The source? E, coli.

Yes, that’s right, E. coli as in Escherichia coli, the intestinal-based bacterium that’s been Public Enemy Number One in countless food poisoning outbreaks. Turns out that, when genetically modified just so, E. coli can be primed to pump out longer-chain alcohols that outperform ethanol and come closer to being a ready replacement for petrol.

Researchers at UCLA’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have succeeded at modifying E. coli in the lab to make it produce several different types of alcohols from glucose, “including isobutanol, 1-butanol, 2-methyl-1-butanol, 3-methyl-1-butanol and 2-phenylethanol.” Such longer-chained alcohols not only avoid the water-absorbing and corrosion problems of ethanol, but offer energy densities that are closer to gasoline’s.

“The ability to make these branched-chain higher alcohols so efficiently is surprising,” said chemical and biomolecular engineering professor James Liao. “Unlike ethanol, organisms are not used to producing these unusual alcohols, and there is no advantage for them to do so. The fact that they can be made by E. coli is even more surprising, since E. coli is not a promising host to tolerate alcohols. These results mean that these unusual alcohols in fact can be manufactured as efficiently as what evolved in nature for ethanol. Therefore, we now can explore these unusual alcohols as biofuels and are not bound by what nature has given us.”

How promising is the E. coli strategy? Promising enough that UCLA has already licensed it through an exclusive royalty deal with Gevo Inc., a California-based biofuels firm.

Could E. coli farming be the next big thing? We can’t wait to find out.

That’s good news for companies like Redwood City, California-based Sentilla Corp., which this week announced it’s secured $7.5 million in Series B funding to help it develop its technology and take it global.

Sentilla’s niche is pervasive computing to track energy consumption and waste. What that means is, through a combination of Java-based software and armies of small wireless sensors deployed in data centers, Sentilla has developed a way to monitor the electricity used and waste heat generated by every individual piece of IT equipment on site.

Terry Opdendyk, a general partner at ONSET Ventures, one of Sentilla’s investors, says the company is tapping the “emerging trend of the ‘Internet of Things’ — where inanimate objects of every conceivable type communicate and exchange data effortlessly through wireless networks. This is a huge long-term opportunity in energy and many other markets.”

Greentech Media reports that Sentilla’s strategy was inspired by the company’s early work monitoring energy consumption and heat loss in the aluminum smelting industry. Sentilla CEO Bob Davis told Greentech he realized the technology could just as well be applied to other energy-hogging — and more populous — sectors such as data centers.

As Davis put it, “There are only 20 aluminum plants in the world, but there are a lot of data centers.”

Plus, with IT energy consumption projected to continue ballooning in years to come, taking an energy management solution to the data center market made for brilliant business logic. With a fresh seven-and-a-half mill in its pockets, Sentilla now has the chance to test that logic on a wider global basis.

According to ecoConnect, “The UK’s Climate Change Bill 2008 will introduce legally binding emission targets for the majority of the financial service sector.” That’s likely to mean a bit more than turning off lights when you leave the room or printing reports on both sides of the paper. So how can you prepare?

You might want to ink in ecoConnect’s next Green in the City event, set for 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 22, at the Institute of Directors at 35 New Broad Street in London. The event will feature debate and discussion on the many green challenges facing the finance sector, in particular whether the challenges will be won by the supply side or the demand side.

After a discussion by featured experts, attendees will have a say with an opportunity to vote on several issues:

• What it takes to be green
• The impact on a bank’s supply chain
• Is the supply chain ready to meet the banks’ needs?

Plus, there’ll be drinks and canapes to nosh afterward! What else could you ask for as education/diversion on a dark and chilly January evening?

The Cleantech Group reports that worldwide cleantech investments last year soared to a record high of $8.4 billion (US). It was the sector’s seventh consecutive year of investment growth.

Whether that trend can continue into an eighth straight year in 2009, though, is uncertain. The Cleantech Group’s numbers show investments dropped considerably in the last quarter of ‘08, down some 4 percent over the same period in 2007.

Still, added executive chairman Nicholas Parker, money isn’t the only way to assess progress in an industry. He noted that 2008 marked a “quantum leap forward” in cleantech skills, innovations and demand and predicted that this year can expect to see further advances “in terms of imagining what’s possible.”

As for last year’s cleantech leader? It should come as no surprise that it was solar by a mile. Solar-energy companies nabbed about four of every 10 dollars invested, while increasingly maligned biofuels came in a distant second, attracting 11 percent of the pot compared to solar’s 40 percent. Transportation and wind-energy placed third and fourth, respectively.

Money is likely to be tougher to come by in 2009, so companies that hauled in cash last year will need to watch their bottom lines more closely than ever. Still, who wouldn’t rather be a member of the cleantech club than Detroit’s Big 3 (or, as The Truth About Cars cheekily calls them, D2.8) these days? (Though, if you count US taxpayers’ dollars, the auto club did recently nab $17.4 billion in pocket change.)

In an interview this week with Triple Pundit, Solar Red CEO Joe Augenbraun said his company is essentially reinventing the solar-panel installation process, something that hasn’t changed much since the early days of solar in the ’70s.

Where putting up solar panels today requires days of effort by experienced workers who know how to bolt on racks and install complicated wiring, Solar Red aims to make the process more of a “plug-and-play” effort. The idea is to simplify and streamline installation so any old roofer can put up a housetop solar array, and any old homeowner can tackle basic repairs and panel replacements.

How exactly is still somewhat hush-hush, but Solar Red says its solution can cut installation costs in half (after factoring in state and federal energy incentives), making solar power significantly more affordable for the average guy or gal.

While Solar Red has yet to go all-out with its business, its model has already earned it a Green Building runner-up award in last year’s California Clean Tech Open. The company is now working to raise about $5 million in first-round funding to take its model from lab to real life.

Certified as CarbonFree® by no less than Carbonfund.org, the Renew is — according to Motorola — “the world’s first mobile phone made using plastics comprised of recycled water bottles.” (Note: the grammar marm in me must note that “comprised of” is not an acceptable synonym of “composed of” … but I digress.)

The phone’s housing is not only made of recycled materials, but is also “100 percent recyclable,” Motorola says. And, if you choose to buy the Renew, the company says it will throw in a postage-paid envelope so you can send in your old mobile phone for recycling as well.

Motorola adds that it is offsetting all the carbon dioxide emitted through the production, distribution and operation of the Renew, making the device the world’s first carbon-neutral phone.

“Today, natural resources, energy and time are more precious than ever before,” said Jeremy Dale, corporate vice president of global marketing for Motorola Mobile Devices. “From the product’s design, to the packaging to our partnership with Carbonfund.org, we wanted to ensure that this device makes the right impact with consumers and the environment.”

OK, so it’s not exactly a cure for global warming. But what do you expect? It’s a mobile phone, for heaven’s sake, not a next-generation “clean coal” plant or ethanol-producing algae farm.

Anyway, doing our Top-Stories-of-2008 story now makes sense in another way as well, as many of the factors affecting last year’s big news events will certainly come into play in 2009 as well.

So what was — or will be — hot?

1. We will. While the World Meteorological Organization, NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies and the US National Climatic Data Center all agree 2008 was, on average, notably cooler than most recent years (due in part, possibly, to La Niña), last year was likely to be an aberration. The UK’s Met Office Hadley Centre is predicting this year will be one of the top five warmest on record.
2. Algae … maybe. The corn-based ethanol bubble burst dramatically in 2008, and the fallout is likely to continue into the new year. While many followers of corn are now turning their gaze toward switchgrass and other sources of cellulose, algae-based fuels could prove even more promising, considering the slimy green stuff can grow almost anywhere (no food vs. fuel debate here).
3. The Obama presidency … maybe. The rubber meets the road on Jan. 20, when the White House officially welcomes president-elect Barack Obama and his “green dream team” of people who actually understand things like science and climate change. Between the global financial crisis and numerous other crises du jour, Obama and his team face beyond-daunting challenges in the new year. The very fact that Obama was elected last year, though, merits Top 10 mention without a doubt. Plus, he’s named an actual Nobel Prize winner as Energy Secretary.
4. Oil. Is it peaking? Has it peaked? Will it stay at $50 (US)? Drop to $20? Rocket to $200? While light sweet crude peaked pricewise at $147.30 a barrel in July of last year, where prices will go in 2009 is anyone’s bet. However, this could be the year that marks the beginning of the first post-peak year of the rest of our lives. A growing Peak Oil chorus is chanting we’ve already hit peak and even the International Energy Agency has begun singing that tune.
5. “Clean coal.” What a year for watching it go from hot to not. While that turn of phrase tripped regularly over politicians’ lips throughout 2008, reality did not accompany. In fact, the early part of last year saw the death of what was to be the US’s premiere clean-coal development experiment: “FutureGen” to those involved, “NeverGen” to the rest. Oh, and by the way, there might be much less coal available to us in future than we thought.

The band’s Website features photos and videos of its studio being converted to solar energy with a rooftop array that frees it from the city grid. The group promises all the tracks on its next album “will be recorded using 100% solar energy.”

If alternative rock doesn’t strike you as the greenest vocation to pursue, CAKE has done pretty well to keep skeptics quiet. In addition to its latest solar venture, the band provides an online car-pooling connection for fans planning to attend concerts, markets reusable shopping bags and even recycles used guitar straps by giving them away to monthly raffle winners. They’re also fans of things like Michael Pollan and Cradle-to-Cradle design.

Not exactly the legendary stuff of “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll” … but I like it.

We’ve been hearing the answer, “Bad” (as in rising sea levels, saltwater encroaching on freshwater supplies, etc.), for some time now, but a team of UK researchers say they might have found a plus to this symptom of global warming. In fact, they say, this symptom of global warming might actually hold the clue to a cure for global warming.

“Enough, greenbang!” you’re saying. “What on Earth are you babbling about?”

Well, here’s the deal, as reported this week in the Mail Online: Ice sheets sitting on the surface of Antarctica scrape of bits of bedrock as they slide toward the sea. Those bits of rock contain iron. When the rock-bit-strewn ice hits seawater and melts, the iron sinks into the water. Iron provides a tasty food source for algae. The algae goes wild on its newly iron-enriched diet and blooms like mad, sucking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as it does so. Eventually, the algae dies, sinking to the sea floor and taking the carbon dioxide with it for long-term burial.

Carbon dioxide problem, solved?

As Leed University professor Rob Raiswell tells the Mail Online, “The Earth itself seems to want to save us.”

Now, ocean-seeding ventures have been proposed before as a way to soak up carbon dioxide and sequester it deep under the oceans. But some enviros and scientists have been leery of the proposition, saying it could have unintended — and harmful — consequences for sealife. Such concerns have prompted the UN to put the kibosh on ocean-seeding experiments and have led one former heavyweight in the field, Planktos, to explore other lines of work (copper mining).

With the new discovery that this process happens naturally, though, the UN has given researchers the go-ahead for an ocean-seeding experiment in the waters off of Antarctica. The icebreaker Polarstern is set to sail shortly for a test run. The venture will mark the largest-ever scientific (rather than commercial) test of the long-term effectiveness of ocean seeding as a way to fight climate change.

Toshiba’s new Photovoltaic Systems Division will focus on large-scale solar installations by utilities and industrial plants.

The company says it’s got the cred and know-how to help businesses install megawatt-scale solar energy systems, and points to its “world-class capabilities in system integration, particularly in connecting generation systems to distribution systems.”

Another key element Toshiba says it brings to the table is its SCiB, or Super Charge ion Battery, a “breakthrough rechargeable battery that offers excellent safety, long life and rapid charging.”

With its new division, Toshiba says its goal is to “seek a rapid expansion of the business by focusing on renewable energy and energy-saving products and technologies.” It aims to expand global sales to eventually reach $2.2 billion (US) by 2015.

By that year, the company says, the global photovoltaic systems market for large-scale users is expected to hit $24.4 billion, up from about $13.3 billion in 2008.