“As we said when we made our first residential solar investment, we think it makes a lot of sense to use solar photovoltaic (PV) technology—rooftop solar panels—to generate electricity right where you need it at home,” says Google Director of Green Business Operations Rick Needham. “It greens our energy mix by using existing roof space while avoiding transmission constraints, and it can be cheaper than drawing electricity from the traditional grid.”

“Purchasing a solar system is a major home improvement, but the upfront cost has historically been one of the biggest barriers for homeowners,” Needham adds. “Solar installers across the country don’t always have the resources to find financing for customers, or the capital to provide it themselves. And for investors like Google, banks and others, it can be difficult to enter a fragmented solar market with many companies, and get connected to individual homeowners.”

Clean Power Finance has an open platform to connect installers and investors (Google in this case) to help homeowners finance the changes.

“Solar installers sign up with Clean Power Finance to get access to the company’s comprehensive sales solutions, including consumer financing from investors, like the Google fund,” explains Needham. “This enables installers to sell more systems and grow their business. The installer builds the system, the investor (in this case, Google) owns it, and homeowners pay a monthly payment for the system, at a price that’s often less than paying for energy from the grid. Maintenance and performance are taken care of by Clean Power Finance and its network of installers.”

You can see more about Google’s various investments in clean energy here. They include, in addition to the Clean Power Finance investment, $280 in SolarCity (solar for residential rooftops), $10 million in Brightsource (solar), a 37.5% equity stake in Atlantic Wind Connection, $157 million in Alta Wind Energy Center, $100 million into Shepherd’s Flat (wind farm), $38.8 million into Peace Garden wind farms, and about $5 million in Photovoltaics (solar).

Google has had solar panels on its own headquarters since 2007.

When you add that to their previous funding, Airbnb now boasts total funding of $119.8 million. According to them, this new funding will be used to “fuel growth, accelerate the hiring of a world-class team and strengthen the Airbnb community at the local level.” Read: expansion.

Airbnb is a startup that allows people to forgo traditional lodging and stay in privately listed locations when they are traveling. People who want to rent out their properties can list them through the site and once a renter shows interest, the host has total control over whether or not they allow the prospective renters in their space.

According to Tech Crunch, the split looks like $60 million from Andreessen Horowitz, $40 million from DST Global and $5 million from General Catalyst.

Airbnb’s valuation reportedly sits at $1.3 billion.

“Over the past three years, we’ve built a community marketplace for unique properties and brought it into the mainstream and into almost every country on the planet,” said Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of Airbnb. “Today is a watershed moment – both for Airbnb as a company and for our community – that will enable us to touch new markets and expand our vision to make the world’s most interesting and inspiring places accessible to our users.”

Here are some stats that Airbnb dropped today -

• 2 million nights booked, doubling from 1 million just 4 months ago
• Their site receives over 30 million page views a month
• Since May, their number of Social Connections has tripled to 54 million

Airbnb is in over 16,000 cities in 186 countries.

“We’re thrilled to have led this investment round in Airbnb. The company is defining a completely new category in e-commerce – a marketplace for all kinds of spaces, from homes and apartments to tree houses and yachts,” said Jeff Jordan, general partner, Andreessen Horowitz. “Airbnb’s explosive growth and passionate community of users reinforce the uniqueness of what they’re doing, and in the same way eBay redefined online shopping, Airbnb is redefining the way the world thinks about accommodations.”

In May, Ashton Kutcher announced that he had invested in the company. Airbnb said that he had also joined as a “strategic adviser.”

In April, Square received an investment from Visa. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company is now valued at $1 billion.

This new round comes from a group of investors led by led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Marry Meeker of Kleiner Perkins is also now a Square Board member.

Last month, Square unveiled Card Case, an ambitious project aimed at consumers as a way to set up tabs with merchants, and implement automatic payments with their mobile devices. The company calls it “your friendly neighborhood way to pay.”

Along with this, came Square Register for merchants, which is a redux of the Square iPad app, allowing them to send customers Card Case links. These features should be key in Square’s strategy to compete with a growing number of potential major players in the mobile payments space, including PayPal, and the forthcoming Google Wallet.

We’re still wondering if Twitter might get into this space with Dorsey’s obvious experience and knowledge of the field, and a major boost to Twitter-as-an-identity soon to come with the release of Apple’s iOS, which will see tight integration with Twitter throughout the OS and its apps.

Airbnb is an online company that provides travelers the opportunity to ditch the hotel and stay in privately listed locations, from basic to extravagant. Users list their properties for rent and once travelers begin requesting their space, hosts have complete control on who they approve or deny. There is also a review system, for both host and lodger, built into the site. Airbnb has listings in over 8,000 cities and 166 countries across the world. They recently said that over 1.5 million nights have been booked using their service.

Airbnb announced the new partnership on their blog:

That’s right. It’s official. Ashton Kutcher – the man whose social media savvy made him a Twitter force to be reckoned with – has announced that he has made a significant investment in Airbnb and will be joining the team as a strategic advisor. The actor and angel investor’s love of science and technology is nothing new, but he has taken a fascination with tech to new heights with his avid approach to brand marketing and social media.

With Ashton on board, we’ll be working together to take our community engagement to the next level and expand our international presence to reach more people from different cultures all over the world. It’s an exciting time for us.

And if you’re looking to expand in the social market, you could pick worse guys to help you than Kutcher. His Twitter prowess is of legend, holding sway over nearly 7 million followers. Earlier this week he announced his own Twitter desktop app, powered by UberMedia called A+. The app carries some unique features but also allows Kutcher to promote his own projects and interests. It doesn’t take a professional prognosticator to see Airbnb integrated into his new Twitter app sometime in the near future.

Here’s what Kutcher said about Airbnb, as quoted in the NY Times:

“It’s moving social trust into commerce. Your home is a very private place, so building trust around turning that into a consumer offering is unlike any other site.”

Kutcher just signed a one-year contract to replace Charlie Sheen on Two and a Half Men, but it seems that he is devoting a lot of attention to the tech community these days. Kutcher has also invested in Flipboard and Path, among others.

Utah-based Adaptive Computing is a provider of intelligent automation software for high- performance computing (HPC), data center and cloud environments. Intel Capital says Adaptive Computing products manage the world’s largest computing installations and are the preferred intelligent automation solutions for the leading global cloud, HPC and data center vendors. Intel Capital’s investment will be used to expand the company’s global cloud computing business.

Ciranova provides electronic design software for "mixed analog-digital" integrated circuits in advanced semiconductor processes. Its products are used by semiconductor companies developing large-scale system-on-chip (SoC) ICs for consumer and communications devices such as mobile internet, broadband access, and HD multimedia. The investment will be used primarily to expand the company’s sales and customer support operations.

Joyent is a provider of infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS), and runs a major public cloud infrastructure. The investment from Intel will be used to expand international operations and invest in open-source Node.JS and other technologies in the company’s core PaaS cloud offering. Intel Capital has invested in the company in the past as well. 

Finally, Nexant provides intelligent grid software and clean energy solutions, which are used by Fortune 500 companies, utilities, transmission and distribution system operators, chemical and petroleum majors, financial institutions, government agencies and development banks. Intel’s investment will be used to expand the company’s software and services presence in IT and data center efficiency. 

"A culture of investment is essential to keeping the U.S. on the leading edge of technology innovation and stimulating economic activity," said Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital and Intel executive vice president. "The investments in Adaptive Computing, Ciranova, Joyent and Nexant are the latest examples of Intel Capital’s commitment to advance the next technological breakthroughs by supporting innovation across a variety of sectors from chip design to cleantech to the cloud."

Intel Capital has invested over $9.5 billion in over 1,050 companies in 47 countries.

The company says that announcement comes as AT&T continues to make progress on multiyear commitments for important environmental, education and volunteerism programs that help strengthen communities and stimulate economic growth.

AT&T has $565 million planned to invest in 15,000 alternative fuel vehicles through 2018. The company says its working to help find solutions to the U.S. high school dropout crisis through AT&T Aspire, which is a $100 million program aimed at improving high school retention rates. AT&T also says its employees and retirees contributed 8.5 million hours of time in their communities. 

"Our debut on the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index signals our belief that a company’s long-term growth is linked to the soundness of its business practices and to the health of its employees, its community and its world," said Charlene Lake, senior vice president of public affairs and chief sustainability officer, AT&T. "We know our stakeholders have high expectations of AT&T as a corporate citizen. While we continue to learn and make progress on this journey, we take pride in being recognized for the steps we’ve taken."  

The full list of companies in on the index can be found here.

This fund will provide a major source of funding for the construction and operation of 480 affordable rental housing units for low income families and senior citizens in seven communities throughout the West and Midwest, U.S. Bank says.

"In recent years there has been a void in affordable housing investment," said Google Vice President and Treasurer Brent Callinicos. "Our investment with USBCDC allows us to further our goal of providing relief to people who otherwise may not have access to quality housing."

The announcement of the fund notes that this is an expansion beyond traditional investors in affordable housing, such as banks and insurance companies. 

"We’re proud to align with Google in a shared commitment to affordable housing," said Larry Baerveldt, director of tax credit syndications for USBCDC. "The expansion of the affordable housing investor base beyond traditional investors is an exciting development for the industry and comes at an important time. This investment by Google, together with the efforts of our strong developer partners, will result in completion of nearly 500 new affordable rental housing units for low income families and senior citizens."

The fund includes housing developments in the Midwest and California. Many of the complexes will range from one to four bedroom apartments with shared laundry facilities and "community gathering areas".

"The two big names behind Andreessen Horowitz – Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz – are each legends in Silicon Valley," says Foursquare Founder and CEO Dennis Crowley. "They know better than anyone how to transform startups into successful organizations. As we continue to rapidly expand to take advantage of the opportunities in front of us, Ben and Marc’s expertise in growing companies will be invaluable."

Horowitz says on his blog that his company invested in Foursquare for three main reasons: a great Founder/CEO, a killer product, and a gigantic market.

There’s no question that the market for what Foursquare offers is heating up. However, so is the competition. Clearly Foursquare is leading the way right now, at least in name recognition and press coverage, but the market is going to continue to be flooded with various check-in offerings, and it may be hard for one service to truly dominate.

Also consider that Twitter now has its Places feature in place, and Facebook will be coming out with its own location features any time. It will be interesting to see how these impact the future of services like Foursquare.

Andreessen serves on the boards of both eBay and Facebook, and is a chairman of the board of Ning, which he also co-founded. His biggest claim to fame was co-founding Netscape.

Horowitz also has background with Netscape. There he ran several product divisions. He co-founded LoudCloud with Andreessen. This became Opsware, which was later acquired by HP. Horowitz served as vice president and general manager of HP’s Business Technology Organization Unit.

The new firm will focus on investments within the range of $50 thousand to $50 million. The duo also announced its first round of funding at $300 million aimed at entrepreneurs, products, and companies in the tech industry.

"Innovation is thriving despite the current economic climate," says Andreessen. "Ben and I are huge supporters of entrepreneurs and want to help turn today’s sparks of brilliance into the next big thing."

"We see venture investing as a company-specific exercise," says Horowitz. "Therefore, we are looking for the best entrepreneurs and companies regardless of stage."

Andreesen outlines some things they are looking for out of entrepreneurs and companies on his blog. They want motivated entrepreneurs, technical founders, founders that intend to be CEOs, and founders that understand their products.

The firm is looking to invest in categories like consumer Internet, business Internet, mobile software/services, software-powered consumer electronics, infrastructure and apps software, networking, storage, and databases.

The firm is NOT looking to invest in "clean", "green", energy, transportation, life sciences (biotech, drug design, medical devices), nanotech, movie production companies, consumer retail, electric cars, rocket ships, space elevators.

If you are unfamiliar with SynthaSite, it’s a do-it-yourself website creation tool with free hosting that lets users utilize drag and drop technology to easily create eCommerce sites powered by PayPal. Tools like this are useful for businesses looking to get online without a lot of technical know-how.

"In a recession with VC funding down 30% in Q408 and tech recording the lowest investment since ‘98, SynthaSite’s initial investors have buttressed its original $5m series A round, demonstrating their commitment to exponentially grow SynthaSite’s 1 million user base," a representative for SynthaSite tells WebProNews.

“We believe in providing the best possible experience for everyday people building Web sites. On top of that foundation, we have built a very scalable business model focused on generating revenue via value added services and partner relationships. Reinet shares our vision and we appreciate their strong support,” says SynthaSite CEO Vinny Lingham.

SynthaSite has recently launched a number of new features including an enhanced user interface, 60,000+ widgets, domain registration, shopping cart features and a blogging platform. Reinet’s executive Chairman Johann Rupert thinks SynthaSite is maturing according to plan.