The green initiatives roll out of Google so fast and furiously, we have a hard time keeping track of them all: a massive corporate solar system, more renewable energy plans on the way, and hybrid car investments, to name just a few. This morning Googlers launched another — though, not as exciting — eco service: [...]

  Car-sharing companies Zipcar and Flexcar have decided to merge, the two said today. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the new company will have a fleet of over 5,000 with 180,000 subscribers in 48 cities, The Seattle Times reports, the largest fleet in the growing car-sharing business.The new company will keep Zipcar’s [...]

  A Canadian company may have found a key process that could allow the same crops to produce both food and fuel. Given that a UN expert on food recently called the shift of arable land from food to fuel a “crime against humanity,” the technology could point the way out of what has seemed like [...]

  Everyone from Google’s “green energy czar” to Vinod Khosla to several well-funded startups are looking at solar thermal as one way to offer massive amounts of utility-scale clean energy. But what about solar thermal on a smaller scale — even on rooftops?Honolulu-based Sopogy thinks there is a market for lil’ solar thermal and the five-year-old [...]

  Google Hearts Renewables: The Googlers have the largest corporate installation of solar around, but they want more renewables and intend to generate 50 megawatts of electricity from clean sources by 2012 — CNET.Power Plant Mercury Under Fire: “In 2005, about 500 electricity-generating power plants emitted 48.3 tons of mercury.” Another reason to try to cut [...]

  The effects of climate change are turning the outlook for long-term food production into an increasingly dire one, according to an MIT study released this week and a report delivered last week by the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Food.UN expert Jean Ziegler is calling for a five-year global moratorium on converting agricultural land into biofuel [...]

  ImageTree, a Morgantown, W. Va.-based startup that provides imaging and sensing data services about forests, has closed a $4.5 million Series B round of funding. The investment was led by Battelle Ventures, which last week said it had put $8 million into three energy startups.Two-year-old ImageTree uses topographical imaging and sensing systems combined with [...]

  Following an article from last week’s Jerusalem Post regarding Israel’s “much-hyped” venture capital market, which noted the favored status of the growing cleantech sector, Globes has reported two cleantech venture fund announcements out of Israel. Terra Venture Partners LP has raised its first $15 million, which it plans to invest in 10 startups, [...]

  The rising tide lifting up most solar stocks has so far had little effect on Evergreen Solar’s boat, but now it looks like that may be changing.After rallying as high as $17.48 a year and a half ago, shares of Evergreen (ESLR) have sagged, spending most of the last year below the $10 level. But [...]

  We just watched the winners of this year’s California Cleantech Open accept their awards. Perhaps the best indicator of the importance of this competition is the success of last year’s recipients — solar startup GreenVolts, for example, said this evening that it’s raised $10 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Greenlight [...]