AlwaysOn is proud to announce this year's GoingGreen Global 200—the top emerging companies that are transforming big industry and creating viable business models for the green technology.

The AlwaysOn editorial team, along with partners at Morgan Stanley, SAP, KPMG, Hewlett-Packard, Goldman Sachs, Technology Partners, Bridge Bank, Sheppard Mullin, Silicon Valley Bank, NEA, and industry experts across the globe scoured the entrepreneurial community to identify the top 200 private companies that are transforming our world into a safer, more efficient, and environmentally friendly place, while at the same time creating high-growth businesses that offer huge upside potential for investors.

C3 is a newly emerged stealth software company that deploys enterprise solutions to manage energy and emissions for entire business organizations. The software then measures, mitigates, and monetizes energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in commercial buildings. In addition to adding to the environmentally friendly footprint of the organization, C3's solutions help organizations maximize their profitability and increase their cash flow by optimizing their enterprise-wide energy strategy, reducing expenses based on energy waste, and bringing their carbon footprint ever closer to zero.

AlwaysOn has officially kicked off its fifth annual GoingGreen Silicon Valley Top 200 Private Companies competition. We are looking for the top emerging private companies that are creating new business opportunities in green technology. This includes private companies that are demonstrating significant market traction and pursuing game-changing technology in the following sectors: 

AlwaysOn has officially kicked off its third annual GoingGreen East Top 50 Private Companies Competition. We are looking for top emerging east coast and European private companies that are creating new business opportunities in green technology. This includes private companies that are demonstrating significant market traction and pursuing game-changing technology in the following sectors: 

It's December, and time for an annual reading of the green [tech industry] tea leaves. What will the new year have in store for cleantech?

From our standpoint at Kachan & Co., 2011 could be a strong year for the global clean technology sector. Seemingly, the markets have been correcting themselves in 2010; valuations are returning to rational P/E multiples, price signals are emerging again after massive government investment in cleantech, early stage deals seem to be returning, corporate investment is flowing, new funds are being announced everywhere. Outside the U.S., which is having an increasingly hard time supporting the sector, cleantech is alive and well, even in exits... albeit mostly in China.

SABA Motors, currently in stealth mode, is developing an all-electric sports car, looking to compete with existing traditional-fuel sports cars in the $40,000 range. The key to the car's performance is its light weight; a two-seater with an aluminum frame and carbon-fiber body. The car is powered by lithium batteries from ThunderSky with a range of 120 to 140 miles. The company is currently competing in Progressive Insurance's Automotive X-Prize and was one of 43 teams that qualified for the third stage of the competition.

Alphabet Energy is commercializing a breakthrough, inexpensive waste heat recovery technology developed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Its revolutionary thermoelectric approach and materials platform is the only of its kind that lends itself to massive scale at low cost. With these products, made entirely from sustainable materials, customers may use their waste heat to generate electrical power in the range of microwatts to megawatts. Alphabet's thermoelectric materials can be used to turn heat directly into electricity.

Stramit StrawBoard is manufactured from straw, such as wheat or rice, by a patented process of heat and pressure that fuses the straw using its internal resins, making it a completely natural product. Stramit is produced by continuous extrusion, has a tough, bonded external surface of recycled paper, and is typically 35mm to 60mm thick. Stramit is an internationally recognized brand. Stramit boards and panels have been used successfully for more than 50 years in more than twenty countries.

Mango Materials produces bio-based, biodegradable plastics that are cheap and green. This new startup company is staffed by a first-class team of engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and innovators. The Mango Materials process converts a "waste" material that is routinely released into the atmosphere into valuable PHA pellets. These pellets are used in a variety of high-margin or high-volume, eco-friendly plastic products, such as children's toys, electronic casings, water bottles, and food-packaging containers.

Conderos is developing new processes and technologies to break down cellulose and hemicellulose, so that the sugars contained within them can be used instead of petroleum or food crops. There are hundreds of millions of tons of biomass in the U.S. available for conversion to sugars. Using biomass that has already served its primary purpose is even better for the environment because it does not add any new carbon to the cycle and it displaces carbon from fossil fuels that would otherwise be added to the carbon cycle.