Ireland has been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons, starring in a soap opera of EU intrigue and enforced bank bailouts. In Dublin recently for the first time in years, I heard some good news in the midst of all the gloom. The country has a head start on most of the world in capitalizing on one of its few plentiful resources: renewable energy.

Men covered in clothing from head-to-toe and wearing protective breathing masks have been wandering the premises of some Tybee Island city buildings. But the buildings - which include city hall, the fire department's administrative office and the YMCA - have not been contaminated by some dangerous toxin.

Quận Snohomish cam kết cắt giảm 10% mức tiêu thu năng lượng tại các tòa nhà, xưởng sản xuất...... Đây là một phần của chiến dịch “Energy Challenge” của Cơ quan phát triển Quy hoạch PUD tại Snohomish. Có hơn 150 doanh nghiệp địa phương và gần 3,000 hộ gia đình tham gia vào dự án này, cam kết cắt giảm đáng kể lượng tiêu thụ năng lượng. Mục tiêu là tiết kiệm tiền và cắt giảm khí nhà kính, đồng thời với hoạt động cắt giảm toàn bộ nhu cầu cung cấp điện của PUD.

Nghiên cứu chung của Chương trình Môi trường LHQ (UNEP), Quỹ Môi trường Toàn cầu (GEF) và các nhà chế tạo phương tiện phát sáng trên toàn cầu, công bố ngày 1/12, đã khẳng định thế giới sẽ giảm được 2% nhu cầu điện thắp sáng, nếu chuyển sang thị trường các loại đèn tiết kiệm năng lượng.

The reason for this situation is that investors do not pay attention to energy conservation methods and their advantages to the socio-economic development. According to the architect Nguyen Tan Van, the chairman of the Vietnam Architect Association, we are not clearly aware of “green architecture” benefits. Therefore, when building, investors do not take advantages of natural conditions and the ancestors’ experiences in the field of construction in tropical region. We need to create a friendlier architecture.

Clean Currents will partner with Solar Cookers International to purchase and distribute the solar cookers, which will address the locals’ basic needs in boiling water and cooking food. Residents in the mid-Atlantic region who will purchase wind power off the grid can send solar cooking kits to locals in Haiti as Christmas gifts through Clean Current’s annual holiday giving campaign.

As countries such as China, the United States and Germany plow billions of tax dollars into renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, Canadian energy companies say the federal government urgently needs to develop a national strategy to grab a piece of the global clean-energy market, which attracted $162 billion US in investment last year.

After successes of peanut sowing machine and rubber latex harvesting machine, Le Thanh Binh always wants to have more inventions to contribute to the country’s development. Recently, he successfully produced a sea wave power electricity generator. This machine took part in the Vietnam Exhibition on Technologies and Equipment 2010 held in Quang Ninh Province.

Businesses can save upto 30 per cent in power cost and carbon emission by moving to the internet based-cloud technology, a Microsoft study today said. "Businesses that choose to run business applications in the cloud can help reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions by a net 30 per cent or more versus running those same applications on their own infrastructure," Microsoft India Director (Server Business) Pallavi Kathuria told PTI.

One of my favorite science fiction ideas is in a short story called Light of Other Days about something called “slow glass.” Light took decades to pass through. In this story, the idea was that people could buy glass windows that took so long for the light to pass through, that they could nostalgically watch long gone scenes, such as their children playing outside as toddlers long after they had gone off to college, or green fields with horses where now ugly cities grew.

Snohomish County is pledging to cut energy use at its facilities by 10 percent as part of a Snohomish County PUD’s “Energy Challenge” campaign. The county is joining more than 150 local businesses and nearly 3,000 residential utility customers who have vowed to make comparable energy cuts. The goal is to save money and cut greenhouse gases, while reducing overall demand on the PUD’s energy supply.

While some members of Congress seem to think that spending federal dollars on local projects is a bad thing, hundreds of farmers and rural business owners are eagerly taking the opportunity to improve their operations through federal clean energy loans and grants totalling more than $30 million. The funds, administered through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will pay for 516 projects that install renewable energy equipment and improve energy efficiency at agricultural operations.

Saint-Gobain, nhà sản xuất kính và vật liệu xây dựng của Pháp vừ công bố sẽ đầu tư 80 triệu đôla vào SAGE Electrochromics để sản xuất kính tiết kiệm năng lượng. Tập đoàn này sẽ tập trung vào việc sản xuất kính động lực có thể đổi màu một cách điện từ học và có thể bán được trên thị trường rộng lớn.

French glass and construction material manufacturer Saint-Gobain has announced an $80 million investment in SAGE Electrochromics to make energy saving glass. The partnership will focus on making electronically tintable ‘dynamic glass’ affordable for the mass market.

On November 12, the Specialized Science and Technology Council of Soc Trang Province held a meeting to assess the draft of a project aiming to build an improved model of biogas plants to generate power for use by livestock breeding farms in Chau Thanh District. This project is presided over by the Soc Trang Center for Science and Technology Application and headed by engineer Duong Hoang Van, the deputy director of the center’s Technical Department.

PetroVietnam Gas Corporation (PV Gas), the biggest liquid gas supplier in Vietnam intends to sell 15-20 percent of its shares to foreign investors to earn US$600 million. Chitrapongse Kwangsukstith, the chairman of PTT International Company Limited, a member of PTT Corporation in Thailand, said that his company pays a special attention to buying share of PV Gas.

EnerNoc EfficiencySmart Energy Management Software cuts energy costs by 15% without undertaking any efficiency projects. EnerNoc, a well-established efficiency software company, released a new line of energy management software yesterday that the company's Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales, Gregg Dixon, claims can help companies cut their energy costs by 15% without undertaking any efficiency projects.

The year of 2010 is considered an important year in the development of Petro Vietnam in particular and of the entire petroleum industry in general.Besides ensuring the completion of the production plan of the year, the Company is also facing challenges in implementing targets in the final year of the five year plan 2006-2010 with volatile external conditions.

Compressed natural gas technology first appeared in Vietnam with the introduction of CNG natural gas plant in Phu My I Industrial Zone, Tan Thanh district, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, which began operation in late August 2008. In Nay 2010, to limit environmental pollution and reduce climate change, for the clean and green environment, Vietnam Oil and Gas Group of issued Resolution No. 2958/NQ-DKVN approving the conversion and use of CNG fuel for cars of all members of the group in the areas of HCM city and Ba Ria-Vung Tau (about 600 vehicles).

Tiết lộ về báo cáo Năng lượng 2020, Ông Guenther Oettinger, thành viên Hội đồng năng lượng đã kêu gọi khoản đầu tư 1nghìn tỉ Euro cho “Âu hóa chính sách năng lượng”. Số tiền này có thể lấy từ khoản đóng thuế hoặc từ chính các công ty năng lượng. EU hi vọng rằng việc chia sẻ thị trường sẽ bảo vệ từng quốc gia thành viên khỏi những tranh cãi với các nhà cung cấp như Liên Bang Nga.