GE and its venture partners are funding 10 home energy start-ups to the tune of $63 million, as part of its $200 million “GE ecomagination Challenge,” the company announced Thursday. The latest round of investments and commercial partnerships are aimed at household energy efficiency. The newly backed companies include Boston-based Ember; Waltham, Mass.-based GMZ Energy; San Mateo, Calif.-based Hara; Austin-based Nuventix; San Francisco-based Project Frog; and San Francisco-based SunRun. GE is co-investing on several companies with venture investors including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, RockPort Capital and Foundation Capital.

Achates Power has hired John Koszewnik as its chief technical officer. The San Diego-based company, which is developing a combustible engine technology, was founded in 2004 and has raised roughly $30 million in recent years, including from Sequoia Capital, Rockport Capital, and InterWest Partners. Koszewnik joins Achates from FEV, in Auburn Hills, Mich., where he was [...]

SustainX, the New Hampshire-based energy storage company, took on an additional $5.6 million in funding, less than two months after striking a $14.4 million funding with a group of investors. This time, General Catalyst and prior investors chipped in on its funding. Other investors include GE Energy Financial Services, a unit of GE, Cadent Energy Partners, Polaris Ventures, Rockport Capital, Small Business Innovation Research program of the National Science Foundation and the Energy Storage Program of the US Department of Energy.

SustainX, which is developing technology for energy storage using compressed air, has closed on $14.4 million in financing. GE Energy Financial Services, a unit of GE, contributed to the round, as did Cadent Energy Partners and existing shareholders Polaris Ventures and Rockport Capital. New Hampshire-based SustainX previously raised $5.4 million from investors including the Small Business Innovation Research program of the National Science Foundation and the Energy Storage Program of the US Department of Energy.

Venture capitalists aren’t anxious to back solar panel makers, but it’s a whole different story if you’re in the installation business. Since last June, VCs have invested about $99 million in at least five solar panel installation companies. RockPort Capital Partners is the latest to jump into the sector, leading a $7 million Series B [...]

The company designs and manufactures photovoltaic panels and has raised more venture capital this year — $286 million in the third quarter, over $512 million total, according to Thomson Reuters — than any one else.

Equally impressive has been its ability to get money from the government. In March, Solyndra got a $535 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy to build a second solar panel fabrication plant in California — the first clean tech company to get such a loan. It has applied for a second loan from the DOE of $469 million, according to the S-1, and estimates that the next phase of the fab will cost $642 million.

Second Rotation, a Boston-based operator of online “recommerce” site Gazelle, has raised $6 million in Series B funding. RockPort Capital Partners led the round, and was joined by return backers Venrock Associates, Austin Ligon and Henry Vogel.

Victor Westerlind has joined RockPort Capital Partners as a general partner in the firm’s Menlo Park office. He previously was a partner with InterWest Partners. RockPort is a Boston-based cleantech venture capital firm.

Project Frog, a San Francisco-based developer of sustainable modular buildings and building materials for educational institutions, has secured $4 million of an $8.6 million Series B round, according to a regulatory filing. Rockport Capital Partners is leading the deal. www.projectfrog.com

Electric car maker Think Global is out to raise $80 million before the end of the year, according to a report today in VentureWire. The company so far has raised more than $97 million from Draper Fisher jurvetson, Rockport Capital, GE Energy, Element Venture Partners, Capricorn Investment Group (Jeff Skoll’s money), Wintergreen Advisors, CG Holdin, [...]