Where are John and Todd?

A clean tech job boom? A report issued this week by Clean Edge and Climate Solutions indicates that as many as 63,000 jobs could be created in the clean tech sector in Washington and Oregon by 2025, including 22,560 in solar panel manufacturing, 6,000 in wind, 16,834 in green building design services and 7,000 in smart grid technologies. More from earth2tech, which notes that Oregon’s Business Energy Tax Credit could help boost economic development in the clean tech sector.

From biotech to clean tech: BusinessWeek offers this interesting read on how entrepreneurs, scientists and venture capitalists are shifting focus away from biotechnology and into clean tech. One of the more notable examples of this development in the Seattle area is Targeted Growth, a plant science company that started with technology from the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

OVP and Tigo Energy: This deal certain flew under my radar earlier this summer.  OVP Venture Partners was among the investors in the $6 million round for Los Gatos, Calif.-based solar startup Tigo Energy. OVP’s Chad Waite told me recently that they are spending a lot of time working on deals in the clean tech arena, with Tigo one of the latest examples.

Wetpaint injects new sites: Wetpaint, the Seattle wiki creator that scored $25 million in venture funding in May, says that publishers who are using the company’s new Injected product are experiencing 10 percent to 50 percent growth in search engine referral traffic. Companies using the product, which adds user generated content tools to Web sites, include Flixster, NuWire Investor, Freewebs, IGN and CoolChase.

Yahoo and Marchex? The Motley Fool says that Yahoo would be better off buying Seattle-based Marchex — owner of more than 200,000 domain names — than AOL. It could be a good time to buy, with Marchex’s stock plunging in recent days. Marchex now has a market value of about $320 million.

Private equity funds rise: Despite the financial meltdown, private equity firms continue to raise fresh capita. A report released today from Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst says that 264 funds raised a total of $222 billion dollars during the first three quarters of the year. That compares to 298 funds that raised $200 billion during the same period last year. Distressed buyout firms like Oaktree Capital Management are leading the charge in the private equity sector, though venture capital firms raised $19.7 billion during the first three quarters. That’s up three percent.

– John Cook, johnharoldcook@gmail.com