The United States is on the verge of a solar boom that could provide 4.3 percent of the nation's electricity by 2020, according to a new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. There's just a 12-figure catch: Investors need to put $100 billion into the solar industry to keep the generation of solar electricity growing by 42 percent a year for the next decade to expand capacity from the current 1.4 gigawatts to 44 gigawatts.

Only to the visually-impaired it may look like fuel cells and electric cars don’t enjoy success nowadays. Daimler AG has just started a pilot program of leasing Mercedes-Benz hydrogen fuel cell cars to 5 to 15 users in the US, to see how their car acts in real life conditions and how people receive them. To me this looks like a postpone of the real thing, just like GM did to EV1.

This is the third day in a row that we are presenting the most efficient lighting systems invented recently. Now, it’s time for another invention from GE, who made a 1,500-lumen LED light bulb and cooled it through a technology used in aviation.

While Compact Fluorescent Bulbs have barely been seen in various parts of the world and incandescent lighting still rules in others, two Japanese companies already want to change them for LEDs – straight tube LED lamps, which, they say, are much more economical.

Siemens has landed an order to supply 80 wind turbines for the Dan Tysk wind farm off Germany's North Sea coast. With a total capacity of 288 MW, the farm will begin supplying clean electricity to 500,000 German households in 2014. Dan Tysk Offshore Wind GmbH is owned by Vattenfall Europe with a 51 percent stake and Stadtwerke Munchen with a 49 percent stake.

The first factory to manufacture the Nissan Leaf, in Oppama, Japan, started producing functional units on October 22. The first shipments will be made to Japan and the US this November and to Europe starting December. The Nissan Leaf uses lithium-ion batteries made by Automotive Energy Supply Corp, the joint venture between NEC and Nissan.

Works such as leveling an area of 251ha, building bypass road south of Hau river, compensating and site clearing, resettling 315 households… have been completed. The constructions of roads, electricity system, water supply system, embankments along Hau river in the plant construction site and coal slag dumping area ... are being expeditiously implemented to be completed on schedule.

In Vinh Truong hamlet, Phuoc Dinh commune, Thuan Nam district, Ninh Thuan, representatives of the Ministry of Industry and Trade have announced Decision 3849/QD-BCT dated July 20th 2010 of the Ministry of Industry and Trade approving the Construction location scheme of Ninh Thuan 1 nuclear power plant established by the Institute of Energy in November 2008 for the investors and the provincial People's Committee of Ninh Thuan to prepare premises and infrastructure.

Floating wind turbines are a little more complicated and require higher initial costs. But a new study, Project Deepwater, by the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) in the UK has found that due to their greater ability to access stronger and more consistent winds deeper out at sea, they are more economically efficient in the long term.

It is not that unusual for offshore oil to develop offshore wind technology. The two share some of the same technical and engineering issues. Stat-Oil in Norway is also investing in offshore wind development, because many of the engineering solutions found to develop offshore oil, are also applicable to the development of offshore wind, like building platforms in deep sea.

According to Mazda Motor Corp, the new Mazda2 subcompact will have a fuel economy of 30 km/litre (70 mpg) and as the company said, it will become the world’s most fuel-efficient vehicle. Mazda2 is scheduled to be launched in Japan in the first half of 2011, being the first car fitted with SKYACTIV, a technology produced only by Mazda based on next-generation gasoline and diesel engines.

We’ve been talking a while ago about Michael Strano and his thin carbon nanotubes that can transform fuel poured onto them into electricity. A chemical reaction is set up by heating the nanotubes, triggering the transformation at a speed of 10 meters per second.

While disposal of sharps (used needles and syringes) at hospitals and other large healthcare facilities is highly regulated, medical waste disposal by the ten million people who self-inject at home for diabetes and other conditions is largely unregulated. The health risks and resulting economic costs of improper sharps disposal are immense, from needles and syringes washing up on beaches and possibly creating needlesticks, to needlestick injuries that can expose sanitation and other workers to infection risk.

Các kết quả từ chương trình kiểm toán năng lượng của EECA cho thấy trung bình các công ty có thể giảm 20% chi phí sử dụng năng lượng. Điển hình là cứ mỗi đô la đầu tư vào việc kiểm toán năng lượng sẽ tiết kiệm được 7,50 đô la chi phí năng lượng.

The project is following up on a pre-feasibility study conducted by the Clinton Climate Initiative. Fluor’s task is to develop a conceptual master plan to be unveiled at the South African Solar Park Investors Conference (Oct. 28 and 29), which will be held in the Northern Cape Province.

Results from EECA's energy audit programme show that on average, companies can shave 20% off their energy use and costs - 10% at little or no cost and a further 10% with a simple payback of less than five years. Typically, for every dollar invested in an energy audit, $7.50 of energy savings are identified.

Leave it to larger-than-life Texas to lead the U.S. into a new energy future. While the state is most closely associated with oil, it has also been an early pioneer of wind power, and is beginning to embrace solar energy along with armloads of new green jobs. Now the San Antonio Water System has set the national bar high in the sewage-to-biogas field, by becoming the first water district to hook a biogas facility up to a commercial gas pipeline.

First announced in 2006, the facility represents an investment commitment of $1 billion and opens up extensive new opportunities for economic development in Vietnam. The facility is the largest assembly and test factory in Intel’s global manufacturing network, with a total area of 46,000 square meters, equal to the size of 5 ½ football fields. Production commenced in the middle of this year, starting with production of chipsets for laptops and mobile devices for Intel customers worldwide.

With the second largest tidal range in the world, about 50 feet, the Severn estuary has been eyed for years as a potential energy source, particularly as the appetite for sustainable energy sources has been growing over the last few years. The U.K. has pledged to have 40 percent of its electricity generated from renewable sources by 2020 to meet European Union requirements.

The ‘Global Wind Energy Outlook 2010’ (GWEO 2010) finds that wind power could play a key role in satisfying the world’s increasing power demand, while at the same time achieving major greenhouse gas emissions reductions. The 1,000 GW of wind power capacity projected to be installed by 2020 would save as much as 1.5 billion tonnes of CO2 every year.