From the CIA to a cleantech venture capital firm, draw your own conclusions...

Former CIA Head Joins VC Firm VantagePoint - Earth2Tech

Venture firms have made partners out of the rich, the famous and now the spooky. VantagePoint Partners has added R. James Woolsey, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, as a Venture Partner.

Competing To Fuel The Future - Forbes

ICE focuses on early-stage clean tech start-ups that have combined compelling technology with sound business strategies. Although New England has several mature clean tech companies, the competition focuses exclusively on those that have not received institutional or venture funding. The competition, organized by MIT's Enterprise Forum in Cambridge and sponsored by Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, has been largely dominated by clean-energy start-ups from the northeast.

Three Cleantech Startups Make Red Herring 100 List - Sustainable Business

Silver Spring Networks is developing open-standards, real-time networking for utility companies to improve efficiency, reliability and customer service. The company says open standards are the key to allowing multiple vendors to compete, while allowing integration of advanced metering technologies on scale.

GreenFuel Closes $13.9 Million Series B Funding for Algae - Clean Edge

GreenFuel Technologies Corporation, a privately held company developing algae farm technologies for recycling CO2 emissions, has closed a $13.9M venture capital round led by Access Private Equity, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Polaris Venture Partners. GreenFuel intends to use these funds to prepare for algae farm technology development and scaling projects during 2008.

Canadian Solar: Shining Bright - Seeking Alpha

In the current market environment, a couple of factors are causing high prices for solar modules, such as an industry-wide shortage of silicon (a primary constituent of solar cells) and higher demand caused by the expansion of the solar power and semiconductor industries.