Canada may have taken the cake on biofuel funding with its CDN $500 million government backed fund, but that wasn't the only game in town this week.

Virent, Cilion, Endicott Biofuels and Galten all took in respectable amounts of cash, with Cilion getting to the top of the class with a $105 million debt package for the construction of two ethanol plants in California.

In addition to the overwhelming biofuel news, solar pulled in yet more cash this week. Ausra grabbed $40 million, while SolarCity raised $21 million.

They just couldn't let biofuel have the week to itself.

Deals we saw this week:

• Sustainable Development Technology Canada, backed by Ottawa, launched a CDN $500 million fund to support next generation renewable fuels in Canada. The NextGen Biofuels Fund is open to Canadian companies ready for large, demonstration scale projects. The fund will support up to 40 percent of eligible project costs, to a maximum of CDN $200 million (see Cleantech.com's Ottawa backs biggest biofuel fund).
• Madison, Wis.-based Virent Energy Systems raised $21 million in second-round funding. The company is a developer of a catalytic biomass processing system for making transportation fuels. Stark Investments and Venture Investors co-led the deal, joined by return investor Cargill Ventures. Virent Energy has raised nearly $40 million since 2005.
• Expansion Capital Partners closed its Clean Technology Fund II with more than $100 million. The fund makes initial investments of $3 million to $8 million in expansion-stage, cleantech companies in energy, advanced materials, water and waste water, manufacturing and transportation in the U.S. and Canada.
• Palo Alto, Calif.'s Ausra, a developer of utility-scale solar thermal power technology, secured more than $40 million in funding from Khosla Ventures and Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. Ausra's core technology is the Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector solar steam generation system.
• SolarCity, headquartered in Foster City, Calif., closed $21 million in financing. Draper Fisher Jurvetson led the funding, with additional contributions from JP Morgan and Elon Musk, chairman of SolarCity. The company said the funding will be used to add more employees and expand into new markets.
• Goshen, Calif.-based Cilion, a biofuels company, received a $105 million debt package for the construction of two ethanol plants in California. Farm Credit Services of America, MetLife and CoBank were co-lead lenders in the transaction. The company said the debt will complement its previously raised equity of over $200 million.
• Endicott Biofuels in Houston completed $40 million in private equity financing for the construction of a second generation technology biodiesel and bio-derived products plant. The financing was provided by Haddington Energy Partners III. Endicott said it expects to break ground on the plant in 2008.
• Icelandic geothermal company Reykjavik Energy has formed Reykjavik Energy Invest, aiming to raise $800 million to invest in geothermal energy around the world. The company said key initial assets of the investment group will be equity holdings in several sustainable energy businesses, including stakes in Enex, Enex China, Galantaterm and Iceland American Energy.
• Washington, D.C.-basd GridPoint raised $32 million in a series D round, according to a regulatory filing. Investors include Goldman Sachs, Altira Group and Standard Renewable Energy Group. GridPoint sells energy storage technology and technology for the implementation of demand response. The company previously raised $38.8 million.
• SynapSense, headquartered in Folsom, Calif., announced a $10 million Series B round, led by Emerald Technology Ventures. The company makes technology for monitoring and optimization of energy use in data centers. Existing investors American River Ventures, Nth Power and DFJ Frontier also participated in the round.
• U.K.-based Lysanda raised GBP 1million to develop its Eco-Log technology, an on-board vehicle emissions monitoring technology. Half of the capital was a venture investment from the Sustainable Technology Fund, managed by E-Synergy, with another GBP 300,000 in angel financing. The balance was covered by a research and development grant from the East of England Development Agency.
• Israel's Galten, a Jatropha biodiesel startup, raised $10 million. The funding was led by the U.K.'s Capital Partners. The company said it will continue cultivating the Jatropha plant for use in the production of biodiesel, and plans to carry out its research in Ghana.
• Greylock Partners said it's looking to invest in Israeli cleantech. Greylock said it expects to make three or four investments in early-stage startups there soon. The firm, which has $150 million under management, has been active in Israel since 2001.
• Globespan Capital Partners closed its fifth fund, Globespan Capital Partners V, with commitments of $380 million. Globespan said it now has $1.1 billion under management. The new fund's limited partners include state and corporate pension funds, university endowments, fund of funds, international pension funds from Europe and Asia, as well as companies from Japan.

Browse previous deals here.

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