The cleantech VC downturn isn’t all doom and gloom. That is, if you’re developing and producing the advanced battery technologies and fuel cells.

Energy storage, it seems, is leading a venture-capital rebound. That may come as a surprise, given that batteries and fuel cells have a history of being capital-intensive investments. It often takes years of research and development to bring new energy-storage products to the market, with far more examples of delays and failures than successes.

Still, advanced-battery and fuel-cell startups raked in $126 million in the first three months of this year, nearly quadruple the $34 million raised in the fourth quarter and 12.5 percent more than the $112 million invested in the first quarter of last year, according to the Cleantech Group.

And recent funding wins by Lilliputian Systems ($28 million) and A123 Systems ($69 million) seem to be keeping that trend alive.

Source: Green Inc. Blog – The New York Times