1 (not important) to 100 (very important). How would you rank these 10 green innovations?

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Something’s gotta give. In a time of uncertainty about the future supply and demand for fossil fuels, a surge of activity in energy technology and the prospect of stricter emission regulations barreling down the pike, the global market for transportation fuels is poised for disruption.

According to a new report out this week from technology and consultancy giant Accenture, one or more — but almost certainly not all — of a dozen low-carbon transportation fuels now under development could transform that market (which accounts for about half of global primary oil consumption and up to 30 percent of global carbon emissions) within a decade.

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The idea of modeling government funds after venture capital has swirled, in various forms, around the Obama administration since back in the campaign days. Now comes the latest twist: The Obama administration has named a former VC, Jonathan Silver, to head up the Department of Energy’s highly competitive loan guarantee program and green car loan program, which have awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in direct loans and guarantees to venture-backed companies including Tesla Motors, Fisker Automotive and Solyndra.

Silver’s appointment to the role of executive director of the loan programs comes as part of an effort, the DOE says, to “strengthen and streamline” the agency’s operations. Having left the Washington, D.C.-based firm Core Capital Partners (where he was the managing general partner) last year, Silver will now oversee the application process, analysis and negotiation for loans and guarantees under the two programs, as well as staffing. According to a release from the DOE, he will also manage “the full range of the Department’s alternative energy investments.”

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Taxi2, a new cab-sharing service unveiled today by Virgin Atlantic, represents a new spin on an old idea for the age of Car 2.0, in which vehicles, communication networks and information technology increasingly intersect. The free, web-based service, just launched in beta testing for Virgin’s New York and London routes, matches passengers based on their flight info and destinations.

Founded by Ed Maklouf, who also created a text messaging startup called Siine, Taxi2 is partnering with Virgin as part of the airline’s UK government-backed VJAM program. It’s not a total solution, but Taxi2 could provide a piece of the puzzle for reducing emissions from transportation by offering an alternative to airport shuttles, personal vehicles and solo cab rides for travelers.

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One year ago, two key trends dominated the solar industry: economic uncertainty and scarce credit. If solar companies were to survive, they needed to scramble to adapt their strategies to both. Today, the economy is more stable and credit is freer, and so the industry faces two different trends. The first — a supply glut of solar products — has been in the making for years, and it keeps pushing prices down. The second is only beginning to emerge, but could take root: Demand has picked up for solar installations, especially in homes.

That’s the picture being portrayed in solar earnings reports, and the conference calls to discuss them this week. Real Goods Solar said on Thursday that its revenue in the third quarter rose 122 percent compared with the same period last year, including the addition of companies it’s acquired in the past year. Excluding those acquisitions, revenue still grew 41 percent. John Schaeffer, Real Goods Solar’s president, said a lot of the increase came from homeowners. In a statement, he noted that the company saw “the return of strong demand for residential solar” during the third quarter.

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Five years from now, Singapore may have a model of urban transportation that’s smart, green, and full of lessons for cities around the world. That’s the goal of a new project from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the National Research Foundation of Singapore called the Future of Urban Mobility.

The pair announced plans last week (h/t Green Car Congress) for MIT to collaborate with three universities in Singapore to develop models and tools for planning and operating an urban transportation system using networked computing, controls, advanced simulations, devices for gathering and analyzing real-time information and other technologies.

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