On February 12, 1990, Fortune published an article that heralded "Environmentalism: The New Crusade," and said: "It may be the biggest business issue of the 1990s." The magazine photographed the CEO of a gas and electric company to grace its front cover, thereby focusing keen attention on the growing environmental movement and smart companies eyeing new business opportunities.

The CEO was Richard A. Clarke, the head of PG&E and the business leader cited for the annual Richard A. Clarke Environmental Leadership Award, announced last week. PG&E developed the award in 2002 to honor employees who demonstrate a commitment to, and accomplishment in, environmental leadership. The late Mr. Clarke, who served as chairman and CEO from 1986 until his retirement in 1995, championed a variety of environmental initiatives at PG&E -- from energy conservation, to clean air programs, to natural resources stewardship.

PG&E got a bumpy start on the path to environmental leadership in the mid-1970s, Fortune reported. The Environmental Defense Fund fought PG&E's plans to build several coal and nuclear power plants and proposed smaller windmill and cogeneration plants and energy conservation. The utility eventually scrapped the plans for the plants and launched conservation efforts. Said an EDF attorney: "We spoke to them in their own language. We used their type of computer models, their financial analysis sheets. We weren't saying, do what's good for the environment and it will cripple you. We were saying, it will save you economically."

Fortune listed some of Clarke's guiding principles for pursuing a greener future: "Make environmental considerations and concerns part of any decision you make, right from the beginning. Don't think of it as some extra you throw in the pot." -- "Develop an internal cadre of environmentalists. They have minds of their own and will advocate things. They may not get everything they want, but there certainly are occasions when they prevail." -- "Have a continuing dialogue with environmental groups." -- "Put someone on your board to help you factor in environmental issues." -- "Do these things because they are the right thing to do, not because somebody forces you to do them."

Investments in clean technology startups hit a record $2.6 billion in the third quarter, a 37 percent jump from the third quarter last year and a 17 percent hike over the second quarter this year, according to a report out this morning from the Cleantech Group. Total investments so far this year -- $6.6 billion -- are running ahead of $6 billion for all of 2007. California-based companies hauled in 42 percent of the investments.

Venture capital firms invested in 158 companies globally with a focus on three principal sectors -- smart power grids, algae companies, and solar power developers. Electric grid companies raised a record $202 million in the period, reflecting the growing move into plug-in electric vehicles by major automakers. Algae biofuel producers took in $95 million and solar power startups raised a record $620 million.

"Cleantech venture investing has continued to show strong growth despite the unprecedented turmoil in the credit markets during the quarter," said Michael Goguen, managing partner of Sequoia Capital and co-chair of Cleantech's advisory board. Cleantech is an investor group and market researcher.

Brian Fan, senior director of research for the Cleantech Group, said the third quarter "will probably be the high point for investment for at least several quarters," citing the current financial and economic troubles.

The five most active investors in the third quarter in the number of deals all have connections to Silicon Valley. RockPort Capital Partners topped the list with six deals, followed by Google Inc. with five, Advanced Technology Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers with four each, and Khosla Ventures with three.

Both Kleiner Perkins and Khosla Ventures have invested in Ausra Inc., a solar-thermal energy systems company which is developing a solar plant for PG&E in central California. Ausra announced today that it has secured $60.6 million in its latest preferred equity financing from a group led by KERN Partners of Calgary, Alberta.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett is making another energy play, announcing on the weekend that his MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. will purchase about 10 percent of China's BYD Company Ltd., a maker of rechargeable batteries and automobiles, for $230 million. The move -- Buffett's first strategic investment in China -- follows MidAmerican's announcement earlier this month that it would acquire East Coast utility Constellation Energy Group Inc. for $4.7 billion. 

MidAmerican and BYD will work on new rechargeable battery technologies for vehicles and to store electricity from wind and solar power generation. "The rationale behind this investment is BYD's unique exposure to both lithium-ion batteries as well as its related hybrid electric vehicle business," Merrill Lynch analyst Daniel Kim told Bloomberg News. The "HEV market growth is exploding."

BYD aims to sell gasoline-electric hybrid cars in China later this year and to introduce hybrid vehicles in the U.S. and Europe in 2010. The Big Three U.S. automakers are scrambling to develop hybrids, and they got a boost on the weekend when the Senate approved a spending bill that included $7.5 billion to start a $25 billion low-interest loan program to retool old plants and help the industry develop new fuel-efficient vehicles. The House has already approved the bill.

Tomorrow, San Francisco's new Academy of Sciences, one of the greenest museums in the world, will open its doors for the first time. After more than a decade of planning, the new building stands as an embodiment of the Academy's mission to explore, explain and protect the natural world. Expected to earn a LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, the new Academy is topped with a 2.5-acre living roof and employs a wide range of energy-saving materials and technologies, as NEXT100 has reported.

In addition to the environmentally-responsible building, the Academy will unveil its climate change and sustainability exhibits, which take California as a case study to demonstrate the effects of global warming.

As part of PG&E's sponsorship with the Academy, all are welcome to visit tomorrow on us. They expect folks to begin lining up very early in the morning, so take public transportation and bring blankets and something to keep you entertained until the opening ceremony begins at 8:30 a.m.

Here's a sneak peak of the building and exhibits to hold you over until then:

Rock 'n' roll legend Janis Joplin launched many outdoor concerts in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park in the late '60s but her spirit may have felt a little lost this weekend at the three-day, 65-bands Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival in GGP. Eco-Lands environmental exhibits? Solar and wind-powered cell phone charging? Carbon footprint calculator? Help! What gives?

Festivals are going green. Ditto for political conventions. The Democratic convention opening this morning in Denver is coloring itself green. The party aims to recycle or compost at least 85 percent of the convention waste and leave town with a carbon-neutral footprint. Republicans won't be outdone at their party next week. The GOP "is committed to making this year's nominating convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul the 'greenest' in party history." Eco-awareness is spreading.

Joel Selvin, senior pop music critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, noted the movement in his review today of the Outside Lands Festival:

"The technology exhibits proved surprisingly popular and the crowd easily adopted the three-way recycle/compost/landfill refuse collections that should now be standard for public events. For the young crowd that was the event's target audience, this kind of techno-eco-consciousness helped strengthen the subtext." Festival producers said 150,000 people attended over the weekend.

Corporate sponsors included AT&T, Visa, Dell and PG&E, and non-profit organizations set up tents to provide information on issues ranging from water conservation to voter registration to environmental education.

PG&E provided a range of energy technologies, services and information for the festival, among them the Outside Lands Solar Stage in partnership with Sustainable Waves, the Pop Up Cafe made entirely of materials reclaimed from the San Francisco dump, Smart Energy information, Carbon Footprint Calculators and the utility's ClimateSmart program.

The announcement today by American Electric Power and Duke Energy to build a $1 billion, 240-mile transmission line in Indiana points out the challenges to link new supplies of renewable energy with utility customer load.

The 765-kilovolt line proposed by AEP and Duke would connect AEP's Rockport Station east of Evansville, Ind., with Duke's Greentown Station near Kokomo, Ind. The line could tap more than 3,000 megawatts of wind power planned in central Indiana.

The proposed joint venture project faces a number of state and federal regulatory hurdles and would be completed at the earliest in 2014. Approvals would have to come from the Midwestern Independent System Operator and the PJM Interconnection. The JV also must file in Indiana to operate as a transmission utility and seek rate approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Utility customers would pay for the project in rates.

Overcoming regulatory hurdles for siting and developing new transmission lines for solar and wind energy in remote areas in the Midwest, California, desert Southwest, Texas and other states is critical for the development renewable enrgy supplies. We'll keep an eye on this latest proposal in the Hoosier State.

Expect a jolt of news about new plug-in hybrid cars this week from the Plug-In 2008 conference in San Jose. Some news broke early on Friday when Reuters, citing unnamed sources, reported that General Motors and the utilities group Electric Power Research Institute will announce at the conference a partnership to promote the sale of electric vehicles. Ford Motor announced a partnership with Palo Alto-based EPRI in March.

GM is developing the rechargeable Chevrolet Volt expected to enter production in 2010 with a range of 40 miles from a lithium-ion battery pack that could be charged from a standard power outlet. The Volt also will have a gasoline engine to recharge the batteries for longer distances, according to the report. Toyota and other automakers are expected to introduce plug-in hybrids in the next few years.

The automakers, electric utilities (including PG&E), battery-makers, business and environmental groups, engineers, scientists,market analysts, and more will be at Plug-In this week for a series of market and technical panels, including vehicle-to-grid technology. My colleague Jennifer Zerwer will be blogging here from the conference.

The next time Stanford University hosts a Silicon Valley "energy summit," it may want to find a larger space than the Arrillaga Alumni Center - like the football stadium across the street. Some 400 people - corporate leaders, mayors, regulators, state energy commissioners, economists, engineers, professors, consultants, venture capitalists and newly-minted graduates looking for jobs - jammed the center today to get a sense of where "The New Energy Economy" may be headed. Put a bet on Energy Efficiency.

Professor Jim Sweeney, director of Stanford's Precourt Insitute for Energy Efficiency, set the tone at the outset this morning: "The next 20 years will be dominated by energy efficiency."

Morning keynoter CPUC Commissioner Dian Grueneich echoed the message, noting that the CPUC's strategic draft plan for energy efficiency will be issued on Monday. The plan lays out four initiatives to reach "zero net energy" goals for new construction of commercial buildings in California by 2030 and a similar result for new home construction by 2020. The plan also sets goals for heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems and measures to ensure low-income ratepayers get a piece of the energy efficiency pie. The next round of energy efficiency funding in California will run $3 billion in 2009-2011, she said.

The Efficiency ball kept on rolling through the morning. Bob Hines, vice president of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, a summit sponsor, retraced the group's steps in partnership with PG&E to develop and complete energy efficiency projects with the likes of companies like IBM, Yahoo and Cisco.

A separate panel walked us through the technical ins and outs of commercial building retrofits for high-efficiency chillers, cooling towers, exhaust relief fans, and high-efficiency transformers and flywheels. My head was spinning. But it stopped when panelist Mukesh Khatter, energy director at Oracle, said something very clear: Through energy efficiency programs, his company saved enough electricity to light up 1,700 homes.

Energy efficiency also headed PG&E CEO Peter Darbee's priorities. Energy efficiency "is our single most important opportunity...the 'first fuel' and among our most cost-effective solutions," he told the conference. "Our plan is to meet half of PG&E's aggregate demand growth in the next 10 years through efficiency savings."

Incentives are essential to promote energy efficiencies, Darbee said. "If we get the incentives right, utility energy efficiency programs can be a big part of the solution for California and the country."

Darbee also called for utilities to revitalize basic infrastructure and equip the power grid with smart technologies and smart meters; reduce the carbon intensity of power generation with the expansion of renewable power supplies; and set up a workable, market-based framework for greenhouse gas regulation. PG&E supports a cap-and-trade approach.

Bad news: Expect higher utility rates due mainly to rising fuel costs, hot demand in China and India for construction materials, more expensive renewable supplies, and big capital needs to fund infrastructure, Darbee said. Good news: Utility rates in California over the long term have risen less than the total increase in the consumer price index. And expected rate hikes in the state will be substantially below 20-30 percent increases forecast in other states. PG&E rates have been helped by lower prices for nuclear and hydro generation, hedging long-term power contracts, and efforts to reduce business costs.

SunPower Corp. said this morning it will build the largest solar photovoltaic power plant in the country for Florida Power & Light, a 25-megawatt plant in DeSoto County that will apply a tracking system tilting solar modules toward the sun as it moves across the sky. The plant will be completed in 2009, subject to approval by Florida regulators. Financial details were not disclosed.

SunPower, a subsidary of Cypress Semiconductor Corp., also said it will build a 10-MW PV power plant for the Florida utililty at the Kennedy Space Center, to be completed in 2010.

"These agreements confirm the growing trend in the U.S. to build solar power plants at a scale rivaling those in market-leading countries such as Germany and Spain," Howard Wenger, SunPower senior vice president, said.

Currently, the largest solar PV plant in North America is SunPower's 14-MW plant at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.

SunPower's stock rose by 15.1 percent on the news to $70.48 on Nasdaq.

Venture investments in "clean technology" companies reached a record $2 billion in the second quarter, paced by investments in solar technologies and second-generation biofuels, according to a report out today from Cleantech Group LLC. Investments jumped 58 percent from the second quarter last year and 48 percent from the first quarter this year. The previous record was the 2007 third quarter at $1.8 billion.

The latest quarter's growth in cleantech investments by venture capital firms, investment banks and other investors contrasts with a projected decline in overall venture investments during the same period, the company said.

Solar-thermal companies including eSolar, BrightSource Energy, SkyFuel, Infinia and Sopogy raised a total of $278 million in venture capital in the second quarter.

Second-generation biofuel companies such as Range Fuels, Sapphire Energy, EdeniQ, Mascoma, Aurora BioFuels, Gevo, Fulcrum Bioenergy, Greenline Industries, GreenFuel Technologies and Amyris Biotechnologies raised $280 million in venture investment in the period. Of the total, $136 million went to cellulosic ethanol startups and $84 million in algae biomass startups.

"For the first time, algae companies are attracting large, follow-on investment rounds--a trend we expect to continue into the second half of the year," said Brian Fan, senior director of research for the Cleantech Group. "This breakout quarter for solar thermal and algae companies indicates a growing appetite for clean technologies that can replace coal for electricity generation and oil for transportation fuels."

U.S. companies took 74 percent of the investments, Europe 13 percent, and China and India 12 percent. The leading venture investors were Kleiner Perkins Caulfied & Byers, Foundation Capital, Quercus Trust, Khosla Ventures, and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.