Solar power could be on the brink of economic breakthrough, reaching investment levels of €70 billion in 2015, according to a major study out this week. The report, Solar Generation 6, by the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) and Greenpeace International estimates that photovoltics could meet 12% of European demand by 2020 and up to 9% of the world’s demand by 2030.

Will electric car charging networks have the type of roaming commonly found between cell phone providers? If Nokia Siemens Networks– a joint venture between the European networking giants — has anything to say about it, in Europe they will. This week at Mobile World Congress (MWC), an annual telecom conference in Barcelona, Nokia Siemens and a German public utility group called Smartlab announced they are developing an authentication and authorization service to enable electric vehicle drivers to “roam” when charging up via various service providers.

The UK government has formally announced that it intends to set up a new independent statutory body to regulate nuclear power in the UK, taking over regulatory functions currently performed under the auspices of two different bodies.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide a $36.8m loan for a privately owned wind farm in Pakistan. The loan will be used by Turkish energy firm Zorlu Enerji Electrik Uretim to install wind turbines in the southern Sindh province. The wind project will cost $147m with 30% financed through equity provided by Zorlu Enerji.

Nga cho biết nước này sẵn sàng hỗ trợ Indonesia xây dựng nhà máy điện nguyên tử của mình. Trong cuộc họp báo hồi thứ ba tuần trước, đại sứ Nga ở Indonesia, ông Alexander Ivanov nói rằng tương lai của việc xây dựng nhà máy điện hạt nhân ở Indonesia là một trong số những vấn đề mà Nga sẵn sàng mang ra thảo luận tại Diễn đàn khu vực ASEAN (ARF) trong năm nay.

Another China's fully self-developed No. 1 unit reactor pressure vessel, projected by Fuqing Nuclear Power Plant and manufactured by China First Heavy Industries (CFHI) recently passed a test successfully.

Drayson Racing and Aston University have announced a collaboration to develop and demonstrate low carbon automotive technologies. The partnership will investigate 'second generation' biofuels produced from waste biomass such as straw, wood and sewage sludge to create high performance cars with reduced CO2 emissions.

A researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has invented a method of making high-temperature superconducting (HTS) cables that are thinner and more flexible than demonstration HTS cables now installed in the electric power grid while carrying the same or more current. The compact cables could be used in the electric grid as well as scientific and medical equipment and may enable HTS power transmission for military applications.

Russia has said it was ready to provide Indonesia with assistance to build its own nuclear power plant. Russian Ambassador to Indonesia Alexander Ivanov said in a press conference Tuesday that the possibility of building a nuclear plant in Indonesia was one of many issues Russia was willing to discuss in the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) later this year.

Environmentalists have long complained that so long as diesel or gasoline remains relatively inexpensive, there is little incentive to come up with alternative, greener energies for transportation. But the price of oil and gasoline isn't the only reason to go green. The United States Navy says they are making a tactical decision to find cleaner alternatives. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus says that by 2012, the military branch plans to demonstrate a carrier strike group that uses alternative fuels.

Bằng cách giải quyết cả 2 vấn đề này, đồng thời đạt được những hiệu quả không ngờ, Solar Synergy đã giành vị trí số 1 trong cuộc thi ý tưởng công nghệ Isarel mở rộng IDEAS tại Viện kinh tế và môi trường thuộc Đại học Tel Aviv tháng 11 vừa qua. Những nhà tài trợ của cuộc thi quốc tế này muốn tìm kiếm, tài trợ và thúc đẩy phát triển các ý tưởng liên quan tới khủng hoảng kinh tế, môi trường và năng lượng.

Nhóm tác giả gồm Lê Quốc Bảo, Lê Quốc Anh, Bùi Thanh Tùng, Hà Sơn Trí - khoa kỹ thuật xây dựng, Trường đại học bách khoa TP.HCM, đã nghiên cứu thành công cấu kiện panel tường và panel sàn làm từ bê tông nhẹ chất lượng cao tạo rỗng bằng hạt EPS (expanded polystyrene beads) dùng cho công trình xây dựng.

Một công ty xi măng ở Tuy-ni-di mới đây đã ký một hợp đồng thỏa thuận với Clean Development Projects Limited, một công ty có trụ sở ở Luân Đôn chuyên về xúc tiến và tạo điều kiện thuận lợi cho sự bền vững về năng lượng, để trồng một đồn điền cây năng lượng sinh học rộng 500.000ha ở Tuy-ni-di.

France’s solar-panel imports surged last year as developers relied mostly on foreign manufacturers to supply a boom in renewable-energy projects, Environment Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said. French customs figures show the deficit in favor of solar panel imports widened to 1.5 billion euros ($2.1 billion) in 2010 compared with 800 million euros the previous year, she said at a conference in Paris.

Italy is one of the key producers of biodiesel in the EU. However the nation's output capacity has been hurt due to a rise in the importation of cheaper biodiesel. The biofuel is most commonly made from palm oil and rapeseed oil in Italy, however it is thought that the imported fuel can cost less than these feedstocks.

The European Summit dedicated to energy and innovation has emphasised the importance of energy savings for the climate, as well as for competitiveness, jobs and energy security. The cross-sectoral Coalition for Energy Savings welcomes European leaders’ focus on energy efficiency, but warns that there is not enough being done to get us on track to meet the 20% energy efficiency target by 2020.

Award winning Israeli company Solaris Synergy has designed solar energy grids that can float on water, reducing energy production costs, and preventing water loss. Generating energy from the sun would be more practical if not for two huge drawbacks: The expense of the silicon material that converts light to electricity, and the large tracts of land needed for solar farms.

National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a one-year grant of $80,000 to Paul J. Dauenhauer who works as an assistant professor at the Amherst located University of Massachusetts. Being a chemical engineer, Dauenhauer will utilize the award to conduct basic research on the thermal degradation of woody biomass during pyrolysis.

The global economic recovery will fuel ever greater demand for oil this year, with higher fuel prices expected to add a 15 percent burden on advanced economies, the IEA warned on Thursday. "Under current assumptions for global GDP, oil price and oil demand, the global oil burden could rise to 4.7 percent in 2011, getting close to levels that have coincided in the past with a marked economic slowdown," the International Energy Agency said in its latest monthly Oil Market Report.

People were skeptical when the idea was first floated about a year ago, says Nick Getzen, spokesman for The Jobs Project, which is trying to create renewable energy job opportunities in West Virginia and Kentucky. In the southern coalfields, he says, people have only ever gotten electricity one way – from coal-fired power plants.