News

The dramatic growth in wind turbines around the British Isles may lead to huge spikes in power prices by 2030 and threaten the viability of backup plants needed for calm periods, according to Poyry Energy Consulting.

Global investment in clean energy and climate-friendly technologies leapt in the last three months but full-year levels won't recover until 2010 or 2011, analysts said on Wednesday.

Falling energy demand and more expensive debt have hurt large renewable projects for example in wind and solar power. Recession has cut risk appetite, curbing funding for clean technology start-ups.

In recent years the legion of supporters of renewable energy has expanded to include labor unions concerned about jobs, as well as national security and energy independence experts such as George Schultz and James Woolsey.

Bangladesh Solar Energy Society placed yesterday a 14-point proposal including easy term loan for self-financed renewable energy projects before the government for the expansion of the sector amid increasing power crisis.

Secretary of the society Prof Saiful Haque placed the proposals at a press conference at Renewable Energy Research Centre at Dhaka University.

India said on Tuesday it was working with Pakistan to evolve a common stance on the issue of climate change at international level.

Federal Minister for Water and Power, Raja Pervez Ashraf has said Pakistan has set high targets for itself such as renewable energies including 5 percent of the electricity generation on grid by year 2030, and the replacement of 10 percent diesel with bio-diesel by year 2025.

Hoping to speed up the development of renewable energy resources on federal lands, the U.S. Interior Department designated about 670,000 acres of land on Monday as potential areas for solar energy production.

Demand for renewables has created a boom for land previously considered worthless in sunny deserts and wind-swept

The climate bill that the U.S. House of Representatives passed on Friday contains several elements that could begin to push the energy industry away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy.

Dow and a start-up firm to test process expected to harvest hydrocarbons
Dow Chemical and Algenol Biofuels, a U.S. start-up company, were set to announce Monday that they would build a demonstration plant that, if successful, would use algae to turn carbon dioxide into ethanol for use as a vehicle fuel or an ingredient in plastics.

The first biofuels produced using new generations of biomass raw materials could be available in commercial volumes from 2010 at the earliest, German junior Environment Michael Mueller said on Monday.

But the exact time scale was still unclear, Mueller said at the European Biomass conference in Hamburg.