The Carbon Trust and Pemeas; news and follow-ups

• UK-based The Carbon Trust announced that they are going to be raising a 75mm pound fund to provide venture capital funding for green technologies. Interestingly, the fund will be listed on the AIM. (thanks to Chet for the tip on this story)

• German fuel cell component maker PEMEAS announced a 6mm euro raise from existing investors. This brings the total invested to date in the company up to 26mm euro. Existing investors include BankInvest, Conduit Ventures, S.A.M., CDP Capital, InfraServ Hochst, and Celanese AG.

• As previously mentioned here, many investors expect to see consolidation start to happen in the solar industry. Is the movement already starting? See Q-Cell's recent direct investment in Flexcell and WorldWater & Power's acquisition of ENTECH. Also notable: Tyler Hamilton polled his readers to see where they expect the best returns to investors, and unsurprisingly solar tops the list...
  

• On the subject of ethanol, the buzz continues. There seems to be an interesting schism in the public discourse, however. On the one hand, the debate continues about whether corn-based ethanol is a net positive or negative. And yet others have decided that debate is moot and have moved onto discussions about the feasibility of cellulosic ethanol. Certainly this latter perspective has captured the attention of a lot of venture investors. Jim at The Energy Blog has a good post discussing the DOE's cellulosic ethanol roadmap.
  

[7/16 update: For a fun read, check out the series of ethanol-related interviews at GoG2G -- The anti-ethanol researchers have their say, and then get taken on by Vinod...]

Other notes: CNet's News.com has a good article covering a lot of ground, related to investing and climate change, check it out... GreenShift shift: Cleantech investor transitioning to operating company... Here's a good update on the state of lithium ion battery technology... Last but definitely not least, how to rock out in a carbon neutral way!