We're still in the early stages of this trend, but it's pretty clear that the green energy sector is fast becoming a venture capital darling. Today, for example, five deals were announced in one publication alone (three VC, two acquisitions). The three investments account for $47.4 million in VC investment. And only yesterday, Solazyme picked up another $57 million in its Series C round.

In what remains a capital-constrained market, the cash is still flowing. In the private equity space, investments in clean technologies have remained steady from 2007 to 2008, despite broader economic calamity. Such commitment this early in the game may hint at what the next bubble will be.

The decade's dramatic rise in crude oil prices to roughly $90 per barrel levels has had a lesser-known, but equally consequential impact on life in the developing world -- a rise in price of cooking oils from palm, soybean and many other types of vegetable oils, The New York Times reported.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said that exports of 60 internationally-traded foodstuffs increased 37% in 2007, following a 14% rise in 2006. Further, price increases in cooking oils hit the developing world particularly hard, as the bulk of poor families in these countries grow their own food, but buy the oil to cook it with.

In the case of palm oil, The Times reported that rising consumption in China and other emerging markets, along with use of the oil in developed markets as a substitute for chemically-altered trans fats, are two major factors behind its price rise.

Biofuel nexus

However, for other oils the rise in crude oil is playing a considerable role, according to London-based economist Mark Chandler. Chandler, whose economic specialization includes developing world economies, said crude oil's rise has led to a dramatic rise in the use of cooking oils as biofuels.

Bill Joy was a co-founder and scientist at Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) until he left for private capital in 2005, joining Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. Although out of the tech spotlight these days, many still follow what he has to say based on his credited involvement with inventing several widely-used internet technologies. As a venture capitalist, many want to know what Joy sees as viable investments from 2007 moving forward.

He gave a glimpse of what he's not looking at this week when he delivered an outlook at the Lux Research conference on nanotechnology. According to Joy, green technology is hot, internet is not. Wha? Internet investing is out of style with one of its founders? How can that be? Let me put it mildly: the valuations of some companies operating almost solely in the 'net these days makes for a "wacky" investment strategy, according to Joy.

Although Joy speaks the virtues of several semiconductor firms, he stated that internet investments are "wacky right now" and that the better opportunity in the near term will be in green technology investments. You know, ones that allow electric autos to become affordable and available, as well as alternative energy sources like photovoltaic products that convert sunlight directly into energy.

He shuns biodiesel and ethanol in favor of all-electric personal transportation and notes that investment in these areas is exploding. His firm has already invested in solar thermal and photovoltaic technology, but the sheer fact that Joy slaps all internet investments is a surprise. Perhaps he's one of the many who think Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)'s current $620+ share price is a bit overblown. Does Google even have a moat? Perhaps, perhaps not. Bill Joy doesn't care, and he's not investing there. Are you?

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. (NASDAQ: NSANY) really wants to come out with new hybrid and all-electric vehicles in the next few years. However, throw out the terms biodiesel and ethanol at the Japanese automaker and you'll probably receive a scornful look back. Does Nissan want to bet on the all-electric vehicle instead of mixed-propulsion methods like combustion based on ethanol and biodiesel? You bet.

As many critics have pointed out (and there is quite a bit of validity to this), the economic returns on the uses of those two alternative fuels are not that good, even with foreign oil prices being at the level that they are currently. Nissan officials said this week that designing an ethanol or biodiesel car is fairly straightforward in a technical sense. Yet, the cost of the fuel and the resources needed to distill it into a form usable by these alternative-fuel engines would outpace regular gasoline with all variables considered.

Are you ready to actually pay more to travel in order to use a non-oil form of fuel? That's what Nissan execs are hinting out here, even as E85 vehicles continue making inroads with competitors like General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) and others. The costs of using cropland for fuel production instead of food production are also on the minds of many (in the case of ethanol). But electric cars -- today -- are nowhere near close to replacing internal combustion vehicles in terms of performance or cost. Nissan, though, hopes that they will be in the next decade or two. Right now, the automaker sees its first mass-produced electric car in 2011 or 2012.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) and Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN) are teaming up to produce and market biodiesel made from the fat of chickens, pigs, and poultry. ConocoPhillips will be investing about 100 million dollars in the deal, which pairs it with Tyson's new renewable energy division.

This could be interesting news for investors. The government currently offers a generous subsidy to companies producing biodiesel, and the project could be profitable for both companies. If it catches on, Tyson could turn into an alternative energy play, much the way that corn processor Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE: ADM) has with the ethanol boom.

If you want to invest based on this development, I think Tyson is the way to go. With its market cap of 115 billion dollars, this is unlikely to add to ConocoPhillips's bottom-line in any meaningful way for a long time. But if successful, Tyson shareholders could reap the benefits more quickly.

Putting the first quarter behind us, as many wish we would, gives us pause to look ahead in hopes of finding the gems of success that wait for us. Here are some of my areas of interest as dictated by gut instinct. Please, before you groan and wretch and move on to the next post, remember that in defiance of one major writer's claim that no one warned you of the bear(ish) market that passed by this way ... I did.

I had also suggested steering clear of big pharma quite some time ago. You may take note that all but a few of them have, at least temporarily, splattered on the wall. The clear exception I see at this time is Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE), which I consider to be in turn-around mode. I'll even be so bold as to hint that you may want to watch it for some acquisition movement of some kind. Pfizer has a sharp, well-run operation with some fine projects on the table. I like Pfizer and have no reason to change my attitude towards it.

Here are some of my watch words for at least the next two quarters:

• Watch natural fibers including cotton, glass derivations, carbon, and cellulose. Apply liberal amounts of nano-technologies and your world vastly increases in breadth and scope.
• Pay attention to water in all it's forms and applications. You shall benefit if you move it ,use it ,split it, spend it, clean it, or own it.
• Continue to avoid bonds unless your slopping around with bundles of loose cash that you have nothing better to do with.
• Scrap metals remain solid and steady. Beware of mining, at least temporarily.
• Watch for increased use of wood as raw material in things other than home construction. In cost of materials, the dynamics are changing. Stay on top of what the manufacturing sector is hinting towards.
• Look hard at the building and maintenance of diesel engines. I'm receiving reports that biodiesel is having some negative impact on the current trucking fleet. Adaptations in materials and design will be needed soon to accommodate the changes in fuel make up. Be there and be ready.

That's what I have to offer you for right now. At this time I need to make one small apology. I hope those fine people who hold shares in General Electric (NYSE: GE) haven't lost faith in me yet. I promised you $40 per share and I still believe it's coming. Hold tight my friends, nothing good ever comes easy.

A couple weeks ago I wrote an article about B5 blend biodiesel now being produced by Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation Ltd. in New Zealand. At that time I promised to provide their prospectus when it became available. I've received an email from them indicating that the prospectus is now available. If you would like to view their prospectus, either as a PDF file or as hard copy, contact Aquaflow by using this link: Aquaflow Bionomic Corp.

This is not intended as an endorsement of Aquaflow or B5 biodiesel. I'm simply providing this information as a direction for readers to investigate if they are believers in the advancement of alternate fuels. For right now, information from Aquaflow is actually rather scant, but they are working directly with the government of New Zealand, and you may wish to contact either or both of them. This situation involves overseas investment in brand new technology -- please do be careful.

B5 biodiesel consists of 5% fuel processed from algae that flourishes in sewage settling ponds, blended with 95% currently available fuels. This could translate as an unending fuel source that will be perpetually obtainable. It's a solid investment idea as long as people keep eating and ... well, you know. Possible downsides to putting dollars into backing this fuel include the newness of the technology use and its limited scale. This is an investment idea that should be researched extensively before jumping into. Technology in its infancy can be a tough game to play, but the rewards can be phenomenal.

There's no word yet on how this small development might touch Exxon (NYSE: XOM), Chevron (NYSE: CVX) or Conoco (NYSE: COP), but a little upstart in New Zealand called Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation has successfully test driven a vehicle fueled with a biodiesel blend called B5. The new fuel technology exploits biodiesel, which is readily created from harvested algae grown in nutrient rich sewage settling ponds. The best part is that the algae used is created in huge volumes by a process that is already in wide spread use.

In an article reported on the Green Progress website, Aquaflow states that they are years ahead of original estimates regarding when this technology could become available. They say that the next step is to attain the capacity to produce one million litres of this algae based biodiesel per year.

So far the company has attracted some moderate attention from private investors. They had announced that their prospectus would be available by Christmas time but I've not seen one yet. My request for one has been sent. When I receive it I'll be sure to let you know.