Swiss venture capital firm Emerald Technology Ventures hasn’t made an investment in a new clean technology company since the end of 2008, but that’s about to change after the ringing in of the new year.

Starting in 2010, the firm—which is focused on investments in clean technologies in the energy, advanced materials, and water sectors—will be into its third fund, with a target size of about €150 million to €200 million ($224 million to $298 million).

Founded in 2000, the company has offices in Zurich and Montreal, Quebec.

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R.J. Lyman, a Boston, Mass.-based partner at Goodwin Procter, is no stranger when it comes to helping his clients navigate renewable portfolio standards (RPS).

He told the Cleantech Group there’s likely to be a rapid deployment of projects from renewable resources once regulators, utilities and political leaders are honest with the consequences: It’s going to mean hikes on electricity bills.

But currently, he said, he’s not seeing enough being done to meet the RPS initiatives.

Lyman is a member of the firm’s Clean Tech Incubator Group, which brings together a bi-coastal group of experts with more than 40 partners focused on cleantech and energy clients.

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What will the world look like as the price of gasoline climbs, $2 at a time, from $4 to $20 a gallon?

Christopher Steiner, a staff writer at Forbes magazine, takes a look at how the future of energy is going to change, with his new book, “$20 Per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasoline Will Change Our Lives for the Better,” which came out last month.

The book is expected to make the New York Times non-fiction hardcover extended bestseller list, to be published Aug. 16.

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This morning’s news of the $75 million Series C raised by Suniva was already notable, as it was the second largest venture capital round announced in the solar sector so far this year (see Suniva closes a whopping $75M Series C round).

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San Francisco, Calif.-based CMEA Capital is on the hunt for the best and brightest cleantech investments. But if the investors can’t find what they are looking for, founder and Managing Director Tom Baruch told the Cleantech Group they’ll create their own company.

The venture capital firm usually invests anywhere from $10 million to $15 million per company, over the life of its involvement with the company, he said. And these days, renewable fuels and chemicals from cellulosic precursors as well as algae are catching the attention of CMEA investors. Baruch said they are working on a stealth project in collaboration with a university in San Diego to genetically modify algae to produce chemicals.

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Venture capitalists are holding tightly onto their investment dollars in the United States because of a lack of exit options, but some cleantech companies are turning to Canada to find capital (see More deals, fewer dollars for cleantech in ‘09?).

The most recent cleantech company to ring the bell beginning market trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange Venture Exchange was Welland, Ontario-based CRS Electronics (TSXV:LED). The company, which specializes in engineering, designing and manufacturing LED lighting, started trading May 27, as one of three new cleantech listings on the exchange in 2009.

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Cleantech investors are adapting to a new reality, says Tom Cain, a partner at SAIL Venture Partners.

The changes go far beyond the immediate impact of the economic crisis. Venture capitalists are finding that they’re now being asked to guide the placement of massive amounts of new capital coming from the U.S. and local governments, Cain said.

SAIL dove headfirst into the space. The investment firm’s portfolio companies in the cleantech sector are in the process of securing $3 billion in government grants and loan guarantees to commercialize their technologies.

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Toronto-based Zenn Motor (TSX:ZNN) plans to incorporate ultracapacitors from stealthy EEStor into full-speed electric vehicles starting in 2010.

The news comes a day after EEStor received third-party verification that it passed its final technology milestone, leaving the company with the challenge of bringing its state-of-the-art energy storage system to commercial production (see Zenn to increase stake in EEStor after test verifies ultracapacitor technology).

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Governments around the globe are firming up their positions of climate change issues prior to the UN discussions in December in Copenhagen.

But some of the newest technologies coming out of research institutions such as the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego have the potential to render some of those decisions obsolete.

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The U.S. House of Representatives today passed an $819 billion stimulus plan that includes $11 billion for smart grid technology (see Smart grid could be early winner in U.S. stimulus package).

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