Edano said, ‘We will create eco-towns that are fully equipped with district heating utilising plant matter and biomass from the region and cultivate features of communities that thoroughly foster public welfare. We will proceed by moving forward with the world’s most advanced reconstruction plan, with a vision of going beyond mere restoration to the previous state and instead create a truly marvelous Tohoku region and indeed a marvelous Japan.’

“Algae has been a hot topic of biofuel discussions recently, but no one has taken such a detailed look at how much America could make – and how much water and land it would require — until now,” said Mark Wigmosta, lead author and a PNNL hydrologist. “This research provides the groundwork and initial estimates needed to better inform renewable energy decisions.”

In recent times, Gia Lai Power Company has taken many measures in propagating the economic and effective use of electricity, thus saving not only an energy source for the country but also expenses for agencies, businesses and households. Thereby Gia Lai Power Company has made a good use of the electric energy source allocated for production and social-economic development in the province, contributing significantly to the electric energy saving movement.

100% of the barracks and households in Truong Sa District (The Spratly - Khanh Hoa Province) can now use electric energy for their work and life, with the continuous supply for 24 hours a day. The whole district is now under television and telephone coverages. It is special that all the electric energy used in this island district is produced from wind power and solar energy. So far, Truong Sa has been the first district in the country to use clean energy sources.

Sa Giang Import Export JSC (Sa Dec Industrial Zone, Dong Thap) is specialized in producing shrimp chips which have been very familiar to domestic consumers. Since late 2010, as part of the project "Promoting energy conservation in small and medium enterprises", the company has implemented energy audit for the purpose of raising the efficiency of energy use.

Deputy Prime Minister confirmed this would be an important legal basis for investors to implement projects exploiting potential renewable energy sources, especially a series of wind power projects in the South Central Province, on islands and in remote areas. He also signaled the views and encouragement on increasing the promotion of renewable energy exploitation and utilization to meet the demand of national energy balance and sustainable development at present.

The study, published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), comes on the heels of federal initiatives to wean the United States off fossil fuels by mandating significant increases in ethanol production. The Department of Agriculture forecasts that by 2018, more than one-third of the country's corn harvest will be used to produce ethanol.

Under a memorandum of understanding signed by Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Kim Carr in Berlin last week the ASI and Germany’s Deutches Zentrum für Luft und Raumfahrt (DLR) will collaborate to accelerate technologies aimed at enabling solar energy to become a sustainable energy source globally.

French scientists are looking at the possibility of submerging small nuclear power plants deep underwater to supply low-cost energy to isolated countries or islands that cannot afford a major inland atomic plant. France pioneered the mass development of nuclear power stations in the 1970s and now sees a possible use in the industry for technology adapted from nuclear submarines, a top engineer said.

By combining copper, zinc, tin, and sulphur or selenium, all abundant and low cost elements, the University of Luxembourg has produced a solar cell with 6.1 % efficiency. The Laboratory for Photovoltaics of the University of Luxembourg has developed an improved preparation process for kesterite solar cells, which resulted in a new European record efficiency of 6.1 percent.

Dubbed the ‘Solar Soldier’ project the two-year research and development mission aims to produce a power pack where the energy is gathered from a combination of solar cells and thermoelectric devices. The team of approximately 15 scientists and researchers from Glasgow, Loughborough, Strathclyde, Leeds, Reading and Brunel University will also work on investigating ways of managing, storing and using heat produced by the system.

Under the plan, the Economics Ministry would use its fast-track powers to expedite the approval process for building transmission routes, among other planned measures. To date, one of the main obstacles of upgrading Germany’s network to carry energy generated by solar and wind has been the country’s patchwork approval process.

Currently, each day, Ninh Hoa Sugar Joint Stock Company processes 3,000 tons of sugar cane without using grid power. The entire electricity needs are met by the thermal electric unit with the capacity of 6 MW, the fuel for boiler is bagasse. From Dec 2010, the company installed one more bagasse generator with the capacity of 3 MW.

With strong propagation, awareness of people and power users has improved considerably; in the last 3 months, Ho Chi Minh City has saved 6.9 million kWh of electricity, 30% higher than same period of 2010. According to Mr. Nguyen Van Ly, Deputy General Director of HCM City Power Corporation, amid difficulties in the current power supply, promoting energy saving is one of the most positive solutions.

Vietnam Electricity Group has assigned Power Corporations to direct power companies to perform power supply in April 2011 under the motto of no power reduction. Besides, EVN has required Power Corporations to continue to closely monitor the daily load situation, report to the Group to assess the situation of power supply in April and report to the Ministry of Industry and Trade on power supply plans in May and June 2011.

In the quest for the perfect biofuel, various companies and government agencies are racing to uncover the “magic bullet” that will allow for the production of inexpensive and energy efficient biofuels. Algae, yeasts and bacteria have all been playing their part in transforming various feedstocks and even CO2 into usable biofuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel.

The Japanese government is poised to increase the incentives available to a wide range of clean energy technologies through a revamp of the country's feed-in tariff scheme, which should come into effect from next year. According to Reuters' reports, a government advisory panel today approved a set of proposals that will significantly extend the current solar incentives regime to cover other forms of energy, including wind, small-size hydro, biomass and geothermal energy.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is one of the most technologically advanced and oil rich countries in the Middle East; however, oil is not enough to meet the country’s expected energy demand in coming decades. In preparation, the UAE is following suit with neighboring Saudi Arabia and pursuing a nuclear power program of their own, with Australia as yellow cake uranium supplier of choice.

German Environment Minister Norbert Rottgen (C) arrives for a crisis meeting on biofuel Super E10 as German federal government meets with the chiefs of the oil industry for talks on why German motorists are refusing to fill their cars with a new ‘eco-friendly’ petrol, Berlin, Germany.

The second generator of Son La hydropower plant on Tuesday successfully started its test operation, paving the way for its official commissioning with a capacity of 400MW on April 20. With the forthcoming operation of Generator 2, Son La will supply some 20 million kilowatt hours of power for the national grid a day to ease the power shortage for the country in this dry season, said the management board of Son La plant.