Other winners in the green investment community are companies looking to replace existing power grids that will allow utilities to interact with home appliances, turning them on when power demand is low and electricity is cheaper. Makers of more electric efficient cars are also getting cash, with the U.S. government providing large loan guarantees.

Investor interest in turning rundown plants into liquid fuels has cooled. Building biorefineries can cost well over $100 million and venture capitalists aren’t ready to underwrite these experiments after some high profile crashes triggered in part by falling oil and natural gas prices.

Two big deals worth a combined $500 million highlight the changing sentiment. Industrial conglomerate United Technologies Corp., best known for its helicopters, jumped into the wind business. Another deal brought chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. into solar.

In the 3rd quarter of 2009, clean energy received 19% of venture capital investment in the U.S., second only to biotechnology, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association. “There are multiple drivers,” said Neil S. Suslak, managing partner of Braemar Energy Ventures. Among them: a desire to cut greenhouse gas emissions, upgrade aging power systems and find domestic sources of energy.

Here’s a look at key sectors and companies in the clean-energy industry.

Energy Efficiency

Using technology to reduce energy consumption is by far the hottest sector right now. A big reason is that the companies behind this approach promise a shorter path to profitability.

Start-ups can move quickly to a revenue-producing business, said Joe Muscat, Ernst & Young’s Americas cleantech director, “so that has attracted a lot of people to that sector.”

In the public markets, companies such as energy-management firm EnerNOC Inc. and low-energy LED lighting specialist Cree Inc. were darlings last year. Both stocks more than quadrupled in 2009. Cree emerged as a leader in low-energy lighting as interest in replacing incandescent bulbs soared. EnerNOC sells low-cost ways to cut corporate power bills.

Private start-ups may have been even hotter among venture capitalists and private equity investors. One that has drawn a buzz from investors is Serious Materials Inc. It sells energy-efficient windows and later this year will add a type of drywall that emits less greenhouse gas during manufacturing than gypsum. Growing interest in “green” buildings has helped boost revenue.

Also triggering a lot of interest are companies such as Powervation Ltd., which is working on power-saving semiconductor chips and software to run computer servers and networks.

Solar

Some industry observers believe solar power is ready to rapidly mature and expand. But the sector faces challenges, including a glut of solar panels driving down prices and cutbacks in government subsidies.

None of this stopped Solyndra Inc. from filing in December for an IPO. It makes cylindrical solar-power generating tubes for commercial rooftops such as warehouses, a design it says offers a low installation costs and high electricity production per square foot.

Smart Grid

Improving outmoded electricity-delivery systems is a top priority for governments. Swiss-based Landis+Gyr AG raised $100 million last year to expand its smart-meter business.

Silver Spring Networks Inc. builds the networking equipment to enable smart meters to communicate with utilities. It also sells software and services to power utilities to manage all this data and make sense of it. The company is believed to be contemplating an IPO this year. Tendril Inc., a Colorado start-up that raised $30 million last year, is focused on energy-management equipment for home owners. “Most of the people we are working with are convinced that some form of carbon [emissions] cap or trade tax is coming,” said Chief Executive Adrian Tuck.

Wind

Turning the earth’s winds into electrical power is the most mature and well-developed renewable energy. Many of the companies in the sector are already quite large, such as Spanish wind farm developer Iberdrola Renovables SA and turbine maker General Electric Co.

This sector also hosted the largest renewable energy IPO last year. That was China Longyuan Electric Power Group’s $2.2 billion debut on the Hong Kong exchange. (The second largest was a $380 million offering by Boston-based A123 Systems Inc., a leader in the development of batteries for electric cars and hybrids.)

Transport

Last year was “a very good year to be an electric car company,” said Dallas Kachan, managing director of consultant Clean Tech Group. The U.S. government was generous with grants and loans to this sector.

Tesla Motors Inc., a maker of high-end electric sports vehicles, secured $83 million in venture capital funding and $465 million in low-interest loans from the Energy Department last year. It is expanding its line to include a family sedan.

Another effort drawing interest from investors, in part for the mystery surrounding it, is V-Vehicle Co. It secured about $100 million in venture-capital financing last year and is currently expanding a facility in northern Louisiana to build a 725,000-square-foot plant.

Biofuels

Once a red-hot sector, interest in turning plants and waste into liquid fuel has waned recently. The cost of building a commercial-scale biorefinery — needed to test novel approaches — is in the neighborhood of $100 million. Companies have found it hard to get support in the current economic environment.

One of the exceptions is Canadian Enerkem Corp. In December, it received a $50 million grant from the U.S. government to build a waste-to-ethanol facility in Mississippi. It is also building a biorefinery in Edmonton, Alberta.

Total revenue from U.S. music sales and licensing plunged to $6.3 billion in 2009, according to Forrester Research. In 1999, revenue for the recording industry was $14.6 billion.

The two recessions during the past decade really did not help music sales. It’s also unfair to compare the 2000s with the 1990s, because the 1990s enjoyed an unnatural sales boost when consumers replaced their cassette tapes and vinyl records with CDs. The future still remains for CDs as digital music has taken the mainstage.

Every device now contains some sort of way to listen to your music. Moving away from the CD and into the digital world will be the next major push for the recording industry. How recording artists take advantage of digital sales is still unknown as iTunes and other various digital goods stores do not provide the profit once seen throughout major retail stores.

Last year the lowest-priced segment, such as brands like Popov vodka can go for less than $10 for a fifth, ended up growing the fastest, with volume rising 5.5 percent, after growing 0.6% in 2008. Meanwhile, the most expensive price range, roughly $30 or more for a 750 mL bottle like Grey Goose, owned by Bacardi fell the most, tumbling 5.1%.

The liquor industry’s goal is to keep people drinking spirits, no matter what the price is, and will then get them to pay for higher-priced drinks when the economy recovers. Most major liquor manufacturers make brands in a variety of price ranges. For example, industry giant Diageo plc, a company based in London, makes vodka brands ranging from cheap liquor like Popov to midpriced Smirnoff and then to expensive Ketel One and Ciroc.

Taylor Swift won the biggest Grammy of the night, album of the year for her CD “Fearless.” “This is the story we’re going to be telling over and over again, that we got to win album of the year in 2010,” Swift said. Swift also won best country album. She won four Grammys overall.

Beyonce had won a pair of Grammys over Swift, winning the best female pop vocal performance award Sunday night as well as song of the year. That latter honor, a songwriters’ award, was given to Beyonce for co-writing “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).” List: Major Grammy winners

For the best female pop honor, won for “Halo,” the nervous singer thanked her family, “including my husband — I love you.” Beyonce is married to hip-hop star Jay-Z. The singer won six Grammys all told.

Alternative rock band Kings of Leon upset favorites Beyonce and Swift to win the record of the year Grammy for “Use Somebody.” The win gave the Kings of Leon three Grammys out of four nominations this year, all thanks to last year’s “Only by the Night” album. The same album gave them three nominations last year, one of which they won.

“Use Somebody” lost out earlier in the show to Beyonce’s “SIngle Ladies” for song of the year.

“The best thing about winning Grammys is really it’s the first time our family gets to see the success we’re having,” Kings lead singer Caleb Followill said backstage. “We’re getting my mom wasted.” Winners Sunday night also included Stephen Colbert, the Zac Brown Band and Green Day.

Michael Jackson’s two oldest children took the Grammy stage Sunday night to accept their father’s lifetime achievement award. Prince Michael and Paris, along with several cousins, wore black suits with red stripes on their pants and red armbands. The children appeared after a rousing performance of Michael Jackson’s “Earth Song,” with a recording of Jackson accompanied by live performances from Celine Dion, Usher, Carrie Underwood, Smokey Robinson and Jennifer Hudson.

The Zac Brown Band won best new artist. Lady Gaga, considered by many to be this year’s biggest breakout act, was ruled ineligible because she had a song released and nominated last year. Stephen Colbert won best comedy album for “A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!” Rap/sung collaboration went to Jay-Z, Rihanna and Kanye West. Green Day won best rock album. “Now I’m going to do shots with Kings of Leon,” Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong said.

Lady Gaga, whose performance opened the show, won two Grammys presented in the pre-telecast. Her single “Poker Face” beat out songs by the Black Eyed Peas, Madonna and Britney Spears in the best dance recording category. Her CD “The Fame” also won a Grammy for best electronic/dance.

With public frustration over double-digit unemployment eroding his popularity, Obama has begun rolling out initiatives aimed at backing up his jobs pledge made in his economy-focused State of the Union Address earlier this week.

The latest proposal calls for a $5000 tax credit for every net new worker hired in 2010. The amount would be capped at $500,000 per firm to make sure that the bulk of the benefits go to small businesses.

“The economy is growing but job growth is lagging,” Obama told workers at a custom-machine plant in Baltimore.

He spoke after the release of data showing U.S. gross domestic product expanded at a faster-than-expected 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter, a trend he hailed as a “stark improvement” compared to economic decline a year ago.

But he insisted that more work was needed to spur employment and urged the U.S. Senate to push ahead with jobs legislation. The House of Representatives approved a $155 billion jobs bill in December.

Obama said his tax credit proposal could help small businesses to hire workers while lowering their taxes. He estimated that more than 1 million small businesses could benefit.

“Now’s the perfect time for this kind of incentive,” he said. “The key thing is it’s time to put America back to work.”

Small businesses are the biggest source of job creation and hold the key to reducing unemployment, so funneling money their way is a smart approach. The problem is, even though the economy has resumed growing, confidence is in short supply, leaving these companies reluctant to hire, economists say.

The tax credit plan was previewed by Obama in his State of the Union speech, where he reframed his policy agenda to put the emphasis squarely on jobs and the economy, Americans’ chief concerns in a midterm congressional election year.

A shocking win last week by a Republican in an election to the U.S. Senate in traditionally Democratic-dominated Massachusetts has jolted the White House into concentrating its message on Obama’s strategy to boost jobs. (Reuters)

Yet, despite the staggering growth of social networking, determining how to monetize social media platforms remains a tough code to crack for even the savviest of companies. As such, identifying new revenue models will be instrumental in kicking off the next cycle of the social networking phenomenon in 2010.

If Anyone Can Do It, Facebook Can

Facebook (Facebook), social networking’s acknowledged leader, has surpassed every platform on the market today, corralling more than 350 million unique users globally. If any social network is poised to design a winning formula for successful revenue streams in 2010, it’s Facebook. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has set an aggressive agenda for the company, publically stating that he “expects social networks to become as essential as web browsers and operating systems,” and he has set the lofty — yet entirely realistic — goal of 1 billion users worldwide.

In the less than five years since it expanded beyond scholastic audiences, Facebook has not only grabbed the lion’s share of users, it has engaged them like no other platform on the Internet. The average Facebook user visits the site at least once a day and spends an astounding 55 minutes engaging friends and family –- statistics that another Zucker (Jeff) would probably kill for over at NBC.

While translating such popularity into dollars and cents isn’t easy –- especially in an industry whose users have grown accustomed to getting something for nothing –- Facebook could potentially provide a monetization template that would revolutionize social networking as we know it.

The Next Level of Advertising Revenue

Advertising has traditionally provided the simplest means of generating revenue. PricewaterhouseCoopers reported in October that Internet advertising revenues totaled $10.9 billion for the first half of 2009. It’s been estimated that Facebook alone took in $435 million of that total. But for a site with nearly half a billion users, a quarter of which spend more time within the network than watching television, these numbers represent just the beginning potential.

First, Facebook needs to admit to itself that it is in the business of selling ads. By better managing its advertising network, intelligently expanding its marketing options, and developing workable social ads that leverage the branding power of friends and connections, Facebook can begin to capture its rightful share of online ad revenues. The final piece is to increase awareness and understanding of Facebook ads among corporate decision makers.

For example, every executive in America today understands the value of purchasing Google (Google) ads –- and that didn’t happen by accident. Google understood that what caused it to dominate online search wasn’t going to ultimately position the company as a global corporate powerhouse valued at nearly $200 billion. Google’s aggressive marketing, communications, and lobbying shops have worked to ensure every ad buyer, political campaign, marketing executive, and public relations flack knows the value of the service and has direct and easy access to account executives who explain the much worshiped “ROI” Google ads provide.

Today, Facebook stands on the precipice Google inhabited just before it became a top money-maker. By taking a page from the Google playbook, and aggressively marketing — and explaining — its power to influence buying decisions, Facebook ads could become as essential to 21st Century marketing as the yellow pages were in the 20th Century.

Thanks to the folks at Twitter, bloggers now have an easier chance to increase readers to their blogs. Wordpress plugins have been a great advancement in Microblogging along with providing a great SEO tool.

If you are as excited as I am about the iPad, I’ve got good news for you. Hookups With a Smile will be giving away 3 iPads to our readers!

How can you win one of them? Register for this iPad hookup today by clicking and registering on any iPad article within our site! Registration will close July 1st, 2010. Winners will be announced the following day.

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However, as my mother used to say when people made wide promises, “We’ll see, the proof will be in the pudding”.

We have seen Obama rise on many occasions to deliver ‘the speech’ when needed. Whether it was the speech on Reverend Wright and race or the speech at the Iowa Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner which began his ascent to the Presidency, Obama has always delivered the words when in trouble. The problem is that the magic is starting to wear off and we are waiting for hardcore action than mere words. I believe he wants to do the right thing. The problem is that with his record over the last year we have to question if he has the leadership and understanding of power to do the right thing.

The reference to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ in a State of the Union message was no doubt a powerful and historic moment for the LGBT community. The community has succeeded in pushing this rock up the hill so that at last DADT is part of the national agenda. What I don’t understand is why the President continues to resist issuing a ’stop-loss’ order and end this practice now instead of a prolong and maybe never ending Congressional battle? What a moral high ground he would have spoken from last night if he announced a ’stop-loss’ order and then challenge Congress to meet his courage. The President has the power right this moment, beyond inspiration words, to create powerful change for this community. He once again decided not to use his Presidential powers and depend totally on Congress.

The President left me hopeful last night but guarded. Clearly it has been proven over the last year that this administration does respond to pressure. So, most importantly, let’s not waste any time with moving words but do our job and keep the pressure on this President and this Congress to do the job for which they were elected. The time for words has passed and there is an urgent need for real action before the election in November.

President Obama is expected to reiterate his call for a comprehensive overhaul in his State of the Union address Wednesday night. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) still lack a game plan for moving forward, following the Democrats’ surprise loss last week of a Massachusetts Senate seat, costing the party its filibuster-proof supermajority.

One problem the leaders can’t seem to overcome is how to pay for whatever bill they are able to produce. Senate Democratic sources said Pelosi continues to protest the excise tax on high value insurance plans that the Senate would adopt to offset the cost of expaning coverage to the uninsured. Pelosi has urged Reid to drop the tax, or at least radically scale it back, leaving the bill with a revenue hole as large as $300 billion over 10 years. Many House Democrats oppose the excise tax because of its potential impact on union households.

Two options are on the table: pushing the Senate bill through the House, along with a companion bill of fixes; and starting from scratch with a smaller bill that includes only the most popular provisions. Reid and Pelosi are in the process of canvassing their caucuses to determine the best approach.

The Democratic leaders still believe they may be able to salvage their original effort, if at least 218 House Democrats agree to approve the Senate version of the bill. But for the House to go along, the Senate would first have to approve a special budget reconciliation bill to makes the changes House Democrats are demanding. This option is theoretically the quickest and surest route to final passage because in the Senate, reconciliation bills are protected from filibusters, meaning they require only a simple majority to pass.

The process would give House Democrats rock-solid assurance that health legislation would not take effect without the fixes they are demanding. But Senate Democratic aides estimate that about seven Democratic senators could oppose reconciliation, for fear of a political backlash.

Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) told reporters on Tuesday that voters simply do not believe that health care legislation would reduce the deficit and that pushing the package to final through reconciliation would be a fatal political error. “I think reconciliation would be very ill-advised,” Bayh said.

Senate Budget Committee chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), warned that Democrats could be forced to delay this year’s budget process in order to accommodate reconciliation for health care, since last year’s reconciliation instructions expire when a new budget resolution is adopted. Reconciliation remains fraught with other problems in the health care context, Conrad said. For example, any bill would have to cut the deficit by $1 billion over five years, but the changes the House wants to see would cut revenues and increase subsidies.

“I think the role of reconciliation would be quite limited in a health care context,” Conrad said.

Other potential problems: Senators can offer unlimited amendments to a reconciliation measure, a recipe for a protracted floor debate. Some of the main flashpoints between the House and Senate bills involve issues like abortion and the design of a new insurance marketplace that may not pass muster with the Senate parliamentarian, who acts as referee during the process. All provisions must have a budgetary impact, and they cannot create new government programs.

Given the uncertainty, some Democratic lawmakers would prefer to focus their efforts on a narrower bill, possibly one that would gain Republican support. Senior Democrats listed some of the provisions that could be included: incentives for small business to offer health coverage; pilot programs that tackle Medicare inefficiencies; and an array of insurance reforms that would prevent egregious abuses and allow young adults to remain on their parents’ policies.

The legislation also could include an aggressive Medicaid enrollment campaign that would capture the millions of low income individuals who are eligible for coverage under current law, but haven’t signed up for it. That pool alone could include 8 million people, Democrats said.