Cleantech news as it happens — check back for regular updates:

• Raritan next week plans to showcase its new Dominion(R) KX II Smart Card/CAC technology, designed to help government IT departments manage virtualisation and energy consumption;
• Work is soon expected to start on an ultra-efficient combined heat and power plant in East London;
• Ormat Technologies has announced its subsidiary has closed on $105 million (US) in financing for a 48-megawatt geothermal plant in Kenya;
• The UK government has launched a Low Carbon Industrial Strategy interactive Website to solicit public comments on plans for low-carbon growth;
• The group DotEco LLC is asking the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for a new Internet extension — .eco — to promote environmentally focused domain names;
• The government of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany has earmarked €60 million in funding to encourage faster development of electricity-based transportation;
• Austin Energy has selected Gemini Solar Development Company to help it build a 30-megawatt photovoltaic plant in Austin, Texas;
• Bellefontaine Gas Producers LLC this week began commercial operations of a landfill gas-to-energy project in Ohio;
• Verizon has launched several initiatives aimed at reducing energy consumption in its communications network;
• Merrill Lynch is hosting a Cleantech Leaders Conference on 11 March in New York City;
• William C. Tauber, CEO of Progressive Lighting & Energy Solutions, will begin hosting a weekly radio programme in California called the “Green Energy Show”;
• Testifying before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources yesterday, US Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the key to the nation’s energy security lies with the development of non-food-based biofuels, energy-dense auto batteries, cheaper photovoltaics, computer design tools for energy-efficient buildings and large-scale energy storage systems for variable renewable power sources like wind and solar;
• The UK Technology Strategy Board says it will provide £3 million in funding for six new energy- and water-saving research projects with a total budget of £6 million;
• Plug-in hybrid vehicles with large batteries — think the Chevy Volt — might be too heavy to ever prove fuel efficient and worthwhile from an investment standpoint, according to a newly published interview with Carnegie Mellon engineering professor Jeremy Michalek.

• Green technology investors seek safer havens in 2011
• New US consortium plans $1.4bn in cleantech investments
• What does 2011 hold for China, US?
• World Economic Forum: Cleantech rules
• Virtual design speeds green reality
• Opinion: Darling’s green bank idea is laughably small
• Some guys and Holy Grails: 5 rules for spotting ‘cleantech porn’
• Despite some ‘green shoots,’ cleantech VCs see trouble ahead
• Cleantech Connect Awards recognise fast-growing innovators
• Irish cleantech firms seek opportunities in Silicon Valley