Renewable Ventures gets sold, Gridpoint raises $16mm, Mascoma, and much more

It's difficult to keep up with everything in the cleantech space right now. Probably a good thing. Here are some items to note:

• Renewable Ventures got sold to MuniMae. It's a bit surprising, given that RV (mostly involved in solar project finance) had just finished arranging a $100mm pool of capital back in February. Does this signify the potential beginnings of a period of fund acquisition in the cleantech space, as other investors look for ways to get a jump start on getting into the market? RV continues to recruit and hire, by all reports, so they're clearly still planning to be very active.

• GridPoint announced a $16mm Series B, led by the Altira Group, and also including Contango Capital Management and Advantage Capital Partners, adding onto a large number of angel investors. We've discussed the company's home energy storage/ management appliance in the past, when they raised $9mm back in November.

• BusinessWeek's Deal Flow blog has the scoop on another Vinod Khosla ethanol investment: Mascoma. Apparently a $4mm round. More info on the company's licensed technology here.
  

• Since about a dozen folks have forwarded around bits and pieces of the NYT special section on green business today, here's a handy link.

Other interesting tidbits: Sorry, Bob, "Enertech" is already taken. But Bob Metcalfe's post is well worth checking out for his perspective on the possibility of an "energy bubble"... Here's an interesting interview with a silly title... More evidence of large acquisitive players being active in the cleantech market... Here's a link to the pdf of E2's report on cleantech clusters (just for you, Matt Marshall)... Lastly, a solar IPO you may not have heard of...