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.

On November 1st, in Hanoi, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development organized a workshop to prepare the development program for biogas. This is the “Quality and Safety Enhancement of Agricultural Products and Biogas Development Project” (QSEAP, VIE 39421), which was signed between the Government of Vietnam and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Hanoi in June 2009.

A workshop was held recently by a gas engine research team of the Da Nang University with support of Toyota Motor Vietnam (TMV) through the Go Green Program to assess the results of the implementation of the second stage of the project titled “Small-scaled Electricity Production from Biogas” in some provinces of central Vietnam.

Along with urban growth, the demand for use of energy in urban areas has increased rapidly, especially in big cities such as Hanoi, Hai Phong, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang and Nha Trang. In such circumstances, using solar energy is considered to be a solution that will help reduce energy consumption in urban areas and prevent climate change. This solution was discussed at a workshop themed 'Climate change and sustainable urban development in Vietnam' that was held recently in Hanoi.

In the morning of 14 September 2010, at the head office of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT), the Office of Energy Efficiency, in collaboration with Vietnam Standards and Quality Institute, organized the workshop “Introduction of Energy Efficiency Labeling for electric fans”.

Recently, the Branch of Standardization and Quality - Hai Duong’s Department of Science and Technology has organized a workshop on the demonstration projects on economical and efficient use of energy in the province of Hai Duong. The workshop was held in order to evaluate the effectiveness of energy saving methods used in two demo companies in 2009.

On the morning of June 15, 2010, in coordination with the Energy Conservation Office of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Infrastructure Department and the Urban Development Department of the Ministry of Construction, and the Vietnam Energy Efficient Public Lighting (VEEPL) project, the Vietnam Urban Lighting Association and the Anh sang & Cuoc song (Light & Life) magazine organized a workshop to discuss the role of the media in ensuring efficient use of energy for lighting purposes.

The Institute for Building, Science and Technology (IBST) on May 12th held a scientific seminar on “The experiences in implementing energy saving and efficiency program of the EU and Bulgaria and the application of energy efficiency meter software in Vietnam.” Participants of the workshop included Mr. Vladimir Moskov, commissioner of Bulgarian Embassy in Vietnam, Prof. Dr Nikola Geargiev Kaloyanov, Vice-Chancellor of Technical University of Sofia, project director and some other experts. On Vietnam side are Assoc. Prof. Dr Cao Duy Tien, director of IBST, Assoc. Prof. Dr Nguyen Xuan Chinh, deputy director of IBST concurrently project director, other experts from research institutes and universities and other interested researchers.