The financial turmoil of the past few years has made venture capital financing hard to come by, but clean technology is still raking it in. In this past quarter, cleantech companies raised more than $1.1 billion, according to Ernst & Young. That's a huge jump — 73 percent — from last year.

Most of the money's going to big projects, like energy storage and energy production. As the government continues to freak out about its own involvement with innovative cleantech companies, it's a good sign that the private sector still has enough faith in renewable energy to put money into it.