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Carol E. MurphyThis week, through Friday, Carol E. Murphy will be taking questions about alternative energy choices for consumers, what New York City is doing to decrease its reliance on fossil fuels and how city dwellers can decrease their "carbon footprint.' Submit your question in the box below.

As much as 40 per cent of the world's energy is directly used in buildings, and if the indirect consumption is added

Electricity from renewable sources may be fairly cheap to make, but it cannot be stored and produced when needed. But the solar industry is moving to solve both problems with a single approach: gather heat from the sun, boil water into steam, spin a turbine and make power. Solar power, the holy grail of renewable energy, has always faced the problem of how to store the energy captured from the sun's rays so that demand for electricity can be met at night or whenever the sun is not shining.

An Ireland-based renewable energy firm has given Euro 62m (US$100m) in funding to a solar energy specialist. NTR has invested the money in the US-based firm Stirling Energy Systems (SES) after reaching an agreement that will give NTR a controlling interest. The funding will allow SES to begin work on two major solar farms in southern California and increase its production of its SunCatcher solar energy generators. The SunCatcher technology uses large mirrored dishes to direct sunlight onto an engine capable of turning the energy into electricity.

THE only hurdle to the large-scale use of solar energy is the state of the technology. In terms of dollar-per-watt of electricity, traditional fossil fuels are still much more efficient. But that is rapidly changing, and what was at $3-$4 per watt even a few years ago is at the $2 per watt level, with the use of so-called

A generous award seeks to encourage green energy pathways over a carbon intensive economy for India

The Sierra Club, the oldest and largest grassroots environment organisation in the US, has instituted an annual $100,000 (Rs40 lakh) Green Energy and Green Livelihoods Achievement Award to recognise outstanding environmental success in India.

From both the economic and the enviromental angle, bio-gas is the ideal solution for rural households: cheap with no recurring maintenance costs and zero impact on the environment. Why hasn't it been adopted more widely? The benefits of this appropriate technology are numerous and some appear self-evident. For one, there is no emission of greenhouse gases that cause climate change, unlike in the burning of fossil fuels.

THE Chennai Corporation, as part of its cost-cutting measures, has planned to install more solar-powered streetlights in narrow streets and slum areas in the city According to May . or M Subramanian, the Corporation spent nearly Rs 18 crore a year for powering streetlights. By introducing solar-powered lights, the Corporation could reduce its expenditure, he added. The Mayor on Saturday inaugurated 60 solar-powered streetlights of 18 watts capacity, built at a cost of Rs 11 lakh, at a slum dwellings near Tod Hunter Nagar in Ward-139.

The IT industry accounts for about 2 per cent of global carbon emissions - close to the same as the aviation sector - and has an important role to play in the environmental agenda. The main issue for IT is the amount of electricity that computers use. Data centres in particular have come into focus as heavy consumers of power. The average centre uses 50 times more energy than the average office and can cost around

Efforts are on to establish windmills for power generation in areas where the velocity of wind is high in Anantapur district. Winds blow at a velocity of 45 km per hour from April to September in the district and are convenient to generate power. The Non-Conventional Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (Nedcap) officials have identified in a survey, that Ramagiri, Kadavakallu, Vajrakarur, Talarichervu, Nallakonda, Mustikovela and Penakacherla Dam are convenient for setting up windmills in the district.