Despite widespread rumors in North America that Germany was abandoning its system of Advanced Renewable Tariffs, the country's upper chamber of parliament, the Bundesrat, approved the latest revision of its pioneering Renewable Energy Sources Act on July 8.

Australian researchers have developed solar panels which can be painted or printed directly onto a surface. The project is one of several initiatives which have the potential to revolutionise solar energy by eliminating the need for bulky panels which need to be attached to buildings.

The fact that weather varies unpredictably during the day, causing power production to fluctuate is much more important than the lack of sunlight during the night, because power plant operators know exactly when night time starts, so any other power plant can be scheduled to start for night time operation.

Leading television company Sky opened the doors to its new, state-of-the-art production facility in London earlier this week, which is being hailed as the most sustainable broadcasting facility in Europe.

The Verdantix report isn’t the first one to deliver such a finding. Last year Pike Research found that cloud computing could lead to a 38 percent reduction in worldwide data center energy use by 2020, compared to what the growth of data center energy consumption would be without cloud computing.

The China State Council has approved (in principle) a 2011-2015 work plan on energy-saving and emissions reduction, and agreed on the plans for energy conservation and major pollutant emission control.

The test cell exceeds the previous record of 16.7 percent for a solar cell made of cadmium-telluride set by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in 2001.

ABB will design and install an advanced, direct current (DC) power distribution system for green.ch, one of the top information and communications technology (ITC) service providers in Switzerland.

Some eco labels have been useful marketing tools, such as for organic food, but will they work for clean power? The wind energy industry thinks so and proposed a program Wednesday to encourage companies to invest in wind and display their eco-friendly cred.

U.S. airmen are one step closer to going off the grid. The Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., announced the completion of an on-base solar energy farm June 13 that generates up to 6 megawatts of solar power.

The US Navy requires stainless steel for all its PV projects. The project was awarded to AE by Maui Solar Energy Systems, the solar integrator that will construct the project.

Bic Camera Inc.'s Ikebukuro head office in Toshima Ward reported that sales of air conditioners since April have risen 30 percent over a year ago and those of electric fans posted fourfold to fivefold increases. Highly energy-efficient refrigerators are also in big demand.

The wait is nearly over. Car buyers will soon be able to compare models based on government certified fuel efficiency labels before making a final choice without having to wonder which review to trust or go by sales talk.

The companies say they are supportive of the directive, which “will hopefully constitute an important step towards achieving the EU’s 20% energy savings target by 2020”.

As of 2010, 57% of electricity in Latin America and the Caribbean stems from hydro sources while another 40% comes from thermoelectric power plants using fossil fuels and natural gas. Of the remainder, 2% comes from nuclear stations and 1% from wind, solar and geothermal plants.

"It basically becomes a stovetop, and you can heat anything you need to," said Sam Major, a member of the team with seniors Daniel Rist, David Luker and William Dunk. "As long as the autoclave reaches 121 Celsius (250 F) for 30 minutes (the standard set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), everything should be sterile, and we've found we're able to do that pretty easily.

Wadebridge in Cornwall has moved another step towards becoming the first solar powered town in the UK, as PV installations begin to go up across the municipality. The area aims to generate at least a third of its electricity from solar and wind power by 2015, which is the equivalent of 15,000MWh a year. By generating renewable energy at this level, Wadebridge will be able to benefit significantly from the UK’s feed-in tariff, enabling significant cash contributions for local community projects.

The Stevens Institute of Technology Chemical Engineering Senior Design team of Rachel Kenion, Liana Vaccari, and Katie Van Strander designed, fabricated, and tested biochar electrodes for supercapacitors. The group is advised by Dr. Woo Lee, the George Meade Bond Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science.

Ministers have tried to address public lack of trust in energy companies by offering assurances about the “Green Deal” – a policy designed to improve the energy efficiency of homes. Under this plan, any householder will be able to spend up to £10,000 making their home more energy efficient, funded by the savings from future gas and electricity bills.

According to the DOE’s statement, the $25 million it is providing will need to be matched by the winning universities, national labs, private companies or others who apply and are accepted for the program. Initially, the grant recipients are meant to focus on three specific areas, including building energy efficiency, second-generation biofuels and solar energy.

Germany's solar photovoltaic (PV) industry now employs more workers than steel production in the USA. With over 100,000 "green jobs" in PV alone, around 75 percent of European solar cells and modules as well as countless components are made in Germany. Record-breaking domestic demand is a key industry driver, with 7.4 GWp of PV capacity installed in 2010.

A series of new, larger turbines with longer blades have been launched into the market recently as manufacturers strive to deliver the lowest cost of energy with the next generation of designs. London, UK A trend towards larger capacity turbines with longer blades and larger rotor diameters has been long established, with OEMs continuing to offer existing machines with a range of rotor diameters. But now, a new generation of still larger machines has been unveiled.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is backing a drive to increase solar energy capacity in Asia-Pacific by six-fold to 3,000 megawatts by 2013.The ADB plans to provide up to US$2.25 billion in financing for solar projects and draw in a further $6.75 billion, mainly from the private sector, said Xiaoyu Zhao, vice-president for operations.

The US administration will only buy vehicles using alternative energy sources to equip its fleet by the end of 2015, President Barack Obama announced Tuesday. The timeline is part of Obama's plan to cut US oil imports by a third by 2025 and put a million advanced vehicles on the road by 2015.

The idea is simple, says Kevin Moeller, PhD, and yet it has huge implications. All we are recommending is using photovoltaic cells (clean energy) to power electrochemical reactions (clean chemistry). Moeller is the first to admit this isn't new science. "But we hope to change the way people do this kind of chemistry by making a connection for them between two existing technologies," he says.