When you use a lot of power, it's only natural that you'd want to try and find ways conserve energy and save some money in the process.

And Google has the means to set up its own research and development division to do just that.

The company already had an R&D group working on data center efficiency, but the company is now going much bigger, setting up a new group to look into renewable energy generation and announcing plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the sector.

Google said it plans to focus initially on solar, wind and geothermal.

Fuel cells may not be getting any Google cash just yet, but U.K. fuel cell materials company Bac2 managed to raise £2 million in funding. London Seed Capital and London Business Angels led the round.

Solar, biomass and energy efficiency also pulled in some capital recently.

Deals we saw:

• Mountain View, Calif.-based Google announced plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in renewable energy over the next few years, and set up a research and development initiative called Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal, or RE<C. The new R&D division will be run in partnership with Google's philanthropic arm, Google.org, which will handle the investments (see Google creates renewable R&D group).
• American Aerogel, a Rochester, N.Y.-based provider of carbon-based aerogel nanotechnology insulation solutions to the bio-pharma market, raised $3.2 million in Series B funding. Vimac Ventures led the deal, and was joined by Mount Royal Ventures.
• Seattle-based Optimum Energy, a developer of software that reduces energy use in high-rises and other large buildings, raised $5 million in a second round of funding. The round was led by Columbia Pacific Management.
• Semplice Energy, a U.K. provider of energy saving and renewable energy systems to reduce electricity consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, raised $1.23 million. BIP Fund I of the Bahamas led the financing.
• Kior, a Dutch developer of a biomass catalytic cracking process, raised just over $1.4 million in Series A funding from Khosla Ventures. Khosla and the Netherlands' Bioecon announced the formation of the biomass venture earlier this month, but did not disclose the amount of the funding.
• Southampton, England's Bac2 raised £2 million to commercialize its conductive polymer ElectroPhen for use in fuel cells. The funding round was led by London Seed Capital and London Business Angels.
• Palo Alto, Calif.-based SolFocus closed its Series B and SolFocus Europe in Madrid closed its Series A, taking in an additional $11.6 million in total. This follows a $52 million initial close of the two rounds in September for the developer of solar concentrator photovoltaic systems.
• Boston's Denham Capital Management formed a strategic partnership with Westmont, Ill.-based Recycled Energy Development to develop a $1.5 billion portfolio of waste energy recycling programs. The platform will fund projects developed and managed by Recycled Energy. Denham's initial commitment is $500 million.
• M2E Power, a Boise, Idaho-based developer of kinetic energy systems, raised $8 million in Series A funding. OVP Venture Partners led the round, joined by Highway 12 Ventures and @Ventures (see M2E captures $8M with kinetic energy).

Browse previous deals here.

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