We've seen other recent announcements that suggest there is more money filtering into energy projects. Look below and on page 2 for summaries:

Batteries and grid energy storage R&D: Earlier this week U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced plans to launch a new Energy Innovation Hub for advanced research on batteries and energy storage with an investment of up to $120 million over five years. The hub, which will be funded at up to $20 million in fiscal year 2012, will focus on accelerating research and development of electrochemical energy storage for transportation and the electric grid. The idea behind the hub is to bring together scientists, engineers and industry to rapidly accelerate discoveries and reduce the time from the lab through development and commercial deployment of critical energy technologies. Learn more >>

America's Next Top Energy Innovator: On Feb. 1 the DOE kicked off the second year of its America's Next Top Energy Innovator program that allows startup companies to license groundbreaking technologies developed by DOE’s 17 national laboratories for $1,000. As part of this effort, the Department reduces both the cost and paperwork requirements for startup companies to obtain an option agreement to license some of the 15,000 patents and patent applications held by the national laboratories. “Through America’s Next Top Energy Innovator, we are allowing brilliant ideas to fully develop and giving startup companies the opportunity to bring inventions from our national laboratories to the market.” Get details  >>