In order to help India’s rural masses who lack electricity, Vodafone Essar Ltd. recently developed a solar-powered mobile phone. According to officials, there are almost 20 million new mobile subscribers each month in India. The problem is that many of them live in rural areas, where the energy supply can be patchy at best.

The use of conventional energy such as fuel-wood and charcoal in rural and mountainous areas in our country has reduced the forest area and increased the amount of CO2 emission. Meanwhile, modern energies like electricity, gasoline, petroleum are becoming more and more costly, unaffordable for people in remote areas. A positive solution is to use biogas – an in-place and cheap energy source for farmers.

The REF – a World Bank-supported public institution aiming to provide electricity to every Cambodian village by 2020 – plans to sell the solar panels to rural households on a monthly payment basis, executive director Loeung Keosela was quoted by the Phnom Penh Post as saying.

The building of new renewable energy sources continued to outstrip new fossil fuel power plants in Europe and the US during 2009, a report has shown. The UN-backed study said renewables accounted for 60% of new electricity generation capacity in Europe. And in the US, green electricity accounted for more than half of the generation capacity built last year.

Thua Thien Hue has a large number of small and medium enterprises (accounting for 95% of the total), many of which have obsolete equipment consuming much energy. Meanwhile 80% of energy used for living and production every year comes from electricity.

Ca Mau electric grid was built and completed immediately after the administrative separation with Bac Lieu (November 1996). This grid spreads from primary forests in U Minh Thuong and U Minh Ha to Dam Doi district, Ngoc Hien. Due to sparsely populated condition, electrical loss only exceeds 9% because of naked wire and frost. The efforts of the electricity industry and Ca Mau’s people in saving electricity are quite impressing. During the serious lack of electricity in the dry season, Ca Mau has contributed to the national grid by operating its gas-power-fertilizer plant with capacity 1,500MW. To help Southern Electricity Corporation overcome difficulties, the implementation of energy saving and reduction in Ca Mau is a matter of great importance for all sectors. The output in 2010 is scheduled to reach 670 million kWh. However, due to planned reduction, the first 5 months in 2010 only reached 258.3 million kWh, equals to 38.55% of plans.

To 2009, 97 cement production lines have been put into operation in the whole country, with the total designed capacity of 57.4 million tons. In 2010, it has been estimated that 13 more production lines would be completed, which will raise the total capacity by 11.7 million tons. In 2011, 12 more lines will be put into operation, the total capacity is estimated to increase by 9.36 million tons.

Germany already leads the world on renewable energy and could become first G20 country to kick the fossil-fuel habit. Germany could derive all of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2050 and become the world's first major industrial nation to kick the fossil-fuel habit, the country's Federal Environment Agency said today.

During the recent heat wave, electricity consumption has increased sharply: on 19th June, 37 million KWh was used, on 20th June, almost 40 million kWh, increasing by nearly 40% over the same period in 2009. According to EVN Hanoi, the sudden growth mainly gathered in daily life consumption. Meanwhile, in other provinces electricity consumption were deeply reduced - 30% over the same period in 2009 because every week, these provinces have electricity outage in 2-3 days.

2009 statistics from Ministry of Industry and Trade show that Vietnam’s rate of growth in electricity consumption was 2.45 times greater than GDP growth rate. Consumption in industry – construction sector accounted for about 38%, civil 36.8%, transportation 20%, the rest in service and agriculture.

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.

Held by The World & Vietnam Magazine (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) in cooperation with the Asia Business Forum (ABF), and European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (Eurocham), the conference is the largest ever on the issue. It is forecast that Vietnam's economy continues to grow rapidly while the population will reach 100 million by 2020. To meet the demand for electricity, Vietnam's power sector must maintain a growth rate of more than 12% annually.

EVN Hanoi has discussed energy saving with its prime customers consuming more than 3 million kwh per year or having capacity of greater than 500kW. Thang Long, Quang Minh and Noi Bai industrial zones agree to EVN Hanoi not to exceed the amounts of consumption stated on electricity supply contracts, avoid overloads and cut from 5 to 10% of its energy consumption demand, equivalent to about 3302.43 to 6603.86 MWh.

When we pay our electricity bill, we are paying for more than just the operation of wind turbines or nuclear power stations. What with rental for the electricity meter, costs for using the power grids, value-added tax and a tax on electricity, coupled with a surcharge for the preferred sourcing of green power, the final price we pay is effectively double the generation cost.

Electricity is a powerful tool for building modern societies and plays a critical role in eradicating poverty and boosting economies. Yet, according to U.N. estimates, 1.5 billion people—nearly a quarter of the world's population—live without access to reliable power.

Quang invested about 30 million dong to build a 20m3 biogas pit and a 5kW generator running on biogas. After 3 years, the system has well satisfied electricity demand of his family such as: three 1-Hp motors, a refrigerator, a washing-machine, a 1-Hp air-conditioner. Hence, his family saves about 1 million VND on electricity each month.

The renewable energy power producers would earn renewable energy certificates for every megawatt hour of electricity generated. A central authority would be established which would be responsible for distribution of these certificates. Any entity which has the obligation to purchase power generated from renewable energy sources can buy renewable energy certificates from these power producers to meet their targets.

To realize energy saving plan in order to reduce cost of production, the company’s leaders have planned to run concrete crushing machine during off-peak hours, hence consuming less electricity on producing concrete and clinker in comparison with previous targets. The company has also reduced time spent on drying furnace, and burned coal right after solving furnace problem instead of using MFO oil; hence dramatically reducing oil consumption.

So, cutting off electricity by zone on a temporary basis to save power is unavoidable. Moreover, from March 1, 2010, the price of electricity has increased by VND948.5 (8.92 percent) per kWh compared with the price of 2009. So each family has to pay a higher electricity bill. For those reasons, it is an urgent need to save power.

This month, Bruichladdich - one of eight distilleries to be found on the Scottish isle of Islay -- will take delivery of an anaerobic digester which will start turning their whisky waste into electricity.Mark Reynier, owner of Bruichladdich Distillery, hopes the digester will meet around 80 percent of its electricity needs and save the company up to £120,000 ($175,000) every year.