America is yearning for leadership, and energy policy is another area where it is lacking. Democrats argue we must do more to promote and develop alternative fuels. Republicans counter that there is no alternative to oil and gas in the short term and that we need to increase our domestic output to secure our energy supply.

Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said, “The goal is to reduce the consumption of oil and gas to reduce our energy bill which has risen in recent days and which we do not forecast will drop.” The Deputy Prime Minister also added that the measures are just temporary, though he did not clarify as to till when these will be in effect.

Richard MacLellan, Halifax Regional Municipality’s SEMO Manager (Sustainable Environment Management Office) remarked that adopting solar heating technology was a good cost- effective proposition. As the demand for hot water was very high in the building, the opportunity for savings by decreasing the operating costs in the facility was also huge. He mentioned that they would continue their exploration to discover the most promising and innovative renewable technology that could be used in the projects.

Senator Joe Lieberman called for a temporary halt on the building of nuclear plants in the U.S., and many news organizations have reported that it could cause a major setback for U.S. nuclear policy. Last year, the Department of Energy announced $8.3 billion in loan guarantees for the construction of two nuclear plants in Georgia. The plants are part of a major push by President Obama and Energy Secretary Steven Chu to support nuclear power in the United States.

Australia’s national science agency is collaborating with leading universities on an 8.3-million Australian dollar ($8.17 million) research collaboration to use enzymes to produce biofuels from waste plant feed stocks. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization’s Energy Transformed Cluster on Biofuels seeks viable ways to transform waste plant materials into a sustainable low-emission fuel for cars, trucks and even planes.

IDTechEx recently visited GS Caltex in Seoul, Korea, who have developed a solid state lithium thin film battery. The company is a joint venture between GS, Korea and Chevron, USA, and its core business is oil refinery where they are number two in Korea. The company also works on renewable energy including fuel cells, biofuels, materials for supercapacitors and thin film batteries.

Under the RCUK programme, Nanoscience through Engineering to Application, the EPSRC and the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) are investing in four industry-led collaborative research and development projects that will address challenges in building the supply chain and scaling up technologies.

"It's great to see the intersection of three things that I love," Snyder told the audience that included hundreds of students. "We're talking about innovation and entrepreneurship, we're talking about clean energy, something that is vitally important for our future. It's about economic growth, and doing it in the most responsible way possible in terms of the legacy we leave and the opportunity it provides us and the third thing is it involves students”

Công nghệ ứng dụng trong pin Li-Ion giá rẻ đã dành giải thưởng nhất trị giá 50 nghìn đôla Mỹ tại cuộc thi dành cho các ý tưởng kinh doanh Clean Energy Prize. Phát biểu tại lễ trao giải được tổ chức tại hội trường Rackham, Đại học Michigan ngày 18 tháng 2 vừa qua, chủ tịch Rick Snyder nói: “Thật là tuyệt khi được thấy 3 điều tôi quan tâm cùng xuất hiện trong cuộc thi này. Chúng ta đang nói tới việc cải cách và các doanh nghiệp, chúng ta đang nói tới năng lượng sạch - một nhân tố tối quan trọng trong tương lại.

In doing so, it will launch the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER), to take decisions on cross border energy supply. ACER will draft framework guidelines for the operation of cross border electricity networks, establishing rules that are consistent with these guidelines, the Commission said. Its role will be to monitor the newly managed internal European electricity market, including retail prices, available network access for electricity produced from renewable sources.

Poland's government approved two bills creating a legal framework for the nuclear power industry and taking another step towards building the country's first nuclear plant, the government said in a statement on Tuesday. The bills, which now will be sent to parliament, create grounds for oversight of the investment process by National Atomic Energy Agency (PAA) as well as instruments for state-controlled PGE to choose technology supplier.

American consumers don’t want things forced on them by the government, but they are slowly starting to become aware of energy issues via the rising cost of energy and the geo-political climate, said Crane. “Everyone in this room has a vested interest in electric vehicles becoming successful,” said Crane to the room largely made up by investors, and the future is “all about electric vehicles.”

Solar Junction is a 4-year-old company spun out of Stanford University that designs high-efficiency, multi-junction solar cells for concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) solar collectors. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory recently certified that its solar cells can operate at 40.9% efficiency, a significantly higher efficiency than typical silicon solar cells that convert sunlight to electricity at an efficiency of about 15-20%.

Scientists are reporting development of an advanced lithium-ion battery that is ideal for powering the electric vehicles now making their way into dealer showrooms. The new battery can store large amounts of energy in a small space and has a high rate capacity, meaning it can provide current even in extreme temperatures.

France's consumption rose by 7% – and in Europe only Denmark and Ireland used less energy per unit of GDP than UK.The EU energy commissioner, Günther Oettinger, is expected to recommend member states are set individual targets on efficiency improvements.The UK is one of the top performers in Europe on energy efficiency, according to a European commission report.

Wind turbine prices last year fell below 1 million euros ($1.4 million) a megawatt for the first time since 2005, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said. Global turbine contracts signed in the last six months of 2010 for delivery this year averaged 980,000 euros a megawatt, the London-based analyst said today in a statement. That’s down from 1.06 million euros for contracts signed in 2009 and a peak of 1.21 million euros in 2007 and 2008, the group said.

Theo Công ty tư vấn và phân tích tài chính quốc tế Bloomberg New Energy Finance, năm ngoái - lần đầu tiên kể từ năm 2005 - giá của tuabin gió giảm xuống còn dưới 1 triệu euro/megawatt (khoảng 1.4 triệu đôla Mỹ). Theo chuyên gia phân tích tại London ngày 7 tháng 2 cho biết, các hợp đồng vận chuyển tuabin trên thế giới trong 6 tháng cuối năm 2010 ở mức trung bình 980 euro/megawatt. Con số này đạt mức cao nhất đạt đỉnh là 1.21 triệu euro năm 2007 và 2008, và năm 2009 là 1.06 triệu euro.

Advocates of coal power argue that it is among the cheapest sources of energy in the United States and allows for lower-cost power. But a new Harvard study found that whatever money is saved in operation costs is completely negated by the cost coal plants inadvertently pass on to the American public: $345 billion.

Clearing up the regulatory hurdles that are slowing development of electricity transmission lines would provide a significant boost to U.S. wind power development, industry officials said Wednesday. The American Wind Energy Association is holding a two-day workshop in Omaha focused on the challenges of transmitting power to places that need it. The biggest regulatory barriers have to do with who pays for high-voltage transmission lines and who decides where the lines will go.

The demand for renewable energy is expected to triple over the next decades according to U.N.E.P.’s Year Book 2011. United Nations Environment Program’s 2011 Year Book predicts this year to be the first where low-carbon energy capacity exceeds that of fossil-fuel.