VentureBeat

General Electric invests more into clean technologies than any other company.

The company’s yearly allotment for Ecomagination, its cleantech investment arm, totals $1 billion, and GE says it’s on track to raise the number to $1.5 billion by 2010. Compare that to the mere $844 million invested in U.S. clean-technology companies by the entire venture capital establishment last quarter, which is at record levels.

The GE money will go to both new research and existing projects, as well as partnerships with universities and labs, GE says. Areas of investment include renewable energy, fuel efficiency, lighting and water purification (look here for summaries.)

GE can maintain its investment flow into Ecomagination because the division is actually bringing in revenues — about $12 billion since it was opened in 2005. Like Chevron, which recently opened its fourth venture fund, the company also uses the companies and technologies it invests in for internal projects.

Chevron’s focus is broader than just clean-tech: The company is also investing in oil and gas and information technology ventures. About a third of the $75 million it has set aside will go to clean-tech.

The fund’s new director, Trond Unneland, said Chevron is mainly interested in technologies that can assist its own oil and gas operations, like a San Joaquin Valley project where solar panels help turn water to steam for use in oil reclamation.

Between its first three funds, Chevron has invested about $170 million, seeing an internal benefit of $50 million from increased efficiency and cost savings, it says. Asked whether the company planned on helping the companies it invests in develop in the outside world, Unneland said: “Our primary goal is [internal] technology transfers, but financial returns are important as well.”

So with their slightly different focus, where do giant companies fall in the venture capital spectrum? Aside from their focus on technologies they can use for themselves, they may also be more risk-averse than traditional VCs investing in cleantech, like Vinod Khosla.

Khosla Ventures has bet on a number of controversial projects, including one we reported on recently: Calera, which claims to be able to suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to produce concrete.

By comparison, GE invests in projects like building cleaner coal plants or working on advanced desalination technology. Chevron, for its part, has put money into Brightsource, the photovoltaic steam-generation startup, and Konarka, a maker of so-called “power plastic”.

Battery maker A123 Systems has secured its place as the most heavily funded battery startup, adding $30 million in its fifth round of funding.

Early this year, A123 broke $100 million. The Watertown, Mass. company, which is developing new lithium ion technology, already has some products on the market, mainly batteries for hand-held power tools. More importantly, companies like General Electric are considering its technology for use in upcoming hybrid vehicles.

A123 has shown itself to be rather aggressive, chasing down potential customers and acquiring Hymotion, a related battery tech firm, and with the potential for battery storage technology, it’s no surprise that plenty of firms are ready to invest.

The company didn’t disclose which investor led the round, but aside from a number of well known venture and private equity firms — Sequoia Capital, North Bridge Venture Partners, CMEA Ventures, FA Technology Ventures, OnPoint and Carruth Management — several other large institutions invested, including General Electric, Procter & Gamble, Alliance Capital, Motorola, Qualcomm, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Desh Deshpande, who is the company’s chairman.

Other lithium ion battery companies include San Francisco’s Li*On Cells and Fremont, Calif.’s Mobius Power (see our June coverage). Other battery companies working with lithium ion or some other material include Valence, Saft, EEStor and Infinite Power Solutions.