News you can use

In advance of this week's Cleantech Venture Forum in San Francisco, here are some news stories to talk about in the networking sessions, if you're able to attend...

• Building on last week's discussion of the hydrogen economy comes this useful update on the current state of micro fuel cell commercialization -- a tech some have looked to for earlier market adoption than hydrogen-fueled PEMs, focusing on battery replacement instead of stationary or vehicular power. "But profitability in the segment appears to be elusive, as the technology remains in the R&D stage for now."

• Tyler Hamilton reports on the white-hot solar market, by focusing on a Canadian company that will be at the Forum... "Solarbuzz LLC, a San Francisco-based research firm focused on the solar industry, reported last week that the generating capacity of solar PV installations around the world grew by a stunning 39 per cent in 2005, with more than $1 billion (U.S.) invested in new plants to manufacture solar cells. The industry also raised nearly $2 billion on the capital markets last year, and was one of the hottest areas of venture capital investment."

• Now Sun is jumping into the M2M sensor network space. Which, as we've discussed before, has important cleantech applications. "Sadly, the memory and processing requirements of Java mean that the sensors will have to be larger, but Sun is sure that will change with time."

• EnerTech is teaming up with Cantor Fitzgerald in the field of carbon credits. We've mentioned carbon and renewables credits before, but this move further highlights one important way that cleantech (especially clean energy and energy efficiency techs) can capture additional revenue streams in the future -- don't just sell the product or service, sell the credits you create as well. Smart move by EnerTech.
  

Unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts I won't be able to attend the event myself, but attending readers should look for my Expansion Capital Partners colleague Kjartan Jansen, who will be there and has kindly offered to share his thoughts on this site during the week... Look for his posts over the next couple of days.