The signing of the cooperation contract is part of the 9th meeting of Australia – Vietnam Joint Trade and Economic Cooperation Committee (JTECC), in June in Melbourne, Australia. Mr Vo Hong Phuc, Minister of Planning and Investment and Mr Simon Crean, Australian Minister of Trade, witnessed the signing. According to the agreement, ECT, through a joint venture which produces coal with Coldry clean technology in Australia (VCPL), will export 2 million tons of Coldry coal per year to Vietnam starting in 2014 and 20 million tons per year by 2020.

According to executives of Pacific West Energy LLC, one of the last players standing, securing the acreage needed to start production has been the high hurdle to overcome. Signing a preliminary accord on a biomass plant -- which could broaden its revenue stream -- is a promising step, but success still hinges on land acquisition and other complications being cleared.

One early adopter was the Kyocera Corporation of Japan, which tasked Envision Solar with the construction of its first large-scale “solar grove” in 2006 at its United StatesSan Diego, where a 235-kilowatt carport harnesses 1,400 of Kyocera’s own solar photovoltaic modules. Other major installations soon followed at Dell Computer’s headquarters in Round Rock, Tex

Energy Efficiency Office - Ministry of Industry and Trade has recently hosted a meeting with Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) on the project "Supporting pilot production of commercial products using high-efficiency LEDs". The project is a part of the activities under Vietnam Energy Efficiency Program to enlarge the market for commercial products using high-efficiency LEDs.

Many passionately believe that clean coal is not the answer to decreasing carbon emissions or increasing the supply of energy. In fact, since Obama's decision to set aside $2.4 billion dollars "to lead the world in CCS technologies," disagreements (and for that matter, debates) have surfaced about its legitimacy as a true carbon-fighting, energy-producing solution.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released a report on June 23 detailing regional strategies to increase biofuels production to meet the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2) mandate for U.S. consumers to use 36 billion gallons of biofuel per year by 2022.

In recent years, together with the growth of the entire economy, construction companies obtained an annual growth rate of 12-16 percent. Production was expanded and the use of energy as well as natural resources increased. Presently, energy consumption by the construction sector accounts for 20-24 percent of the total amount of energy consumption nationwide.

Some young fellows stare at a big TV screen and shout noisily as they are watching a World Cup 2010 football match. Some electric fans run at their maximal speed to soothe the ongoing summer heat. The pigsty system behind the house of Tran Van Tam in Phu Trung hamlet, An Phu commune, Cu Chi district, Ho Chi Minh City also gets cooled with home-made ventilation panels. It is unlikely that the area does not benefit from the national power grid and often incurs power outages.

Fourteen years ago, the Hanoi Towers at 49 Hai Ba Trung, Hanoi had Air Handling Units (AHUs) installed for the 13-storey tower consisting of office and shopping space, and Inverter Multi Systems installed for the 25-storey apartment tower. At that time, AHUs and Inverter Multi Systems were modern technologies.

A fresh-water wind farm is taking shape at Lake Erie and when completed will provide 20 megawatts and get on to about one gigawatt power by 2020. Huge individual turbines 300 feet tall, to be built by GE will be erected off Ohio, Cleveland. Better designs: These are special gearless super-efficient turbines, with three 176-foot long blades, which run with the help of a giant ring of magnets. The blades are longer due to strategically placed carbon fibre, and lighter too. Many moving parts like gearbox, coils and starter brushes are eliminated with resultant reduced maintenance. The giant magnetic ring array helps the turbine generate power even at very low speed.

In Quang Ninh, in May, the average allocated capacity is just 4.4 – 4.5 million kWh per day (not including capacity for cement factories), while the demand is up to 5.5 – 6 million kWh per day. “That businesses take the initiative to invest in energy-saving systems is primarily for their own economic purpose. Moreover, they have contributed much to the society and shared the difficulties with the community. If each hotel, each factory can save a few thousands of kWh, hundreds of families will have electricity to use”, said Mr. Do.

The Eindhoven University of Technology from The Netherlands, with a EUR 1.2 million help from the Dutch government wants to develop ultra-efficient solar cells that are also cheap. They envision their cells having a 65% efficiency, something even the satellites would envy.

"Also we need to have some kind of social mechanism to watch whether the nuclear community is doing the correct thing or not... mass media for instance," Suzuki said on the sidelines of an international conference on technology and safety in nuclear power plants.

Really amazing are the innovative ways solar power is put into use. Now a team of scientists working in Sandia National Laboratories is focusing on exploring basic steps to make synthetic liquid fuel with the help of solar panels. The goal is that this will help considerably reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

On the morning of June 15, 2010, in coordination with the Energy Conservation Office of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Infrastructure Department and the Urban Development Department of the Ministry of Construction, and the Vietnam Energy Efficient Public Lighting (VEEPL) project, the Vietnam Urban Lighting Association and the Anh sang & Cuoc song (Light & Life) magazine organized a workshop to discuss the role of the media in ensuring efficient use of energy for lighting purposes.

Nuclear power technology is developing and Vietnam must be updated continuously with new technology, especially in the field of waste treatment and material reuse, said Brett Jacobs, the Southeast Asia Programs Manager under the International Energy Agency (IEA)’s Directorate of Global Energy Dialogue, at a meeting with Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Huu Hao.

The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Office, the Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade, the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Center will join hands with the Hanoi Women’s Union to host diverse training courses on energy efficiency and conservation for families living in the city’s 10 inner districts from June 23 to July 27, 2010, said the Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade’s leadership in a press meeting on June 16, 2010.

There’s a lot of talk about making power meters and the electric grid “smart” enough to handle additional energy from solar panels. National Semiconductor wants to make the solar panels themselves smarter. They’ve developed a chip that integrates into the junction boxes of solar panels, optimizing power production.

Since 2008, the Board of Directors has decided to collaborate with the Energy Efficiency Research and Development Center – ENERTEAM in conducting energy audits at the company headquarter. Results showed that energy conservation potentials at the company are very promising, all solutions proposed required little investment and were easy to implement in practical application.

Asia needs to create new business/production models for green and clean development in combination with preservation of natural resources and protection of the environment. The need was addressed at seminars held on June 7, the second workday of the World Economic Forum on East Asia 2010 (WEF on East Asia 2010).