The creative juices of designers are now flowing into mice and keyboards that are becoming sleeker, smaller and more power-efficient. Microsoft and Logitech have blended eco-friendly technology and space-saving designs in their new mouse and keyboard products.

Businesses can save upto 30 per cent in power cost and carbon emission by moving to the internet based-cloud technology, a Microsoft study today said. "Businesses that choose to run business applications in the cloud can help reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions by a net 30 per cent or more versus running those same applications on their own infrastructure," Microsoft India Director (Server Business) Pallavi Kathuria told PTI.

On November 12, the Specialized Science and Technology Council of Soc Trang Province held a meeting to assess the draft of a project aiming to build an improved model of biogas plants to generate power for use by livestock breeding farms in Chau Thanh District. This project is presided over by the Soc Trang Center for Science and Technology Application and headed by engineer Duong Hoang Van, the deputy director of the center’s Technical Department.

The 30th India International Trade Fair (IITF 2010) themed ‘Clean and Energy Efficient Technology, Products and Services’ was opened in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, on November 14. Vietnamese Ambassador to India Nguyen Thanh Tan cut the ribbon to inaugurate the Vietnam Pavilion at the fair.

"Ho Chi Minh City currently has partnerships with many localities of the Russian Federation; many cooperative programs and projects between the two sides have been deployed in both Vietnam and Russia. The city always needs the support and cooperation from Russia and Russian localities, especially in the areas in which Russia is one of the leading countries such as science, technology, energy, oil and gas ..." - Mr. Le Minh Tri stressed and expressed the hope that cooperation between the two sides would become increasingly practical and efficient.

Compressed natural gas technology first appeared in Vietnam with the introduction of CNG natural gas plant in Phu My I Industrial Zone, Tan Thanh district, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, which began operation in late August 2008. In Nay 2010, to limit environmental pollution and reduce climate change, for the clean and green environment, Vietnam Oil and Gas Group of issued Resolution No. 2958/NQ-DKVN approving the conversion and use of CNG fuel for cars of all members of the group in the areas of HCM city and Ba Ria-Vung Tau (about 600 vehicles).

Prime Minister affirmed: “Vietnam highly appreciates potential and technologies of South Korean businesses and calls upon South Korean businesses to continue expanding investment in Vietnam, especially in the fields of economic - social infrastructure development, new energy and material production, high technology product manufacturing, support industry, human resource and health development, and agriculture, forestry and fishery development.”

The social media site on Thursday made a point of calling attention to its Green on Facebook page that highlights its efforts to cut its own energy use, while also telling others how to do the same. At the same time, Facebook says it’s joined the research group the Digital Energy Solutions Campaign, which looks at how information technology can be used to fight climate change.

According to the project of “Promoting Energy Efficiency in Small and Medium Enterprises” implemented by the Ministry of Science and Technology under supervision of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and assistance of the Global Environment Fund (GEF), the Dong Thap Province Center for Industry Promotion and Development Consultancy has carried out an energy audit program at the Ba Tang Ice Company (in Long Thanh Hamlet, Phu Thanh A Commune, Tam Nong District, Dong Thap Province).

EnergyHub, a home energy management company, recently announced that it will be supplying its technology to Honeywell for inclusion in the company's portfolio of energy management solutions. According to Joseph Puishys, Honeywell's president of Environmental and Combustion Controls, EnergyHub's home energy management system will allow homeowners to minimize their energy bills by viewing and adjusting their energy usage settings.

This technology has many advantages. Drying room is completely tight, therefore, seafood is isolated from fuel and is not spoiled. Especially, according to this technology, remaining heat can be withdrawn or adjusted based on different products through the heat supply equipment. Thus, apart from assuring product quality, drying seafood with steam reduces 10 times energy costs compared to traditional technologies.

Dr. Nguyen The Hung from the Institute of Physics under the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology has contributed to the efforts to realize the above objective by creating a type of power generator using natural light. In 2008, Dr. Nguyen The Hung and his colleagues began a research project aiming to manufacture a type of power generator system using solar energy according to the absorption diffusion principle (with natural light engine).

MIT researchers are hopeful of capturing and releasing solar energy with the help of thermo-chemical technology. Scientists were already working on this technology in seventies but this project was aborted due to its expensiveness and termed as too impractical to achieve. But MIT researchers are now gearing up to take this thermo-chemical technology that is supposed to convert solar energy into electrical energy.

The Centre for Bio-technology Research and Application complex now under construction in southern Dong Nai Province is expected to be one of the leading centres of its kind in Southeast Asia, according to Nguyen Quan, deputy minister of Science and Technology. Expected to be completed within the decade, the 227-ha complex is being built in Xuan Duong Commune in Cam My District.

VietnamPlus and Siemens signed a partnership agreement in Hanoi on Oct. 21 whereby VietnamPlus will be the media sponsor for Siemens Green Technology Journalism Award 2010. This award is created for the first time in ASEAN in order to acknowledge and reward journalists for excellent reporting on energy efficiency, industrial productivity and sustainability issues. It is open to print and online media from Indonesia , Malaysia , the Philippines , Singapore , Thailand and Vietnam.

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.

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.

In a first-of-its-kind melding of solar technology with high speed rail facilities, the clean energy company Enfinity will install 16,000 solar panels on the two-mile long roof of a rail tunnel in Belgium. If the name Enfinity doesn’t ring a bell it soon will. The Belgium-based company has trained its sights on the U.S. energy market and is poised to step up commercial and utility scale solar installations here, from coast to coast. New green jobs, much?

The consortium, which includes Oak Ridge National Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California-Davis, The Dow Chemical Company, Honeywell and General Electric, will receive $12.5 million from the US Government, matched by at least $12.5 million from the partners, and $25 million from Chinese counterparts over the next five years.