California here I come. 2 days after our Ecosummit Lounge I will hop on a plane to San Francisco. My target is the Cleantech paradise that Tony Perkins, Founder of AlwaysOn, unites at Going Green Silicon Valley 2011 which takes place on 27-28 September in San Francisco. Having joined Going Green East in March 2010 in Boston, I know what to expect: The best Cleantech VCs and startups the West Coast has on offer, everybody totally wired and inspired to save the world, grow disruptive companies and make big returns on investment.

I look forward to meeting the leading US Cleantech VCs that have huge portfolios of promising smart green startups. Vinod Khosla, mastermind of Khosla Ventures, is one of them. Vinod is backing Calera that converts Carbon Dioxide (CO2) into pretty useful carbonates such as cement and GreatPoint Energy that creates Bluegas (clean natural gas) from coal or biomass using catalytic hydromethanation.

Another smart green VC is Steve Jurvetson of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Steve is backing the CSP super play BrightSource Energy, green chemistry poster child Genomatica and PV contracting übercompany Solar City. Steve also sits on the Board of Tesla.

Smart green startups presenting at Going Green Silicon Valley 2011 include Redwood Systems that provides smart energy efficient lighting systems and enjoys Google and Volkswagen as clients, the smart green server manufacturer SeaMicro that packs 768 cores into one $237K-hypergadget for data centre admins as well as Opower which is backed by Kleiner Perkins and operates the biggest social energy saving network in the US.

It was a good idea to order new Moo business cards just in time before jumping into the Cleantech paradise.

Tags: AlwaysOn, BrightSource, Calera, Cleantech, Cleantech Startup, Cleantech VC, DFJ, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Ecosummit Lounge, Genomatica, Going Green, Going Green Silicon Valley 2011, GreatPoint Energy, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, KPCB, Moo, Opower, San Francisco, SeaMicro, Smart Green Economy, Smart Green Startup, Smart Green VC, Solar City, Steve Jurvestson, Tesla, Tony Perkins, Vinod Khosla