Deeya Energy and Tuesday Tidbits

• New battery technology developer Deeya Energy has announced a first round of VC funding (amount undisclosed) from Blue Run Ventures, DFJ and DFJ Element. The company claims their technology will provide cheaper batteries with better charge/discharge characteristics. Energy storage remains a critical enabler for a lot of other cleantech applications (think Tesla Motors), as well as a large potential market in its own right.
  

• First Reserve Corporation has bought a 50% stake in Blue Source, LLC. While not strictly a venture transaction, it's important for cleantech investors to view this as further signs of development of a real market for Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions reductions credits. Many clean technologies have the potential to lead to the creation of GHG credits for either the clean technology manufacturer or their customers, but as of yet the value of this remains mostly uncaptured as the market for GHG credits continues to develop. If GHG credits become standardized and fungible (and First Reserve is far from the only financial player to be making a bet that this will happen), it has the potential to unlock significant new revenue streams for a lot of cleantech firms, and thus create additional value for their investors. So it's a market to watch very carefully.

Other news and notes: We purposefully do not talk much about politics on this site, but given how past State of the Union announcements have impacted cleantech investment markets, it's worth noting that now we've twice heard this rumor... Here's a good story on the growth of solar in the Bay Area... Finally, here's an interesting column on GM and the hydrogen highway.