Who's the richest cleantech investor of them all?

The UK's Sunday Times unveiled its inaugural list of the richest 100 investors who are putting money into clean technologies, cleantech businesses and environmental causes.

No surprises up top, with Warren Buffett and Bill Gates getting first and second positions, respectively.

In September, Buffett's MidAmerican Energy Holdings paid $230 million for a 9.89 percent stake in Shenzhen, China-based BYD (HK: 1211) (see Warren Buffett goes electric and China's BYD sells first mass-produced plug-in cars).

Also in September, Gates joined a Series B round of financing for San Diego algae to biofuel developer Sapphire Energy (see Bill Gates gets slimed). His Cascade Investments formed a JV with PNM Resources called EnergyCo, and Gates previously invested in ethanol producer Pacific Ethanol (see More money for your biofuel co.? Sure!).

The No. 6 wealthiest investor was New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has made cleantech a priority for the Big Apple (see NYC puts out call for renewable power).

Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page tied at No. 10. Both have invested in electric carmaker Tesla Motors (see Google creates renewable R&D group and Tesla's new convertible).

And natural-gas and wind advocate T. Boone Pickens made the list at No. 25 (see Could Obama fire up CNG cars? and Wind power going strong down south).

In all, the top 100 are worth £267 billion ($373 billion), with each worth at least £200 million ($279 million).

The article noted a few financing trends related to geography:

The Chinese rich on our list are definitely about mass production of green technologies. ... The 17 Chinese tycoons in the Top 100 are concentrated at the bottom end of the list and they are almost exclusively involved in solar and electric-car technology.

American money may be chasing smarter and greener technologies. ... America’s wealthy ... are also spending their fortunes on direct environmental activism.

There is little evidence of any appetite among Britain’s super-rich for this approach. Firmly rooted in property, finance or retailing, they have little time or surplus wealth for anything other than lip service to green issues.

The seven German tycoons are largely involved in wind turbines and the like. This is a bespoke market — meat and drink to the German industrial sector. German entrepreneurs who have made their fortunes elsewhere are also moving into green technology in a serious way, defying the prevailing economic gloom.

Here are the top ten cleantech investors, according to the Sunday Times:

1. Warren Buffett, wind power
2. Bill Gates, Renewable fuel
3. Ingvar Kamprad, renewable energy
4. Marcel Brenninkmeijer, natural power (see 2007 Cleantech Awards recipients)
5. Mukesh Ambani, life sciences
6. Michael Bloomberg, natural energy
7. Michael Otto, green products
8. Paul Allen, natural fuels
9. Donald Bren, environmental research
10. (tie) Sergey Brin, green energy, and Larry Page, green energy

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