The wonks at RealClimate are ready to put their money where their mouth is; getting real about the potential of clean coal; and solar thermal adds a big supporter: the U.S. Department of Energy. Start your week with the latest CleanTech news and the Monday Daily Five:

Global Cooling-Wanna Bet?: The pugnacious wonks at RealClimate are fed up with the recent “global cooling” media meme, and are ready to bet there’s nothing to it: literally. They’ll pay out € 2500 if the average temperatures from 2000 to 2010 turn out to be lower than an available 1994-2004 survey. There’s an escape clause in case of some climate-changing natural disaster, such as a major volcanic event or meteorite impact. In the latter case, the bet might be moot, anyway. (RealClimate)

Clean Coal: Black Gold or Fool’s Gold?: WSJ enviro-blogger Keith Johnson serves a reality check to the clean coal crowd. While Greenpeace and others have recently condemned cleaner coal as a “smokescreen,” Johnson points out that the technologies involved have plenty of backing from people with solid green cred. The downside: clean coal is likely to be relatively expensive and inefficient compared to current methods. It’s also a decade or two from being commercially practical. (WSJ.com)

First High-Resolution Wind Map of the U.S. Completed by AWS TrueWind: Looks like the Midwest is the Saudi Arabia of windpower. AWS Truewind has issued the first high resolution maps detailing average wind speeds in the United States. The sweet spot starts in central Texas, spreading northward to Montana and the Dakotas. The survey will assist windpower companies in siting evaluation. (CleanTechnica)

DOE Seeks to Invest up to $60 Million for Advanced Concentrating Solar Power Technologies: Seems that EcoTech Daily isn’t alone in our bullishness regarding solar thermal power. The U.S. Department of Energy is preparing to invest nearly $60 million in the development of concentrated solar power. Unlike photovoltaic generation, solar thermal leaves its collected energy in a heat state until ready to generate electricity. It’s comparatively simple to store heat, giving solar thermal the potential to deliver off-hour base generation capacity. (Clean Edge)

HelioVolt: 12.2% Efficient Thin Film Solar Cells in 6 Minutes: Texas-based Heliovolt says their current thin-film solar technology has passed 12 percent efficiency. Best of all, the company’s manufacturing process is now able to crank out high-efficiency think solar in just six minutes. It’s still vaporware, but Heliovolt promises to get to market late this year or in early 2009.