Europe. It's more than lattes and churchbells.

Today's word of a new Swiss Re fund is a latest reminder that Europe leads in many cleantech/greentech sectors including wind, solar, and the only real commercial deployments of ocean power.

And speaking of ocean power...

This week in cleantech/greentech dealflow:

• Swiss Re has closed a €329 million clean energy fund, one of the largest funds of this type in Europe. The fund, a UN-accredited investment vehicle, is to provide capital to European clean energy projects that are environmentally beneficial, generate carbon credits or tradable renewable energy certificates. Contributors included institutional investors in Europe, Canada and the United States. The fund is to provide mezzanine and equity capital to initiatives including wind, solar, hydro-electric, geothermal and waste-to-energy projects.
• Ocean Power Technologies, a Pennington, N.J.-based developer of renewable energy from ocean waves, has set its proposed IPO terms (see Ocean Power Technologies files to go public) to five million common shares being offered at between $20 and $22 per share. It plans to trade on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol OPTT, with UBS serving as lead underwriter. Shareholders include Henderson Group PLC.
• Biodiesel Technologies of Oklahoma has raised approximately $5 million in an institutional round of funding. Adirondack Venture Fund and Roberts Mitani LLC provided the financing. The company apparently expects to raise a larger round later this year. Biodiesel Technologies estimates its modular approach could provide 4 mgpy biodiesel plants at a cost of $1.25 million per plant.
• Plug in hybrid vehicle maker Aptera has raised approximately $20 million in a new round of financing from Idealab and an undisclosed angel investor. The company's car, a curvy composite-based low drag two seater, is expected to achieve 230 miles per gallon, with availability in 2008.
• Solyndra, a developer of solar cells made from copper indium gallium selenium, or CIGS, has raised $79 million, according to London-based clean tech industry analyst New Energy Finance. Investors include CMEA Ventures and Redpoint Ventures.
• Eminence Capital of Toronto announced the acquisition of SonnenEnergie GmbH, a residential and commercial solar integrator in Germany. The purchase price is to be $11M CDN, with a further brokered equity financing of $6M CDN planned at closing. To date, SonnenEnergie has installed over 4,000 kWp of photovoltaic solar systems, including three solar power plants that it has built and maintains for commercial customers and one solar park that it owns and operates.
• Iowa-based ICrystal completed an all-stock acquisition of ethanol maker ALL Energy Company. The company says it's pursuing its objective of acquiring and constructing 500 million gallons of ethanol production per year. Going forward, the company is to be known as the ALL Fuels & Energy Company.
• Built-e, a Seattle-based provider of green building materials, raised some $5 million in first-round funding led by Catamount Ventures, according to VentureWire. The company operates under the name Environmental Home Center.
• Acorn Factor, a New Jersey holding company, closed a $6.9 million private placement. Acorn Factor maintains an equity position in Comverge, a provider of clean energy solutions that enhance grid reliability capacity—which is expected to IPO soon. Acorn says it's focusing its attention on acquisition candidates in the energy conservation and power intelligence space. First Montauk Securities served as placement agent for the offering.

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