The people of Japan may be some of the most energy conscious in the world, and now Panasonic, with the help of eight partner companies, is looking to make them even greener. The project, which would as much re-building as it would be building, aims to turn on of Panasonic's former factory sites into a green smart town.

The Rome-based Global Bioenergy Partnership today released a voluntary policy for producing and using biomass and biofuels in ways that don’t add to climate change or affect food prices. The partnership, established in 2005 by the Group of Eight nations and five emerging economies, also includes 13 international organizations and institutions.

The 26th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (26th EU PVSEC) will take place in Hamburg, Germany, at the CCH Congress Centre and International Fair Hamburg. The Conference extends over 5 days from 5-9 September 2011, the Exhibition runs over 4 days from 5-8 September 2011.

Scientists at Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, have further boosted the energy conversion efficiency of flexible solar cells made of copper indium gallium (di)selenide (also known as CIGS) to a new world record of 18.7 percent -- a significant improvement over the previous record of 17.6 percent achieved by the same team in June 2010.

Two months on from the natural disasters that ravaged Japan’s infrastructure and economy, its government has said it is determined to plough forward with efforts in the field of sustainable development through trilateral cooperation. The country has committed to promote the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency to reach sustainable growth in the country as it rebuilds itself, officials said in a statement on Sunday.

Germany is coping without about three quarters of its nuclear power capacity by burning more climate-warming coal, reaping the rewards of renewables investments, and importing more French atomic energy. The shutdown over the weekend of another nuclear plant means almost 16 gigawatts of German nuclear power capacity was offline Monday, with nearly half of the capacity ordered to shut by the government in reaction to the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March.

Efficiency is a problem with today's solar panels; they only collect about 20 percent of available light. Now, a University of Missouri engineer has developed a flexible solar sheet that captures more than 90 percent of available light, and he plans to make prototypes available to consumers within the next five years.

More evidence that clear, strong policies are key to renewable energy development came recently via the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). In a statement issued by the association, some statistics about wind energy growth in the country and the states that lead in wind energy development indicate that areas with strong policy are driving development at an impressive pace.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday that the accident at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant suggested that there were large gaps in international systems to deal with safety breaches. Ban also announced a high-level international meeting on the issue in New York on September 22 during the UN General Assembly session.

The EU must spend €270 billion over the next 40 years to meet its 2050 energy objectives, including an increased focus on energy efficiency across the power chain. According to the latest Responsible Energy for European Regions (REFER) Report, it is not just about end-users and demand side efficiency – rather, energy efficiency must encompass the entire value chain.

Two Citroen C1 models fitted with the inductive system as well as a standard plug-in charger will form part of the Coventry and Birmingham Low Emission Demonstrators (CABLED) consortium testing programme, which comes under the umbrella of the Technology Strategy Board's £25m Ultra-Low Carbon Vehicle Demonstrator competition.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is anything but a left-wing greenie. The party she leads, the Christian Democratic Union, is the political equivalent of the Republicans in the U.S. Her coalition government is decidedly pro-business. Often described as Europe's most powerful politician, Merkel's top priority is job creation and economic growth.

The U.S. Postal Service – Office of Inspector General is to merge four of its data centres this month to save operating costs while increasing capacity and energy efficiency. The U.S. Postal Service – Office of Inspector General (USPS OIG) will house its consolidated data centres in one new state-of-the-art facility.

The report, Why a Green Economy Matters for the Least Developed Countries, was jointly issued by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and the UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS)

In a sunny corner of Italy that produces roses and olive oil, an American startup will get to demonstrate its technology to harvest both electricity and heat. Solergy, which is in the process of raising a B round of funding, plans to install a hybrid solar electric and thermal system on top of a greenhouse for the farm Azienda Agricola Ciccolella in the Puglia region, and intends to team up with Ciccolella to market Solergy’s systems to growers in the area, said Yoav Banin, Solergy’s CEO.

Leaked Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report predicts a 100 exajoule increase in renewable energy capacity. The United Nations is set to forecast substantial increases in the deployment of renewable energy through to 2050 as clean technologies such as wind and solar power improve and costs fall.

The Uboat concept design by Wyatt Little of Houston, Texas, tackles all the major issues associated with green living on a boat. Electricity for the Uboat is provided courtesy of 3 Schüco 180 Watt, 16 Volt solar panels, mounted to a green roof (which we assume can also grow herbs and veggies for human consumption).

Over the past ten years, Asia has suffered from an investment gap and a lack of confidence in clean energy private equity, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB. Johanna Klein, investment officer at the capital markets and financial sectors division at ADB, said its role has been to identify these funding constraints and address them with their own and private sector funding.

Facebook’s new, state-of-the-art data center is situated on 120 acres of land in Central Oregon. The campus will be completed in two phases, each consisting of 150,000 square feet of data warehousing space. Phase I has been completed, with phase II scheduled for completion at the end of this year.

Key findings from an upcoming climate change report released by the United Nations are expected to show that cost reductions in the renewable energy sector are likely to continue through to 2050, boosting their deployment.

The discovery is an important development in the worldwide effort to mimic the way plants make fuel from sunlight, a key step in creating a green energy economy. It was reported last week in Nature Materials by theorist Jens Norskov of the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University and a team of colleagues led by Ib Chorkendorff and Soren Dahl at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU).

Shropshire farmer Paul Parton could make more than £500,000 over the next 25 years by generating his own energy through solar PV panels installed on the roofs of his poultry units.Paul, who runs Parton’s Poulets in Market Drayton, is among the growing ranks of farmers nationwide finding new non-agricultural means of generating income in an increasingly competitive industry.

The Eco Fire Pot Stove is an innovation that uses biodiesel, which allows women in developing countries to cook using a comparatively much cleaner cooking gas fuel than the toxic fuel-producing substances like wood, kerosene and coal. The stove is cheaper in price for this is now made of sheet metal but is also possible to make the stove from scrap metal, clay and bricks, which means the cost spent will be more only for the burner.

The Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) is all set to establish first on-grid solar electricity generation system in the country during the current year to overcome energy crisis.“This solar system and smart grid is becoming a reality in less than a year,” said PEC Chairperson Senator Rukhsana Zuberi, addressing a press conference Saturday.

The Japanese carmaker said it wants to accelerate the development and eventual implementation of wireless charging for cars. “The charging of a plug-in hybrid or electric vehicle could be as simple and convenient as parking near an embedded charger at a home or in a parking facility,” Toyota said in a press release.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is to award bioenergy and biobased products with research grants in order to further the development of sustainable projects. After the selection process, the chosen projects will implement sustainable regional systems for the production of biofuels.