Reality Check on Dedicated Green Portfolios: “Investors tempted by green investing need to choose funds carefully and understand that some of these sectors can be very volatile.” Plus, buying stock in greener companies and “shunning those that are harder on the Earth’s resources won’t benefit the environment directly.” — Wall Street Journal via Climate Progress

Panasonic Eyes Laptop Cells for EVs: Panasonic says it has developed a new method for connecting laptop battery cells that will bring down the cost of plug-in vehicle batteries by half compared with larger format cells being developed for automotive applications. — Reuters via Autoblog

Big Biz Goes to Bat for Swift Climate Bill Passage: “Executives from the Dow Chemical Co., Entergy Corp., Nike Inc. and more than 140 other companies and venture capital firms will convene in Washington this week to lobby Senate lawmakers to pass a comprehensive climate and energy bill quickly.” — Greenwire via NYT

EU to Ramp Up Funding for Energy Research: The European Commission plans to launch a campaign this week to triple funding for energy research to 8 billion euros ($11.7 billion) per year year. Over the next decade, 16 billion euros is slated for solar power and 11 billion euros is in the pipeline for development of “smart cities.” — Reuters

Government Watchdog Weighs in on Ethanol Tax Credit: “The Government Accountability Office said Friday that turning corn into fuel is costing U.S. taxpayers an unnecessary amount of money.” — WSJ’s Environmental Capital

Tesla Still on the Hunt for Space: Two cities in Southern California — Long Beach and Downey — have emerged as leading candidates for Tesla Motors’ Model S electric sedan factory, but the San Francisco Bay Area is still in the running. — San Jose Mercury News

Maple Power: Researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle have found there’s enough electricity flowing in big leaf maples to run an electronic circuit. — Scientific American

DOE Doles Out $354M for Efficiency Upgrades: The U.S. Department of Energy today announced more than $354 million in stimulus grants for 22 states to implement energy efficiency programs. — DOE Press Release

Problem With Ambitious EV Timelines: If ambitious introduction schedules for the upcoming generation of electric vehicles “give way to delays, automakers could end up feeding consumer cynicism.” — New York Times

Underwhelming Cash for Clunkers Results: Researchers at the University of Michigan say the $3 billion cash-for-clunkers program improved the average fuel economy of all vehicles purchased in the U.S. by 0.6 miles per gallon in July and 0.7 mpg in August of this year. — Edmunds Green Car Advisor

If California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has his way, utilities in the state will get at least a third of their energy from renewable sources by 2020 — and they’ll have free reign to import it from out of the state. The move, which has been under discussion for more than a year, would create the largest renewable portfolio standard in the country — with some caveats — and could be a major boon for big solar farms in the Arizona and Nevada deserts.

That provision for imports is part of what sets the executive order, which Schwarzenegger is expected to sign this week, apart from a bill approved this weekend in the California legislature. The Governor plans to veto that bill largely because of limits on how much energy can come from out of state to meet the renewable requirement.

Continue reading this story

Wind power innovators are poised to get a $1 billion boost from Washington — that is, if the Senate goes along with the House in approving the Wind Energy Research and Development Act of 2009. The bill, which cleared the House late Wednesday in a voice vote, would authorize $200 million a year for five years starting in 2010 for a grant program out of the Department of Energy for wind research and demo projects. If enacted, this would roughly quadruple the DOE wind program’s annual budget (not counting $118 million in one-time stimulus funds), and go a long way toward the level of federal funding the wind industry says it requires in order to supply 20 percent of U.S. energy needs by 2030.

According to the text of the bill, “In recent years much of the federal wind program has focused on testing and evaluation of commercial turbines rather than advanced research, leading to gaps in our national wind R&D portfolio.” In response, legislators have approved funds for a far-reaching program that would open a new spigot of capital for companies and researchers working on technologies ranging from computational modeling tools and advanced control systems to blade sensors, turbine materials and large-scale components.

Continue reading this story

A dozen wind and solar projects have just snagged hefty grants from the Department of Energy — not enough to cover the entirety of their projects, but enough, the agency hopes, to get investors to pony up more capital. Among today’s big winners is Spain’s Iberdrola Renewables, snagging close to $300 million of the nearly $503 million announced today. Iberdrola’s Peñascal Wind Farm in Sarita, Tex. won the largest single grant in today’s group, for more than $114 million.

The idea of these grants, provided under the stimulus package, is to award cash up front in lieu of tax credits, helping to spur private investment and keep clean energy developers from getting stuck in the chicken-and-egg funding dilemma of having to bring a project online before tax credits kick in.

Continue reading this story

GM Green Strategy in a Nutshell: General Motors’ Britta Gross says the extended-range electric Chevy Volt is intended as a halo car to change people’s perception of the company, but it’s developing hydrogen fuel cell tech since “we can’t just assume batteries are going to solve all our problems.” — AutoblogGreen, Orlando Sentinel

Hyundai, LG Chem Link Up for Hybrid Batteries: South Korea’s Hyundai and battery giant LG Chem plan to set up a joint venture to develop and produce lithium-ion battery packs for hybrid cars. — Reuters

Clean Energy, Coal on the Line in Transmission Buildout: “Beefing up the nation’s electricity-transmission system to make renewable energy a reality could backfire and make coal an even more widespread source of electricity—unless carbon emissions are reined in at the same time.” — WSJ’s Environmental Capital

Tesla Hiring Blitz: Electric car startup Tesla Motors has just announced the first of “several high profile hires” it expects to make in coming weeks. Ricardo Reyes, former director of communications for YouTube, is joining Tesla as VP of Communications, bringing experience in litigation and crisis management. — Press Release

WoodPellets.com Raises $11M: New Hampshire-based WoodPellets.com has raised $11 million to expand its home wood pellet delivery network. The three-year-old startup has developed logistics software to track availability of pellets for home heating and plans to develop a system where pellets are delivered in bulk from a truck and stored in a hopper in a basement or garage. — CNET’s Green Tech

New Life for Cadillac Converj?: General Motors’ plans for the Cadillac Converj, a concept for a luxury vehicle using the Voltec drive system deployed in the Chevy Volt, were shelved when some members of top management and the federal auto task force questioned the economics of such an expensive model. Now Bob Lutz might take it off the chopping block. –  BusinessWeek

Sneak Peek at Cali’s Energy Economics: The black box of California utilities’ big solar contracts cracked open a bit last week when the state’s Public Utilities Commission approved two 25-year power purchase agreements between PG&E and BrightSource Energy. –  NYT’s Green Inc.

Matthew Nordan Joins Venrock: Lux Research co-founder and former president Matthew Nordan has joined venture capital firm Venrock as a vice president to focus on investments in energy, environmental and materials technologies. — Press Release

Alternative Energy Myths: Matthew Grunwald sets out to debunk what he calls seven myths about alternative energy, including the idea that “we need a technological revolution to save the world.” — Foreign Policy

Green Mortgages: “A number of lenders and government agencies are offering mortgage deals to people who borrow money to make their homes more efficient, or who buy homes that already meet high efficiency standards.” — Wall Street Journal

Electrifying the Autobahn: The German government unveiled plans today to have one million electric cars zipping along the autbahn by 2020, “offering sweeteners to jump-start national giants like BMW and Volkswagen into action.” — AFP via Grist

Fuel from Biomass, Sewage Sludge Headed for LAX: Synthetic fuels and fertilizer maker Rentech announced a deal today with Aircraft Service International Group, which provides fueling at the LA International Airport, to supply up to 1.5 million gallons per year of renewable synthetic diesel fuel for ground-based equipment of at least eight airlines starting in late 2012. — Cleantech Group

Study: Renewables Safer than Fossil Fuels: Doctors from the Medical College of Wisconsin and Duke University Medical Center have just published an analysis finding that a shift to producing power power from renewable resources like solar and wind rather than burning fossil fuels could prevent an estimated 1,300 worker deaths in the coming decade. — Scientific American Blog

Energy Frenemies: “It’s not clear that wind and gas interests will coexist peacefully.” In Texas, wind is already driving down power prices, putting the squeeze on profits from natural gas. — WSJ’s Environmental Capital

Next-Gen Plastic Recycling?: The first factory that can take unsorted, dirty plastic waste and turn it into a substitute for plywood has just opened in Luton, England by a company called 2K Manufacturing, with support from construction compay Bovis. — The Economist

Slow Going for Solar Phones: “Solar technology in mobile computing devices is still impeded by performance and price issues and isn’t likely to entirely replace batteries anytime soon, according to analysts.” — CNET’s Green Tech

Farmers in the Climate Crossfire: Unrestricted greenhouse gas emissions will be “catastrophic” for agriculture in the U.S. “Yet many senators are arguing that a limit on carbon pollution would be too costly for farmers.” — Climate Progress

Rooftop Wind: Pros & Cons: In theory, sticking wind turbines on top of buildings could generate a fair amount of clean power for cities without costly transmission lines or expensive photovoltaics. But wind up there is relatively turbulent, and the smaller turbines are less economical than the behemoths used for sprawling ground-level wind farms. — TNR’s The Vine

Pricey Transmission: A report from California’s Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative says the state will need to shell out $15.7 billion to install transmission lines in order to meet renewable energy mandates, significantly higher than the $12 billion estimate the California Public Utilities Commission issued for the buildout out in June. — VentureBeat’s GreenBeat

Indian Government to Compete with VCs: India’s government has announced plans to launch its own venture fund focused on green technology research. EETimes India via Cleantech Group

What About Charging?: The Department of Energy is spending $2.4 billion to help develop technology for electric vehicles, but relatively little has been awarded for a crucial element that remains in short supply: the infrastructure needed to recharge vehicles once they are on the road. Wall Street Journal

Crackdown on Inefficient Homes: Owners of poorly insulated homes should not be allowed to sell or rent them until they have invested in energy efficiency measures in order to bring ambitious emission reduction targets within reach, says the UK government’s advisory body on domestic energy use. — Times Online

Seriously: ExxonMobil, “Green Company of the Year”: Forbes cheers ExxonMobil’s investments in natural gas, saying the oil giant’s $600 million algae fuel play is “purely political,” while drilling for natural gas is “the engineer’s approach” to going green. — Forbes

Cash for Clunkers Instead of Solar, Wind: Congress will likely vote to shift $2 billion to the cash for clunkers program, away from a loan guarantee program for renewable energy projects. The arrangement would shrink the energy program by one third. — CNET’s Green Tech

2015 Lamborgreenie: “Lamborghini is known for many things; sexy sounding V12 engines, outrageous, egregious bodykits, and low fuel efficiency (often in the single digits). But a hybrid?” — Gas 2.0