VentureBeat

It’s a holiday today, and so slower posting. Here’s the latest.

1. Virgin’s Branson wants “environmental war room”
2. U.S. media employment plunges
3. Why Google’s culture works, and Yahoo’s doesn’t
4. Creating fuel from carbon dioxide
5. Solar cells a better way to make hydrogen
6. Google has new head of Google corp dev
7. Whistleblower site WikiLeaks shuts down

Virgin’s Richard Branson offers to set up an “environmental war room” to combat climate change — Branson, already motivated to find alternative fuels for his airline business, is advocating an independent office affiliated with the United Nations that would promote climate change mediation. Details here.

U.S. media employment plunges — Employment in the U.S media sector in December fell to a 15-year low (886,900), led by the shriveling newspaper industry, according to Adage. But employment in advertising and marketing services broke a record in November (769,000). Marketing consulting led the growth, according to the report.

Why Google’s management culture works, and Yahoo’s doesn’t — Google’s culture has worked today because the company is still directed by the vision of the leading Troika, a vision which through regular meetings is then manifest coherently through the ranks. At Yahoo, decision-making has been disbursed to hundreds of vice presidents. At least that’s the view of Chris Sacca, a former Googler, and it’s a perspective that makes sense. However, with Google now hiring thousands more workers, how long with the coherence last?

Creating fuel from carbon dioxide — Lots of chatter about this, but can it be done? Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory say they have developed a way to produce such a carbon-neutral fuel. But there’s a catch: The process would require nuclear power.

Solar cell made in university labs could provide a better way to make hydrogen — Penn State researchers have made a proof-of-concept device that uses solar hydrogen cells to split water and produce recoverable hydrogen.

Google has new head of Google Corporate Dev — David Lawee is the new head of the division that invests in start-ups, buys them or otherwise cuts deal with strategic companies to push forward Google’s business interests, Techcrunch reports. This comes after predecessor Salman Ullah left the company to form Merus Capital, which we covered here.

Whistleblower site WikiLeaks shuts down — The site was supposed to let people anonymously post government and corporate documents, which can be a good thing if people want to squeal about corruption or some other ethically or legally abusive government maneuver. However, a California court ruling has shut it down. The case was brought by a Swiss bank after “several hundred” documents were posted about its offshore activities.

Metrolight, a company that produces technology for so-called HID lamps, used in expansive areas such as streets, factories and warehouses, has raised $9 million from Virgin Fuels and others.

Lighting absorbs about 26 percent of electricity generated in the U.S. Fluorescent lighting has gotten the most attention as a source of energy saving, because it is an alternative to residential lighting. HID, however, makes up 22 percent of all lighting, according to the U.S. Department of Energy — so it’s also a huge market.

HID is more efficient than other forms of lighting used for expansive areas. For example, in Victoria’s secret stores there are 100 small HID lamps in a row, each the size of a half-dollar and putting out only 39 watts. There are about 150 million HID sockets in the U.S. Here’s a definition of HID or the most efficient lighting that is used in , which stands for High Intensity Discharge.

The funding comes from Richard Branson’s Virgin Fuels, along with Gemini Israel Funds, Israel Cleantech Ventures and Altshuler Shaham.

Specifically, Metrolight builds more energy-efficient electronic ballasts for HIDs. Ballasts are key components that are used to ignite the lighting.

Metrolight says its products reduce lighting costs by up to 65 percent, compared to lighting produced by conventional magnetic ballasts. Metrolight, based in Brentwood, Tenn., says its HID ballasts lets lights dim more efficiently when light is not needed.

Its product operates at 110 kilohertz, a much higher frequency than the 60 hertz frequency used by the convention technology of competitors. The higher frequency allows the electrodes to be constantly heated, and therefore causes less wear and tear to the lamps over time, according to Randy Reid, Metrolight’s executive VP and sales manager.

The company’s manufacturing is based in China. The company was founded in 1996, and is raising capital because of the growing market for lighting technology that is more energy efficient, Reid said.

Competitors are General Electric and Philips.

The company had previously raised $14 million.

Gevo, a biofuel company seeking to create replacements for gasoline and jet-fuel, has raised an undisclosed amount in a second round of financing from Virgin Fuels and Khosla Ventures.

Entrepreneur Richard Branson formed Virgin Fuels last year to make investments in renewable energy companies.

The investment in Pasadena, Calif. Gevo is part of an effort to find an alternative airline fuel for his Virgin Airways. Branson burns $1 billion of fuel a year, and feels bad about its environmental effects, and sees biofuels as a good alternative. Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla and Branson together recently converted Google co-founder Larry Page of the need to support biofuels too.

Gevo is focusing on news ways to make butanol and other fuels. Khosla Ventures has invested in several biofuel companies, from Amyris, which is also making butanol and other renewable diesel fuels, and Ls9, which is making renewable petroleum. We wrote about the Gevo and Ls9 investments here.

Gevo chief executive Patrick Gruber, who joined the company last month, said the company is still very much in the development phase. He said the attractive thing about this area is that there’s no intellectual property that blocks the company from developing anything (we took this as a thinly veiled swipe at rival start-up entrepreneur Craig Venter’s patent claims). “It’s a freakin’ free for all,” he said. “Outsiders are going to win. There is no possibly way for these big [incumbent energy] companies to shed their baggage.”

Gevo has licensed technology in the labs of Frances Arnold at Caltech.