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DUNDALK, Ireland: When the fearsome Cuchulainn was transformed by the rage of battle into a Celtic Incredible Hulk, according to Irish mythology, the warrior's intensity melted snow for 30 feet around him. That was an impressive generation of alternative energy from this Achilles-like hero so closely associated with Dundalk, but this town on Ireland's east coast is turning to less ephemeral kinds of power as it tests technologies to reduce the country's thirst for fossil fuels.

Outside the white-walled town of Moura in the rolling plans of southern Portugal, more than 240,000 solar panels covering an area equivalent to 150 football pitches are slowly being manoeuvred into position in what will be the world's biggest photovoltaic power plant. A few kilometres away, at Alqueva, the Guadiana river has been dammed to create the largest reservoir in western Europe and one of 18 hydroelectric power projects under way in Portugal's river valleys. In the north-west Alto Minho region, one of the world's biggest wind farms is under construction.

The good news about a recent report for the government about UK costs of complying with EU targets for renewables is that it should put no more than an extra 5% on our national energy bill. The bad news is that the government want to cut this cost by subsidising continental biomass consumption as a substitute for supporting our own renewable energy sources. The subsidised biomass will consist largely of wood burning in eastern Europe from forests that may not be replaced.

Reuters Summit - US Seen Importing Ethanol, But Tariff Uncertain US: April 7, 2008 WASHINGTON - The United States will need to import more sugarcane-based ethanol to meet renewable energy mandates, a top US official said, but he stopped short of recommending that a controversial ethanol tariff be lifted. "If our goal is to reduce hydrocarbon usage and to increase ethanol usage, that is going to happen through cane-based production," Tom Shannon, the top US official for Latin America, said in the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit on Friday.

Al Gore is no longer known just as the former vp of the US. He's been creating waves as a campaigner for preventing global warming, a mission that won him the latest Nobel peace prize along with our own R K Pachauri, chairman of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. On a recent visit to India Gore launched the India Chapter of his ngo 'The Climate Project' along with Pachauri.

Iceland: life on global warming's front line By Adam Cox and Kristin Arna Bragadottir REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - If any country can claim to be pitched on the global warming front line, it may be the North Atlantic island nation of Iceland. On a purely physical level, this land of icecaps and volcanoes and home to 300,000 people is undergoing a rapid transformation as its glaciers melt and weather patterns change dramatically. But global warming is also having a profound effect on Iceland economically -- and in many ways the effects have actually been beneficial.

Dahagram-Angarpota enclave taken under solar power plant Our Correspondent . Lalmonirhat The inhabitants of Dahgram-Angarpota enclave have taken under solar power plant and they got electricity on Thursday in fulfillment of their long cherished demand. The chief engineer of Power Development Board of Rangpur region, Latifur Rahaman, switched on the solar power plant. Initially 100 families will get power supply from the solar project. Rangpur Power Development Board is implementing the project with the assistant of Dhaka Solar Power Project.

An ambitious cross-subsidy scheme has given rise to a new industry

Suzlon Wind Energy Corporation, a step-down subsidiary of Suzlon Energy Ltd, has got a repeat order to supply 200 MW of wind turbine capacity from Horizon Wind Energy, Texas of the US. The order is in the range of $200 million-240 million. The original contract included an order of 400 MW of turbine capacity to be delivered in 2008 and 2009. Agreement

Former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran knows more than a thing or two about tough negotiations. Considered a key player in hammering out the Indo-US nuclear deal, he knows there's a long road ahead in his new assignment as the Government's point man on climate change. It's most natural, therefore, that as he draws out a "national action plan,' he draws parallels between the rich, polluter nations and the nuclear club governed by the international politics of NPT.