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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Dutch to Try Road Tax Alternative: The Dutch government has approved a plan to replace the annual road tax on cars with mileage fees in an effort to reduce traffic congestion and vehicle emissions. Starting in 2012, GPS devices will be used to monitor vehicles, tracking the time, hour and place each car moves and then sending the data to a billing agency. — The Independent

Carbon Capture for Geothermal Energy: Carbon dioxide generated by power plants may find a second life being cycled underground, helping to bring heat to the surface where it can be used to generate electricity. Backers of this as-yet-unproven concept secured a big endorsement with the recent award of $338 million in stimulus funds for geothermal energy research. — Technology Review

Climate Deal Out of Reach: President Obama was forced to acknowledge this weekend that a comprehensive climate deal was beyond reach this year, placing him “in the awkward position of being, at least for now, as unlikely to spearhead an international effort to combat global warming as his predecessor — if for different reasons.” — New York Times

Got Greenwash?: Joel Makower goes searching for greenwash at the mammoth green building expo Greenbuild and finds, “Green building has matured from the exception to the rule, with the market…producing an increasingly gushing pipeline of products and services that, increasingly, are reducing the environmental toll of the built environment.” — GreenBiz.com

China’s Suntech Heading to Phoenix: China’s largest solar panel manufacturer, Suntech Power, announced plans today to open a plant in Phoenix, Ariz. Set to begin production in the third quarter of 2010, the facility will be the company’s first U.S. plant. — NYT’s Green Inc.

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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Texas Homebuyers Go for Efficiency: “Texas is a national leader in the number of Energy Star qualified homes in the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Four Texas markets earned spots on the top 20 list.” — San Antonio Business Journal

Winners and Losers in the Upcoming Energy Shift: The International Energy Agency’s “vision of the next two decades would make T. Boone Pickens crow: Wind power and natural gas are the two big winners under the IEA’s climate-change scenario.” The forecast doesn’t look so bright for clean coal and nuclear power. — WSJ’s Environmental Capital

Cell Tower Power Blowing in the Wind?: “Helix Wind announced Wednesday that it’s beginning a trial run in Southern California to see if its wind turbines might be useful for powering cell phone towers.” — CNET’s Green Tech

Big Blackout in Brazil Sparks Grid Scrutiny: The failure of three transmission lines at the world’s largest operating hydroelectric plant created a domino effect blacked out large swaths of Brazil and Paraguay for more than two hours late Tuesday — a sign, experts say, of the “dangers of interconnection.” — New York Times

Metabolix Prices Stock Offering: Massachusetts-based bioplastics developer Metabolix has priced a public offering of 3 million common shares at $9 each. Funds will be used for “working capital and other general corporate purposes.” — Mass High Tech

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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Senate Panel Green Lights Climate Bill, Sans GOP: Sen. Barbara Boxer has moved the energy and climate bill out of the Environment and Public Works Committee and onto the Senate floor, despite a Republican boycott of the debate. But that doesn’t get the bill any closer to garnering 60 votes. — WSJ’s Environmental Capital

Smart, Sure — But Does it Fly?: Being smart can only get you so far. Al Gore talked on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart about the “super grid.” Not a bad idea, but Stewart says he needs “a grid that can fly and shoot lasers out of its eyes.” — VentureBeat

Should Chinese-Backed Wind Farm Get Stimulus Cash?: Sen. Charles Schumer is calling on the Obama administration to block stimulus funds for a $1.5 billion Texas wind farm that would use turbines made mostly in China. American and Chinese backers were planning to request $450 million in stimulus funds. — NYT’s Green Inc.

Solar Software Set for an Upswing: Solar companies spend a lot of time talking about making solar installations simple, but they tend to focus on the hardware. The growing solar market presents some good opportunities for software startups like Vela Solaris. — Greentech Media

On the Hunt for Smart Grid Industry Leaders, Innovators: EnerNex and the National Institute of Standards and Technology are looking for more industry leaders and innovators to participate in a panel meant to support NIST’s efforts to coordinate and accelerate development of smart grid interoperability standards. — Smart Grid News

Business Models in the Electric Motorcycle Revolution: What electric motorcycle startups are “trying to do with the motorized two-wheeler is more revolutionary than evolutionary and so their approach to the market must be distinct, perhaps diametric to that of the companies that currently occupy the landscape.” — Asphalt and Rubber via Autoblog Green

How to Cultivate a Green Company Culture: Incrementalism, or prettying up existing processes, has its critics, but it also has a role to play in making environmental sustainability a core value of a company. — GreenBiz.com

What’s In a Name?: Before settling on names for new models an automaker consults lawyers in as many as 200 countries or territories. For the Nissan LEAF, the company’s brand management chief says “It was a minor miracle that the name was cleared.” — Bloomberg

Chinese Wind Farm in Texas: “Another day, another big Chinese energy-related investment. This time it’s a $1.5 billion wind farm in Texas, paid for by Chinese banks and to be supplied with Chinese-made wind turbines.” — WSJ’s Environmental Capital

Clean Energy in the Pipeline: More than half of all planned energy projects in the electric grid reliability cooperative that links northeastern states and parts of Canada are renewable energy projects, according to a recent report by SNL Financial. — NYT’s Green Inc.

Feds Open Another Spigot for Clean Energy: The Treasury Department has announced that it’s allocating $2.2 billion in bonds to support the efforts of 805 small-scale clean and renewable energy projects across the country. Most of the bond money will be used to support solar, wind and hydropower companies and projects. — VentureBeat’s GreenBeat

GM vs. Fisker: President Obama’s auto industry task force rained skepticism earlier this year on the commercial viability of General Motors’ upcoming Chevy Volt. If the Chevy Volt isn’t commercially viable, what makes a competing model in the works from Department of Energy-backed startup Fisker Automotive any different? — Washington Post

Has Reva’s Moment Arrived?: India’s Reva Electric Car Company now has more all-electric vehicles on the road than any other automaker, but it still has a long haul before it can make the vehicles marketable for the masses. — New York Times

New Effort to Open Door to China’s Clean Energy Market: At the annual Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade meeting, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke plans to press for more access for U.S. companies in China’s clean energy sector, an area where Washington feels it can make inroads on its enormous trade imbalance with China. — Reuters

Getting Down to Details: Guess what — there’s actually a 181-page draft text of the Copenhagen climate-change treaty. “If you haven’t heard about it, that’s because none of our otherwise talkative political leaders have bothered to tell us what the drafters have already cobbled together for leaders to consider. And neither have the media.” — Wall Street Journal

Solar thermal power company Solel Solar Systems has found an exit. Less than a year after Solel raised a gigantic $105 million investment from London-based firm Ecofin to help finance a plant in California’s Mojave Desert, Siemens has announced today that it is buying the Israeli company from Ecofin (and another unnamed major shareholder) for $418 million.

In a time when the merger and acquisition market for cleantech startups is about as dry as the Mojave, today’s deal is a head turner. And with Siemens angling to expand its role in solar thermal, the raft of startups now leading this space — companies like BrightSource, eSolar, Ausra and SkyFuel — could find themselves with a tough, deep-pocketed new competitor.

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No fewer than 100 large-scale carbon capture and storage projects within about a decade, at a cost of some $56 billion — that’s what International Energy Agency chief Nobuo Tanaka said the world needs in order to help address climate change, Reuters reports. And it’s only the beginning of his vision for a massive carbon capture drive. At the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum, a conference of energy ministers taking place this week in London, Tanaka called for 850 CCS projects by 2030 and 3,400 by 2050, with a total investment of more than $700 billion over the next three decades. Those are huge numbers for an experimental technology that has yet to be proven at industrial scale.

The next decade represents a “key ‘make or break’ period” for carbon capture and storage technology, according to a 52-page CCS “Technology Roadmap” out today from the International Energy Agency, and it could open significant opportunities for startups. While large established power companies will likely dominate industrial storage projects, startups with novel chemical conversion technologies like GreatPoint Energy, and startups that recycle the carbon, like algae fuel firms like Solazyme, will likely benefit from the intergovernmental agency’s call to arms.

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