Conventional fuel sucks an enormous amount of resources out of disaster relief efforts, because it has to be purchased and then transported to its point of use, often under extreme conditions. It also creates new hazards at the relief site in terms of storage, leaks and spillage, along with emissions and noise from the generators. Solar and other renewable energy sources, such as portable wind power, practically eliminate these added costs and complications.

As every middle-school child knows, in the process of photosynthesis, plants take the sun's energy and convert it to electrical energy. Now a Tel Aviv University team has demonstrated how a member of the animal kingdom, the Oriental hornet, takes the sun's energy and converts it into electric power -- in the brown and yellow parts of its body -- as well.

Abengoa Solar Inc. expects to start construction in mid-2011 on a plant in Arizona that will store sun-generated heat to provide six extra hours a day of electric-generating capacity. The heat creates steam that is used to turn power turbines. Abengoa's $2 billion Solana plant is expected to be the first major stored-heat plant in the U.S. when it enters service in 2013. Some already exist in Spain and a few more are on the drawing board for Nevada and California.

The sun power industry in Germany, the world's leader in solar energy, is facing a tough year amid the threat of growing competition from Asia and falling prices. German solar-power companies rebounded last year from a dramatic slump in profit during 2009 as a boom in the sector took shape last year.

Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) Group announced that there will be additional 2 billion KWh to be supplied to national grid by Son La hydropower plant and Song Tranh 2 hydropower plant. On January 7, 2011, EVN will officially put into operation the first turbine of Son La hydropower plant after over five years of construction. At the same time, the group will also have the first turbine of Song Tranh 2 hydropower plant joined the national grid.

Bulgaria will export an estimated 7500GWh of electricity in 2010, more than double its 2009 figure of 3700GWh, announced the National Electric Company (NEK). This represents 21.6% of total power generated in the country. Exports have increased significantly as domestic consumption was reduced by the recession. “We reached an all-time exports record this year,” Parvanov said. “Mainly because we improved the management of the tenders and our product.”

Some 500 of 900 German power firms will increase prices as of Jan. 1, consumer portal Verivox said, detailing recent announcements in the retail energy market for the 40 million households it monitors. The average increase will be 7 percent and a typical household, consuming 4,000 kilowatt hours a year, will have to pay 66 euros ($87) more for annual supply, said the portal, which monitors prices and encourages switching.

Egypt announced that it will have a fully operational nuclear power plant by the end of the decade. The country’s ministry of electricity said that they plan to be ready to go on nuclear power to support Egypt’s power needs by 2019.

China's measures to develop wind energy will help to save energy, reduce emissions and protect the environment and are in line with the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, the Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday in response to a US complaint against China's subsidy for the wind-power sector.

Sweden and Norway have agreed the bases for a common green certificate market, energy ministers for both nations said on Wednesday. A green certificate is a tradable commodity proving that a certain electricity has been produced using a renewable source of energy, such as wind, solar or hydropower. Environmental groups hope they can boost the use of renewables.

The two countries' interest in cooperation is quite natural. The Czech Republic is preparing a lucrative tender for the completion of the nuclear power plant Temelin, near the Austrian border, in which the US firm Westinghouse has expressed interest. Westinghouse has a Japanese owner but its seat and operations are in the USA. The project is worth several hundred billion crowns. Besides Westinghouse, the other bidders are Czech-Russian consortium of Skoda JS Atomstroyexport and France's Areva.

Korea is set to build 14 nuclear power plants by the year 2024 in an attempt to lessen its reliance on petroleum for electricity. At a public hearing in Seoul on Tuesday the Korean government announced a long-term plan for energy which calls for an increase in the portion generated through nuclear plants and renewable sources.

A sprawling international collaboration between scientists at government and university laboratories has resulted in a breakthrough discovery that could lead to more efficient ways of generating electricity from waste heat. The phenomenon, called the thermoelectric effect, can be applied to car exhaust, factory emissions, and other operations to capture the large amount of human-manufactured energy that is currently lost to the atmosphere.

A statement from the department on Saturday said that IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano was in the country from Dec. 8 to Dec. 11, where he met senior officials from Philippine government agencies involved in the implementation of technical cooperation projects in various nuclear applications.

According to Director of Institute of Atomic Energy, Mr. Vuong Huu Tan, currently, the location of the center is located in the research and proposal. All the work is at the starting point. For the 3 locations of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Lat, in most meetings and conferences, scientists proposed to build the center near Hanoi. According to scientists, this location will satify all conditions, especially to take full advantage of human resources available in Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute.

Unit 1 with the capacity of 400MW of Son La Hydropower Plant has been successfully connected to the National Electricity System at 12h45’on December 17th, 2010. Son La hydropower plant, with the installed capacity of 2400 MW, including six units, each unit with the capacity of 400MW, is the second ladder on Da River, after Lai Chau hydropower plant started on December 22th and above Hoa Binh hydropower plant.

The Tesla Roadster uses a battery called “18650,” originally designed for laptop computers. The car doesn’t use 10, or a hundred, but 6,831 of them, enough to dispatch a 56 kWh power onto the Roadster’s electric motors and wheels. This power is enough to take you from 0 to 60 mph in about 3.5 seconds (depending on the car’s version).

This will be enabled by an agreement, which was signed Monday in Skopje by the governments of Macedonia and Germany, envisaging financial assistance for the second stage of the energy efficiency program and a loan contract signed by the Macedonian government, ELEM company and KfW bank for realisation of the project rehabilitating six hydro power plants.

Since unit 1 went into operation in October 2008, A Vuong hydropower plant (with the capacity of 210 MW) has produced nearly 1.8 billion kWh, equivalent to the revenue of about VND 1,150 billion. According to Mr Nguyen Tram, General Director of A Vuong Hydropower JSC, thanks to the advantage of using high water columns, the mobilization of the capacity of A Vuong hydropower plant and the generation of power based on the height of water columns will be very effective.

The Ho Chi Minh City Power Corporation (EVN HCMC) said that in the past five years, they launched many campaigns to promote efficient use of electricity. As a result, the families of all EVN HCMC staff members have been committed to saving 10 percent of power consumption at home. In response to the appeal of the Ho Chi Minh City Women’s Union, 100,000 households have been committed to saving power.