Gore has outlined a five-step plan to achieve his goal of generating 100 percent of the U.S.’s electricity from renewable sources in 10 years. Though Obama hasn’t agreed to Gore’s lofty goal, he has committed, in varying degrees, to implementing Gore’s recommendations. Obama has promised to boost the energy efficiency of federal buildings, work with governors to promote clean energy, invest huge amounts in our electrical infrastructure and help Detroit retool to become a leader in green cars.

The elephant in the room is still the issue of carbon regulation. During the campaign, Obama said he was in favor of a cap-and-trade scheme, but since the economic crisis has taken the spotlight, carbon mitigation has been quietly looming in the corner. Putting a price on carbon, either through a carbon market or with a tax, as Gore himself suggests, is the greatest boost the government could give clean technologies.

But the cynical question posed by MSNBC isn’t how far Gore can push Obama to clean up our energy sector; it’s how much will Obama ask Gore to publicly temper his climate crisis rhetoric? While Obama has said renewable energy and energy efficiency will play vital roles in boosting the economy, he probably won’t go as far as Gore would like, given the stormy financial climate.

So, can Obama fight for cleantech while battling a recession? We hope Gore is able to explain how the only way to fight the recession is with cleantech.

Image courtesy of Change.gov

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Flash analysis: the Fisker debacle and its implications on investing, innovation, and government incentives
• Building energy management systems: overview and forecast
• Cleantech first-quarter 2013 analysis and outlook

The companies say that the reflective white roofing membrane boosts the electrical output of Solyndra’s solar panels, which can absorb sunlight from all directions, by 20 percent. Carlisle has already installed a Solyndra solar system on the roof of its roofing membrane manufacturing plant (see picture) and tells us the entire system went up in just one day.

This deal is in addition to Solyndra’s previously announced $1.2 billion in backlogged sales, which include contracts with German solar integrators GeckoLogic GmbH and Phoenix Solar as well as U.S.-based solar manufacturer and integrator Solar Power Inc. Today’s announced sale pushes Solyndra’s customer contracts up to $1.52 billion.

Solyndra’s special sauce is in its unique panel design. A photovoltaic copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) compound is wrapped around a series of tubes until they resemble a row of black, fluorescent lights. Each module is curved to catch the maximum amount of light from any direction, so the panels don’t need to be carefully angled or laboriously secured like traditional PV panels.

Solyndra currently operates a fabrication line at its headquarters in Fremont, Calif., and has a planned manufacturing facility in nearby Milpitas. The 300,000-square-foot Fremont facility has a production capacity of 110 megawatts and, when completed, the Milpitas plant will add 420 megawatts of capacity.

The company just came out of stealth last month but was founded three years ago. Solyndra says it has already raised more than $600 million from investors like Redpoint Ventures, RockPort Capital, Argonaut, CMEA Ventures, U.S. Venture Partners, the Walton Family Fund, Madrone Capital, Abu Dubai’s MASDAR and Richard Branson’s Virgin Green Fund.

Images courtesy of Solyndra and Carlisle.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Flash analysis: the Fisker debacle and its implications on investing, innovation, and government incentives
• The fourth quarter of 2012 in cleantech
• Cleantech and investment in 2013

Amyris Opens Synthetic Diesel Pilot Plant: Biofuel startup Amyris started production of its “No Compromise” synthetic diesel fuel and officially opened its first pilot plant at its headquarters in Emeryville, Calif.

The Debt Markets Cramped T. Boone’s Wind Plan: Pickens says he was originally planning to finance his 4,000-MW wind farm in Texas with 30 percent equity and 70 percent debt financing, but more recently the debt markets have caused a “financial hangup.”

Nuclear Catfight: Exelon, NRG Take Tussle Public: After a few weeks of gentle pawing at smaller rival NRG Energy, industry giant Exelon has gone hostile.

Al Gore’s 5 Steps To Deliver 100% Clean Power in a Decade: Gore is calling for 100 percent of U.S. electricity to be from renewable power within 10 years, achievable with Gore’s simple, five-step energy revolution plan!

A Green Auto Bailout Must Oust Execs: Tom Friedman calls the auto industry “brain dead” and Obama faults the industry with blocking the very reforms that could have saved it, so why do they deserve a bailout again?

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Flash analysis: the Fisker debacle and its implications on investing, innovation, and government incentives
• Building energy management systems: overview and forecast
• Cleantech first-quarter 2013 analysis and outlook

The Dark Knight, for example has come up with a way to add some Joker-style graffiti to photos of your friends. Use the touch screen to drag and rotate elements and then save and send them as you like. Bolt, Disney’s forthcoming animated canine adventure has released an app which is essentially a free stripped down Super Monkey game for a very subtle hand.

All three apps, however, lack the seemingly most obvious feature – the ability to actually purchase tickets for the movie. That much imagination would be too much to ask from Hollywood, but we are happy that they are thinking about ways to promote their movies on screens that matter.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Connected world: the consumer technology revolution
• Survey: How apps can solve photo management
• The 2013 task management tools market

The Wall Street Journal asked early on if an auto bailout package should boot the CEOs of Ford, GM and Chrysler just as the government ousted top executives at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and American International Group (AIG) as part of its takeover.

Speaking in May to the Detroit Economic Club, Obama did not mince words when it came to telling auto execs what their role was in their own downfall:

“Whenever an attempt was made to raise our fuel efficiency standards the auto companies would lobby against it, spending millions to prevent the very reform that could have saved their industry. Even as they shed thousands of jobs and billions in profits over the last few years, they’ve continued to reward failure, in some cases with lucrative bonuses for CEOs.”

Thomas Friedman was far less forgiving in his latest column, calling most of the “brain dead” auto industry’s woes self-inflicted and scoffing at the idea of subsidizing innovation in Detroit. He would rather have the likes of Steve Jobs take the reins of domestic auto sector. Sure, Jobs has built his company on innovation, but perhaps someone more like Better Place’s Shai Agassi, of whom Friedman is already a fan.

The auto execs are preparing to testify before Congress next week, but perhaps they should also be updating their resumes.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Cleantech: a question of national security
• What the Solyndra case says about the government and cleantech
• Flash analysis: the Fisker debacle and its implications on investing, innovation, and government incentives

Octogenarian Texans aren’t regulars on “The Daily Show,” but Pickens seemed to win over the audience, or at least Stewart, with his plan to switch America’s trucks to run on natural gas. Pickens explained: “When people talk about ‘We’re going to go to the electric car,’ I love it. But remember, they said car, not truck. A battery won’t move an 18-wheeler. The only thing that will move an 18-wheeler is foreign oil, diesel and gasoline — and our domestic natural gas. There’s where the fuel needs to go.” It only took Pickens six minutes to have Stewart standing, saluting and shouting at him, “Sir, reporting for duty!” in support of his plan. The Pickens Army likely picked up some new recruits following the Comedy Central appearance.

Absent, though, was much (if any) talk of the wind-power half of his plan. Pickens’ plan to build the world’s largest wind farm in the Texas panhandle has been put on indefinite hold because of the depressed debt market. But the former oilman is unflappable, and he said confidently that oil will be back up to $100 a barrel in a year and that his plan is the solution to our energy crisis. He also encouraged people to buy his new book, “The First Billion Is the Hardest.”

Author Thomas Friedman was equally optimistic on the show Tuesday while pushing his latest book, “Hot, Flat and Crowded,” the culmination of the last two years worth of his columns. Friedman reiterated his belief that energy technology, or ET, will be the world’s next great global industry and a sector that America must dominate. Friedman said we need a Silicon Valley approach, not a Manhattan Project, to jump start this revolution. “What we need is a market signal that will get 100,000 people in 100,000 garages trying 100,000 things, 1,000 of which will be promising, 100 of which will be way cool and two of which will be the next green Google and green Microsoft,” Friedman told Stewart.

Stewart wasn’t as easily convinced by Friedman’s pitch and quipped back, “What you [are] advocating is a green bubble, where a lot people can lose money.”

Let’s hope he’s wrong.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Key steps for successful renewable-energy permitting
• Flash analysis: the Fisker debacle and its implications on investing, innovation, and government incentives
• Building energy management systems: overview and forecast

Says Who the Cleantech Bubble is Bursting?: Tired of reading those fatalistic headlines proclaiming the imminent collapse of the cleantech boom? Yeah, us too, so read this and brush those haters off – Clean Break.

How Many “Miles Per Gallon” Does Your Data Center Get?: The Green Grid, a consortium of IT firms, is working to make standardized metrics to measure and compare the efficiency of different bits of IT equipment, just like MPG can be used to compare cars – Business Green.

Credit Crunch Shifting Desert Sands in Solar Land Grab: All the sunniest spots in the California desert are already leased by potential solar developers, but the credit crunch could force firms to give up their claims and bigger solar players are laying in wait – Green Wombat.

Sun Improves OpenEco, Free Carbon Footprinting: Sun Microsystems enhanced its OpenEco.org service, which now provides a more comprehensive carbon footprint by tracking emissions across electricity, travel and utilities energy consumption – Press Release.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Flash analysis: the Fisker debacle and its implications on investing, innovation, and government incentives
• Building energy management systems: overview and forecast
• Cleantech first-quarter 2013 analysis and outlook

International Battery is designing its Lithium Ion 6TLi Battery to be the same size as currently deployed lead-acid batteries so that soldiers can swap them out on location. The Oakland, N.J.-based company says its battery has four times the energy, half the weight, a significantly longer life and enhanced combat readiness as compared to the current lead-acid battery systems.

Meanwhile, Firefly Energy is using carbon foam to make more lightweight lead-acid batteries for use in military and commercial trucks. The batteries are for the military’s “Silent Watch” program, which allows reconnaissance vehicles to turn off their noisy engines and instead power sensor and communication arrays silently with on-board batteries. This is the fourth time the DoD has provided funds to Firefly, bringing the total received $12.75 million.

Both battery makers have considerable private capital. International Battery raised $25 million of financing from Digital Power Capital in 2007 to complete its manufacturing facility in Allentown, Penn. Meanwhile, Firefly has raised over $25 million in private funding from investors including Khosla Ventures, Quercus Trust and Infield Capital.

This is International Battery’s first contract with the DoD and the company says it’s currently making batteries for testing. Firefly Energy says it plans to start delivering batteries to the military by late 2009.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• AEP: Deploying the Future of Backyard Batteries
• Green IT Overview, Q2 2010
• Flash analysis: the Fisker debacle and its implications on investing, innovation, and government incentives

Aquaflow says its free-range algae approach allows it to save money on facilities and maintenance. Aquaflow is working with new partner UOP, a subsidiary of Honeywell, to process algae harvested from open-air sludge ponds and waste streams into high-quality fuels. UOP has years of experience in the petro-chemical refining business but has been moving into biofuels in earnest recently with its own Renewable Energy & Chemicals business and collaborations with aircraft maker Boeing, bio-oil vet Ensyn and the DOE.

Aquaflow raised funding through a public offering at the end of the 2006; it’s also received a NZ$3 million investment from renewable energy business Pure Power Global of Singapore, the company’s largest shareholder, according to Aquaflow’s prospectus. The company built its first pilot plant in 2007 and in September this year said it produced the first samples of its “green crude.” The shares will be made available to Australian investors starting Nov. 18; the offering will close in December.

Image courtesy of Aquaflow Bionomics.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Flash analysis: the Fisker debacle and its implications on investing, innovation, and government incentives
• Building energy management systems: overview and forecast
• Cleantech first-quarter 2013 analysis and outlook

The Fremont, Calif.-based startup takes standard crystalline silicon solar cells and slices them into thin strips, a process the company calls “cell multiplication technology.” The 2-millimeter-wide silicon strips are reassembled in a stripe pattern and then an optical concentrator is laid on top to focus light away from the gaps and onto the strips. The company says its unique module design has the same form, function and — most importantly — efficiency as traditional solar modules but uses half the amount of silicon material. Update: Solaria has a 10-year, 1.3-gigawatt solar cell supply deal with one of its backers, Australian German solar firm Q-Cells, that ensures it has access to materials.

In addition to Q-Cells, the company has other big backers, including Sigma Partners, NGEN and Moser Baer. The company has been relatively quiet since closing its $50 million Series C round in July 2007. The company is older than many other solar startups and has built an expansive partner network that includes BP Solar and Spire. Sharma tells us the company’s current customers are large project developers but Solaria is developing a series of “specialty modules” for different market segments which it hopes to start bringing to market in 2010, and the company is looking to hire a number of engineers to finish R&D on these new products.

Image courtesy of Solaria.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Flash analysis: the Fisker debacle and its implications on investing, innovation, and government incentives
• Building energy management systems: overview and forecast
• Cleantech first-quarter 2013 analysis and outlook