Investors in ClearEdge’s latest round include Artis Capital Management, Güssing Renewable Energy, Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Company and Kohlberg Ventures. Producing fuel cells is notoriously capital intensive and difficult to make profitable — Bloom Energy has raised at least $500 million over the years.

Fuel cells look a little bit like industrial refrigerators, and they use a chemical reaction to produce electricity and heat. They are filled with stacks that are lined with catalysts (a metal, sometimes platinum), and a fuel (commonly natural gas) is inserted in one side and runs over the stack. Electricity and heat flow out the other side.

As I pointed out in this article there’s a lot of fuel cell companies that have tried to make manufacturing fuel cells profitable for decades. One of the Achilles heels of fuel cell production is making a stack that lasts and can meet a warranty as high as 10 years.

ClearEdge Power says in its release that it has had year-over-year revenue growth of over 480 percent in the second quarter of 2011 and says it has grown the amount of jobs by 300 percent over a three-year period.

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As Grid Net’s new Chief Strategy Officer Andres Carvallo told me last week, Grid Net is looking to build an ecosystem around its vision of a real time, 100-percent Internet Protocol, secure, reliable, scalable, broadband-based smart grid platform. While the wireless standard is the backbone of Grid Net’s first product, Carvallo told me the startup plans to take the core software and explore other technologies as well, including possibly fiber and broadband-over powerline technology.

While Google is a light-weight, if not merely experimental, player in the smart grid, the search engine giant shares that same basic vision for energy (and the Internet in general) as Grid Net: a smart grid based on broadband, open-standards and all IP. Google has developed its PowerMeter web energy tool that can collect smart grid data in real time via a basic Internet connection, and has partnered with gadget makers so that PowerMeter can even bypass smart meters.

Google has also been very vocal on the issue of utilities providing real-time energy data to consumers and has been involved in the process of the California Public Utility Commission asking investor-owned utilities to provide this data to consumers by a certain deadline. On that issue Google’s policy counsel Michael Terrell told us that the CPUC process is “a hugely important proceeding that will determine how the ecosystem in this space evolves.”

So here’s one way I think Google and Grid Net could proceed: pilot Grid Net’s smart grid software over the experimental fiber network that Google plans to build. The search giant’s plan includes setting up an experimental fiber-to-the-home network in select areas of the country that would offer speeds of around 1 Gigabit per second. Google aims to serve between 50,000 and 500,000 people and offer the service at a “competitive cost.”

It’s not such a crazy idea for these two companies to work together on a fiber smart grid network. Earlier this month the local Concord Journal reported that the city of Concord has been petitioning Google to try to get a Google fiber project built in its jurisdiction. The Journal says that the city’s application says it “plans to deploy a SmartGrid” over the fiber. (see related story on GigaOM Pro, subscription required, Google Buzz, Fiber and Their Place in the Smart Grid).

The problem with fiber for the smart grid to date is that the infrastructure has been too expensive for utilities. Xcel Energy’s showcase smart grid project in Boulder, Colo. has cost a lot more than originally expected, and the Colorado Public Utility Commission says fiber is one of the main culprits for the cost overruns.

But fiber, and other broadband technologies like WiMAX will likely be the future of the smart grid. Today utilities are hesitant to build out robust, high bandwidth networks because of cost, but as the Federal Communication Commission said today in its National Broadband Plan:

The amount of data moving across Smart Grid networks is modest today but is expected to grow significantly because the number of devices, frequency of communications and complexity of data transferred are all expected to increase. Various parties have attempted to estimate bandwidth requirements; none expect existing narrowband communications will be sufficient.

The FCC notes that Sempra Energy says its needs “at least 100 kbps to all utility assets and customer locations,” and DTE Energy has said it needs 200-500 kbps to support pole-mounted distribution devices.

For Google, connecting with Grid Net could mean an interesting test bed for how PowerMeter could integrate more with smart meter software and backend utility systems. And if Google ever had any intentions for its recently-approved ability to buy and sell energy (beyond its carbon footprint claims) it would be reasonable for the search engine giant to test out such a system. Some have speculated that Google’s energy buying and selling program has to do with its intentions to enter the digital living room.

Google has long done small pilots like this, and has launched experimental services like muni WiFi. Google also has a history with WiMAX, investing in Clearwire back in the day, so Google could team up on Grid Net’s current product, too.

I asked both Grid Net’s Carvallo, and Google’s spokesperson to weigh in on the idea. Carvallo told me: We’d be delighted to do a project with Google. Google’s response: We don’t respond on who we are discussing plans with for fiber.

But Balance Energy — a San Diego-based offshoot of British military contractor BAE Systems — sees the bigger promise of microgrids in the private sector, not as islands of power unto themselves, but as trading partners, making and sharing electricity with each other and the grid at large.

Balance Energy’s fully functioning, interconnected microgrids don’t exist yet, though many are being worked on in a pilot project fashion. But as far as Terry Mohn, Balance Energy’s chief innovation officer, is concerned, the time has passed for doing tests — “We’re doing deployments,” he said.

Mohn is a former smart grid chief at San Diego Gas & Electric, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy, who joined Balance Energy last year and introduced the company in a September coming-out party at the GridWeek event in Washington DC. (see Greentech Media). Since then, the BAE Systems subsidiary has kept a military-level veil of secrecy over its activities, posting little on its Web site beyond hard-to-read industry white papers.

But in an interview last week, Mohn said the company has been involved in “dozens” of projects, ranging in scale from 500 kilowatts to as large as 50 megawatts, though the larger projects may require linking several smaller ones together to reach scale.

While he declined to name any customers, it’s likely that Balance Energy could be continuing its partnership role with SDG&E’s plan for a microgrid at the University of California at San Diego campus — although that project may be scaled back after it failed to secure a $100 million Department of Energy smart grid grant late last year.

Balance Energy’s role in all this is to integrate the variety of systems — distributed generation, energy storage, load control and demand response systems, power quality management devices, and the all-important point of connection to the larger grid — that make up microgrids, Mohn said. BAE’s decades of experience building and managing complex military IT systems are likely to serve it well in that task, he said.

The military contractor’s deep pockets will also serve it well, noted Steve Luker, vice president of business development for BAE:

“If you look at a microgrid, the majority of cost is still on the generation side,” he said. “We have a significant portion of the company that’s out developing renewable generation projects that can be used in the context of the microgrid, along with demand response, control system side, storage side, and the pricing mechanism side.”

But, unlike many other microgrid proponents, Balance Energy isn’t focused on solar and wind power for its renewable generation goals, he said. That’s because wind and solar power are intermittent, while Balance Energy is primarily focused on power that can improve better overall grid stability — though it will look at wind and solar if they’re economical, he said.

Instead, Balance Energy is looking to fuel cells that operate on biogas and natural gas  — “We have heavy projects around those,” Luker said, mostly in California. Biomass gasification and municipal solid waste gasification, as well as small hydro, are also on the company’s renewables list, he said. Just which fuel cell, gasification and hydroelectric companies Balance Energy is working with, he declined to say. (On that note fuel cell maker Bloom Energy launched yesterday and has been selling its fuel cells, which operate on natural gas and methane, to companies in California, to take advantage of the state subsidy).

As for the question of whether utilities will help their customers build their own microgrids and integrate them, “We are starting on the customer side, and inviting utilities to participate,” Mohn said. Eventually, “We think that utilities will take an investor stake into customer assets. We’re negotiating with utilities now to do that. It’s going to take some time to get there, but it’s certainly a preferred method.”

Other military contractors have been working on microgrids as they’ve shifted into the smart grid space. Lockheed Martin is working with some dozen utilities on smart grid projects, including a few microgrid projects (see Greentech Media), and Boeing’s smart grid work includes a DOE stimulus-winning project in New York with Consolidated Edison and microgrid management software maker Viridity Energy.

But Balance Energy envisions linking multiple microgrids together in a web of dispatchable (always available) power and demand response capacity, and that sets the firm apart. Achieving that ambition will require plenty of sophisticated controls and predictive analysis technology, but then, BAE’s been doing that kind of stuff for military clients for some time, Luker noted. In fact, the idea of multiple microgrids all linked together is quite like the general concept of the smart grid — a point that hasn’t been lost on many of the key thinkers working on smart grid systems.

Eventually, Mohn said, utilities could find ways to utilize Balance Energy’s technology for linking multiple microgrids to accomplish tasks like sharing power between one another. While entities known as independent system operators (ISOs) and regional transmission organizations (RTOs) manage that task in parts of the country, much of the South and Mountain West doesn’t have such entities in place, he noted.

As for whether Balance Energy intends to own and operate its own microgrids as a way to generate revenue, or it will build and maintain them on behalf of clients, Luker says: “I think we can do both.” “In some cases, it may be that the utility prefers to manage the microgrid themselves, and we’d turn over the NOC license to the utility. In other cases, it may be a campus, or an industrial campus, or working with our own customers on the military base side — they’re basically small cities — that may want to manage their resources themselves.”

Juice and SDG&E are now gearing up to demo the technology as part of the massive electric vehicle infrastructure trial that won support from the DOE this week and is timed for the initial rollout of Nissan’s 2010 LEAF electric sedan. Next week Juice will reportedly unveil a prototype of the device at the Plug In 2009 conference in Long Beach, Calif.

The reasoning behind this kind of off-board metering device, sized to fit in a typical trunk, isn’t just to make life easier for electric car owners. According to SDG&E Clean Transportation manager Bill Zobel, it could also “significantly reduce the cost of charging infrastructure over the long term.”

The new device, carrying Juice’s Plug Smart brand, combines technology from both the startup and the utility. Zobel told us in an interview that the utility patented some smart mobile charging tech, and then sought out options to develop it for real-world testing. “We could develop it ourselves, go to the VC community, or go with a developer,” he said.

Columbus, Ohio-based Juice, he said, snagged the demo agreement because SDG&E found that Juice, which is a spin-out from two-year-old BottomLine Resource Technologies, had an existing tech that could improve the utility’s concept, offered the best financial terms, and had a good track record of developing new products. “They had a similar technology but different,” he explained. “Blending made a stronger product.”

Describing itself as a project management and consulting firm, Juice says on its web site that it’s trying to capitalize on “significant market opportunities for advanced ‘intelligent’ devices in the utility space,” through products and services timed for mass deployment by early next year, with an emphasis on electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle tech. (The company declined to answer questions for this post.)

Exactly how the mobile charging device will interact with the grid remains an open question — this is a demonstration project, after all, so it’s all about collecting and evaluating data. Zobel tell us SDG&E plans to experiment with different communication networks, test and refine the security of users’ data and account information in the system, and work to ensure that the metering is accurate.

There’s also potential for this kind of technology to help link vehicles to more than the power grid. SDG&E vice president of customer solutions Hal Snyder said in a release about the demo project this week,  “Mobile smart-charging communication devices…ultimately will allow customers to charge their electric vehicles and track their energy usage and carbon footprint through the Web or a cellular phone, when used in conjunction with a utility smart meter.”

If the demonstration proves successful (the partners have set “soft benchmarks” at this point — Zobel declined to provide more detail), then Juice and SDG&E may consider negotiating an agreement to share IP for a “full deployment” of the device. The heat’s on: Zobel said that while he doesn’t know of any companies working on similar devices at this point, “when you get something this good, more than one entrepreneur is looking at it.”

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Kia Motors Gets Lost for New Web Series; Mysteries of the Universe: The Dharma Initiative will be a fictional documentary series set in the early 1980s; first episode available now. (ABC.com)

“Fred” to Be an Emo Boy; YouTube star Lucas Cruikshank makes move to movies to star as a high schooler who believes he has “emo powers.” (The Hollywood Reporter)

Generate Finds a “Hero” for Digital Programming; company partnering with Milo Ventimiglia’s Divide Pictures to develop content for the young male demo. (Variety)

FiOS TV Hits 2.5 Million Subscribers; telco’s rise is putting pressure on the cable companies. (GigaOM)

BigBand Networks Develops Video “Supergroup;” company says its Converged Video Exchange technology lets operators bundle QAM channels and manage bandwidth more efficiently. (Multichannel News)

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It is hard for me to write this post — this morning the news of Steve Jobs’ improving health put me in a good mood. My day is ending with a broken heart and tears in my eyes. It is the day which reminds you of the unpredictability of life. Rajeev and I had been swapping emails, hoping to get together for a cup of coffee and discussions about technology. Alas, that shall never be.

After working tirelessly in anonymity, his tutelage of two Stanford University young grad students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, made him a household name in Silicon Valley. He started the Mining Data at Stanford project (MIDAS) and was one of the earliest backers of Google. He was an early investor in Paypal and a special adviser to Sequoia Captial.

That success never came in the way of Rajeev’s quest for knowledge and innate desire to help others. There wasn’t a startup he didn’t love. Like his chosen specialization of search, Rajeev was searching for the unknown. He was still active as a professor and was teaching a couple of classes as recently as the last semester.

I have known Rajeev, his wife Asha and their family for a long time. Rajeev, like me, was from New Delhi. In my professional career (and personal moments of crisis) Rajeev was only a phone call away, sharing his vast rolodex. Just like a true friend. Only a few weeks back, I had a simple Indian lunch in his house with his family. I am sure, I am not the only one who has benefited from his generosity of time and knowledge and his ability to create connections and help others.

My prayers go to his young family. I hope god gives them strength and courage to navigate through these rough seas of life.

Update, June 7, 2009: The San Jose Mercury News reports that the Artherton police are waiting for an autopost report on Rajeev’s accidental drowning. The Silicon Valley chapter of TIE is planning a memorial service on Wednesday. Details of a memorial service to follow.

In addition, there were will be a visitation event on Monday June 8th at their home between 5-and-8 pm. Instead of flowers and gifts, family would like you to make contribution, please mail checks made out to “Rajeev Motwani Foundation” c/o Ash Chopra, Merrill Lynch, 101 California Street, Suite 2100, San Francisco CA 94111.

Tributes from around the tech community:

Sergey Brin pays his tribute on his blog. “…Yet his legacy and personality lives on in the students, projects, and companies he has touched. Today, whenever you use a piece of technology, there is a good chance a little bit of Rajeev Motwani is behind it,” he writes.

David Hornik of August Capital writes: Rajeev just wanted to be helpful. And he was. To so many of us. Perhaps that is why so many of us thought of Rajeev as a friend. It is one thing to be friendly with someone in the business world. It is another thing altogether to consider them a friend. Rajeev genuinely liked people and people genuinely liked him.

Dan Gould, co-founder of Newroo, emailed this story about Rajeev and wanted me to share it with you: “I didn’t know Rajeev well, but he was a great guy who helped us quite a bit. We were the classic two kids with some software who had just moved to California. I only knew him from using his Randomized Algorithms book in school, but he spent a bunch of time with us. He helped us improve our algorithms and ideas and introduced us to Ron Conway and to other folks which led to the acquisition of our startup. I ran into him several times since and he was always both kind and brilliant. I had hoped to work with him on a future project. While that’s not to be, I imagine dozens of other computer scientists-turned-entrepreneurs can tell the same story.”

If you have a Rajeev story you would like to share with rest of us so we can all remember and grieve together, please leave it in the comments section or email me.

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Work on the new plant could start this year, with operations beginning in 2010. Once it’s up and running, Sempra said the combined 58-MW installation would be the largest photovoltaic solar power plant in North America, although it’ll pale in comparison to some of the projects that First Solar has in its newly-acquired pipeline.

The new solar project, called Copper Mountain Solar, will be adjacent to Sempra’s existing solar plant, El Dorado Solar, near Boulder City, Nev. Copper Mountain will be able to supply enough electricity for more than 30,000 homes, according to Sempra. When paired up with the 167,000 photovoltaic panels at the El Dorado Solar plant, the facilities will have nearly 1 million photovoltaic panels.

The cost of the new plant and the financial terms of the deal between Sempra and First Solar were not disclosed, but Sempra will own and operate the new plant, as it already does with the first plant. But construction of Copper Mountain is also contingent on Sempra finding a utility to buy the power, as well as approval of state and local regulators. Pacific Gas and Electric (PCG) snapped up the output of the first plant under a 20-year power purchase agreement signed late last year.

Photo of El Dorado Solar power plant courtesy of First Solar.

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The Playstation 3 is performing so poorly because the Playstation 2 has succeeded so well.

Maybe I’m the last one to realize this, but it finally hit me in the face when Jason posted the latest NPD tally of consoles sales last week. It wasn’t just that the PS3 was being slightly outsold by the 360, or vastly outsold by the Wii; by then, that wasn’t surprising. No, the real surprise was this:

January console sales:

Wii 436,000
PS2 299,000
360 294,000
PS3 244,000

The Playstation 2, in other words, is selling better than the Playstation 3.

According to Wikipedia, there are about 116 million PS2s out there in the world. With the PS2 retail price now below the Wii, that number can only keep increasing. Good for Sony— but not good for PS3. Why should a developer spend a lot more money creating a PS3 game, when it’s way cheaper to make a PS2 game, and the potential audience is so much larger? (This reasoning would partly explain the relative dearth of exclusive PS3 titles— not to mention the extra time and money it’d take any studio to ramp their developers up to the PS3 dev kit.) And just as key, why should a PS2 owner spend $600 to upgrade their console, when they could spend that on an HDTV, or both Guitar Hero games (neither of which are compatible for PS3), a DDR dancemat, with still plenty left over to amass a vast library of PS2 titles?

And that is the tragic irony for Sony. Now over seven years old, the Playstation 2 is by technical standards far out of date, but remains the most successful console ever made. Besides that relatively small subset of early adopters who need to have the latest in technology, Sony has created a platform that’s too entrenched for any successor to supplant it. If it’s technically feasible, maybe they ought to just sell the Blue Ray as a peripheral consumers can hook up to their PS2. Or just create a “PS2 booster pack”, a $200 deck you connect to your PS2 to get most of the PS3′s functionality. Given the market performance thus far, a kind of PS2 Plus Up would probably sell better.

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