Similar numbers were reported by the Cleantech Group last month, which found that cleantech VC investing had dropped by a third in the second quarter compared to the same quarter last year.

The second quarter fall follows some mixed signals for cleantech VC investing from the first quarter of the year, but also some solid signs that cleantech investors have been pulling back on new investments. While the first quarter of the year produced an almost record amount of cleantech VC funding according to numbers from the Cleantech group, a deeper dive into those numbers revealed that the bulk of those fundings were follow-on rounds for capital-intensive companies like Miasole, BrightSource, Fisker Automotive, and Bloom Energy. However, Dow Jones VentureSource reported first quarter numbers more conservatively than the Cleantech Group, at actually 8 percent lower than today’s second-quarter numbers.

But now after the second quarter, the underlying trend is showing through plain and clear: A good portion of the generalist VCs that invested in a few cleantech companies a few years ago have changed course. Earlier this year, Mass High Tech published a report that studied 10 venture firms that made five or more new cleantech deals between 2003 and 2008, then completely pulled back from new cleantech investments after 2008. Ernst & Young found that in this latest second-quarter report, later stage companies were responsible for $865.2 million, or 79 percent of the quarter’s funding.

Other investors with aggressive large cleantech portfolios, like Kleiner Perkins and Khosla Ventures, are less easily scared off by longer return times, capital-intensive companies and hardcore science innovations. And these funds will also have to continue to support the maturing cleantech companies that need to scale up (i.e., the ones that generated that pseudo record in Q1).

In Wednesday’s report, Ernst & Young found that once again, solar companies continue to draw some of the greatest support, with $234.2 million, or 21 percent of the total funding.

Image courtesy of tonydude919.

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

• A 2011 Green IT Forecast
• Green IT’s Q4 Winners: Wind Power, Solar Power, Smart Energy
• Green IT Overview, Q2 2010

First off, A123 Systems’ lead makes the IPO prospects for greentech firms, and particularly electric vehicle companies, in 2010 look pretty good. The IPO market in 2009 was still very “anemic,” points out Dow Jones VentureSource. A123 Systems represented about a third of the overall IPO market in 2009 (about $900 million in all of 2009, see graphic below).

A123Systems’ killer IPO could be a good indicator for the success of Tesla, the electric vehicle company, in 2010, if it plans to go public. A Tesla IPO could be the biggest and possibly the first public offering for a U.S. car company since Ford Motor’s IPO more than 50 years ago.

But all greentech isn’t created equal. So it will be interesting to see how much Solyndra, the thin film solar firm, or Codexis, the biocatalyst developer, will be able to raise. Solyndra has certainly been able to raise a ton of money from the private sector — close to $1 billion, the most I’ve ever heard of being raised by a startup.

The other big question for 2010 is: Will the IPO market return considerably? Analysts at Dow Jones VentureSource think so. The researchers note that there are 25 venture-backed companies currently in IPO registration, and that “it is clear that many entrepreneurs and their investors expect the market to improve in the coming year.”

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

• Top 10 Greentech Companies of 2010
• Green IT 2011: China Marches Towards Greentech Dominance
• Green IT Overview, Q2 2010