Monday, March 8, 2010, 4:04pm PST | Modified: July 23, 2010, 11:26 AM

Oregon has just one on top 50 green startup list

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Oregon may not be as green as we'd like.

Despite all of the talk about Oregon’s leadership in green-related industries, the Greentech Media list of the top 50 venture capital-backed startups, released Monday, only includes one Oregon company.

Corvallis-based NuScale, a startup out of Oregon State University that is developing a new modular technology approach for nuclear energy generation, made the Greentech Media list, nestled in among the big bets being placed by investors such as Khosla Ventures, Google and Kleiner Perkins.

NuScale, bolstered by President Barack Obama’s support of nuclear energy, received a vote of confidence from investor Maurice Gunderson, a partner at CMEA Capital and a graduate of Oregon State, who called NuScale’s modular design “game-changing” and its potential market “gargantuan.”

Should Oregonians be disappointed in the paltry showing of the state’s startup activity on the national scene?

No — and yes, according to Wayne Embree, managing partner at Portland-based Reference Capital Management, a sustainability-oriented venture firm.

On the one hand, venture capitalists with money to spend on clean-tech investing are looking for big wins. “They’re hoping to find the Intel of the electric car business,” Embree said. “Something that will be huge immediately.”

By contrast, most of Reference Capital’s investments, including Paneltech of Hoquiam, Wash., and Routeware of Beaverton, are more about the incremental changes that need to be made across industries as businesses move toward more sustainable operations.

But Embree is not without his word of warning for the Oregon market. “There’s still a lot more talk here than there is action.”

Categories for the Greentech list:

• Solar — highlighting companies such as Solyndra and eSolar.

• Smart grid and electric vehicle companies — Better Place and eMeter, among others

• Green building and lighting — Bridgelux, Serious Materials and others

• Biofuels and biochemicals — includes Amyris and Solazyme

• Fuel cells — no surprise that Bloom Energy tops this category

• Transportation — featuring Silicon Valley poster child Tesla Motors

• Other energy — NuScale’s category

• Water and green IT — Miox, Sandforce and others