E2 Round-up: Reid tries to generate a different kind of heat, Soros on climate investing, China rises in solar market

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has created some heat on his own recently, but he came to New York on Thursday to praise geothermal energy.

Reid told attendees at a geothermal industry conference there that he pledged to boost geothermal energy in a climate change bill by adding research dollars and lucrative tax breaks, in the Las Vegas Review Journal.

George Soros said investments in low-carbon technologies won’t be profitable unless the United States puts a cap on carbon with a climate bill, in Bloomberg. Soros is putting his money where his mouth is. He pledges to invest $1 billion in clean energy technology.

One type of clean-energy technology that gets a lot of attention in the press is the battery-powered car. But Toyota executive doesn’t offer a very optimistic picture about the capabilities of ion-lithium batteries in the near-term anyway, in the New York Times.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), meanwhile, sees the Senate acting quickly to pass a bill to provide more grants to electric car development, in the Detroit Free Press.

The hacking of Google’s computers in China and the company’s subsequent threat to close shop there has raised tensions. But the New York Times’ Green Inc. blog highlights a new report that shows China is playing a bigger role in the solar industry here in the United States. 

China’s share of the California solar market has risen to 46 percent, from 2 percent, in the last three years.