These are the types of panels that you might see on the back of cell phones, for example. Light and thin equals much broader uses for the cells, which means more potential energy produced from the sun.

Most people know GE for light bulbs, but they are much more than that. “Over the last decade, through technology investment, GE has become one of the world’s major wind turbine manufacturers, and our investment in high-tech solar products will help us continue to grow our position in the renewable energy industry,” said Victor Abate, vice president of GE’s renewable energy business.

In other solar news, Google has invested roughly $5 million in a German 18.7-megawatt solar power plant. It is Google’s first investment in clean technology outside of the United States.

The solar power plant occupies around 116 acres and can generate enough power for around 5,000 homes. More than 70 percent of the panels installed at the plant are manufactured in Germany.

Hat tip to Green Tech Media and Venture Beat’s Green Beat that do great jobs on the money that flows into the space.

Cleantech saw $7.8 Billion in 2010 (the most post-credit bubble), but that was somewhat tempered with slower third and fourth quarters.

“Venture funds are still in a cautious place” as they continue to try to raise money for their own funds, said Sheerez Haji, CEO of Cleantech Group. That makes it hard for early-stage startups, as investors look for later-stage companies where “the technology risk has been taken care of,” he said.

Greentech mentions that December was a big month, however. There were more than 40 solar, smart grid, efficiency, lighting, biofuels, wind and recycling firms that raised more than $700M in VC in December.

A couple of interesting other highlights:

++ OPower, the home energy-efficiency startup, closed on their round C with $50 million led by two of Silicon Valley’s premier VC firms — Kleiner Perkins and Accel Partners, along with New Enterprise Associates. OPower is focused on customer engagement and behavior modification, and is currently providing tens of thousands of homes with in-home energy data and efficiency advice via paper reports or online. The platform is described as advanced customer engagement.

They got a visit from Obama earlier this year with respect to clean jobs.

More on OPower’s $50M raise here.

See our earlier discussion using energy data to curb usage behavior: New Electric Bill could Drive Better Usage

++ Energy efficiency continues to be the hottest segment with 7 deals for $162 million in the fourth quarter per E&Y.

++ Solar saw $150 million in 10 deals.

Ernst & Young itself seems bullish on cleantech’s future. “This quarter reflects the ongoing volatility in cleantech investment that we have observed over the past two years, depending on the presence of the very large transactions we see in cleantech,” said Jay Spencer, Ernst & Young’s Americas cleantech director, in a company statement. “However, a number [of] factors point to the continuing strength in the U.S. cleantech sector, including growth in energy efficiency investments and corporate involvement throughout multiple industries — from utilities to technology to consumer products.”

Don’t forget that you can follow us on Twitter @greensquaredcom.

According to this Reuters article, NRG Solar as they are known, has also invested in the following solar projects recently:

+ BrightSource Energy’s 392-megawatt solar thermal Ivanpah project in the Mojave Desert of California
+ 21-megawatt project in California from First Solar
+ Partnered with Euru Energy America to build three power projects totaling 45 megawatts in California.
+ NRG said it was buying nine projects under development in California and Arizona from U.S. Solar.

According to this article, the investment will cost about $4.6 million.

That investment will generate $684,000 in revenue annually according to Ikea estimates, based primarily on the 71.3 cents a kilowatt hour feed-in tariff.

That is a good news-bad news scenario in my opinion. This solar investment has a very good simple payback of 6.72 years. The bad news is that without the feed-in tariff that this same investment would provide a 60-year payback.

Photo credit:COLIN MCCONNELL/TORONTO STAR

Per the report, the following EEMs played important roles in reaching the 50% energy savings target:

• The baseline hydronic VAV system was replaced with radiant heated and cooled slab
ceilings with DOAS for ventilation.

• Total plug loads were reduced by 23% to 0.68 W/ft2 (7.3 W/m2) by purchasing high efficiency electronic equipment and employing control strategies to eliminate plug loads when equipment was not being used.

I like how they approached all of the major energy drivers: building envelope, HVAC, lights, AND PLUGLOAD. Plugloads are often ignored and are hidden consumers in buildings.

I may have missed the full payback calculations (it is, after all, 163 pages), but I sure what have liked to see them. They did provide a summary of paybacks which were somewhat disappointing:

Low-energy high-rise large office buildings featuring well integrated energy efficiency measures demonstrated simple payback periods of less than ten years; low-energy low-rise large office buildings had simple payback periods of between nine and 16 years; and low-energy high-rise large office buildings with high glazing
fraction and minimal insulation had simple payback periods of greater than 20 years.

USGBC’s certifications for LEED for Existing Buildings (LEED-EB) jumped sharply from less than 15% of all certifications in early 2008 to more than 35% in second-quarter 2010. At the same time, the proportion of LEED for New Construction (LEED-NC) awards has fallen from nearly 60% of all certifications in late 2008 to about 30% at midyear 2010.

I view that as a very positive sign in the green retrofit space, but it is also an indicator of the drastic slowdown in all new construction. It likely also has something to do with the rush in late 2008 to get grandfathered in under the “old” LEED NC rules, versus the new LEED NC 2009 rules.

The US installed 10,010 megawatts of wind generation capacity in 2009, breaking the U.S. installation record for the third consecutive year.

I thought I’d share with the class.

Here are some of the highlights:

+ The City of Houston itself uses almost 500 million kilowatt hours of green power annually, which accounts for a third of all its consumption.

+ Green is not just for a small group of companies these days. Many companies now have Chief Sustainability Officers. The list of companies that use 100 percent renewable energy is enormous and includes companies that are vital to the Houston and Texas business community like Kohl’s, Whole Foods, and Dell Computers, to name a few.

+ It is easy to be greener by installing aerators, low-flow showerheads, T-5 or T-8 lights, variable frequency drives, and automation systems that have very short paybacks.

As we mentioned last week here, there are already 1.7 million smart meters deployed in Texas, and 6 million will be deployed by 2013. This article from the Financial Post notes that about 76 million smart meters have been installed around the world and that number is expected to more than double by 2013.

What are Smart Meters?

Smart meters pinpoint and record how much and when electricity is used — typically on an hourly basis — and automatically transmit that information to the utility via a two-way communications network. Whereas, conventional electricity meters measure the only total amount of electricity used over a specified billing period.

Picture: Wikipedia

Here’s a quick run-down of several energy-efficient projects cited in the article.

Projects at Fairmont Waterfront hotel include a heat-recovery system to preheat incoming city water using heat captured from the hotel’s water system. It saves an estimated 305,380 kilowatt-hours (1,100 GJ) per year and $12,000 per year. Estimated payback is in two years.

In a separate article, Fairmont set a corporate commitment to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 20 percent from its 2006 levels by 2013.