Rive Technology, a provider of materials-based solutions for catalytic and separations processes for refining, chemicals, and biofuels, has appointed David C. Aldous as chief executive officer. Aldous brings over 30 years of experience in the refining, chemicals and catalyst industries, including over 20 years at Royal Dutch Shell where he was executive vice president of [...]

FirstFuel Software said it raised $10 million in a round led by RockPort Capital and joined by existing investors Nth Power and Battery Ventures. The investment will enable the Massachusetts company, that addresses the commercial building energy analytics market, to expand in the utility and government markets. PRESS RELEASE FirstFuel Raises $10 Million in Series [...]

Itron, a provider of energy and water resource management solutions is to acquire Jackson, Mississippi-based SmartSynch in a $100 million transaction. SmartSynch is a provider of point-to-point smart grid solutions that use a cellular network for communications. Backers of the company include Kinetic Ventures, JP Morgan, Endeavor Capital Management, Nth Power, GulfSouth Capital, Siemens Venture [...]

Six-year-old CalStar Products, a Caledonia, Wis., company that makes low-energy, low-CO2 masonry products, has brought aboard Joel Rood as its CEO. Prior to joining CalStar, Rood was GM for CertainTeed Canada. CalStar is funded by the venture firms Nth Power, Westly Group, Foundation Capital, and EnerTech Capital. PRESS RELEASE: Joel Rood, a 15-year veteran of the building [...]

Boston-based FirstFuel Software, a commercial building energy analytics company, has attracted a $2.4 million first round of financing. Battery Ventures and Nth Power led the consortium with participation from individual investors.

SynapSense Corp., a maker of data center infrastructure management products, has closed on $16 million in Series C financing led by Crosslink Capital. Aeris Capital, Emerald Technology Ventures, GE Energy Financial Services, Nth Power, Robert Bosch Venture Capital and Sequoia Capital also joined in the round. The money will help SynapSense expand. Louis DiNardo, a partner with Crosslink Capital, joined the SynapSense board as a result of the round.

San Mateo, Calif.-based Hara raised $25 million in Series C financing, bringing its total raised to $45 million. Investors include Energy Technology Ventures, ITOCHU Technology Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, JAFCO Ventures, Nth Power, Focus Ventures and Navitas Capital. The money will help Hara expand its produce development. The company develops environmental and energy management software.

Rive Technology has raised $25 million in a new round of financing led by the Blackstone Group. Existing investors Charles River Ventures, Advanced Technology Ventures and Nth Power also contributed to the round. Rive Technology develops catalyst technology for petroleum refining. The company will use the new financing to support commercial trials of its technology. Cambridge, Mass.-based Rive Technology has raised a total of $47 million to date.

CalStar Products, Inc., a Newark, Calif.-based green building materials business, closed a $15 Million equity investment led by Nth Power. The round included new investors The Westly Group and Clearpoint Capital as well as continuing investors Foundation Capital and EnerTech Capital.

The Wall Street Journal had an interesting story today about the influence of government loans and grants on the clean tech industry — it called the government “a kingmaker in one of technology’s hottest sectors” and says the government has put five times as much money into clean tech this year as venture capitalists.

The story also says the presence of government funds influences how much private capital a company can attract and how easy it is for a company to progress. It cites politics as a factor in government funding, telling how Fisker Automotive — a hybrid electric car maker backed by Kleiner Perkins — got funding from the DOE after it agreed to manufacture cars in Delaware, at a plant that GM was planning to shut down, rather than in Finland.

None of this is new. Battery maker A123 Systems, which got help from politicians in Michigan — where it will locate manufacturing — rather than Delaware, could tell a similar tale, as I wrote