A few days ago, the Israel-based energy company ZenithSolar has officially unveiled its 3rd generation Solar Z20. Being installed in Kibbutz Yavne in central Israel, the solar energy generator is a combined heat and power system, able to deliver 72% efficiency.

The first factory to manufacture the Nissan Leaf, in Oppama, Japan, started producing functional units on October 22. The first shipments will be made to Japan and the US this November and to Europe starting December. The Nissan Leaf uses lithium-ion batteries made by Automotive Energy Supply Corp, the joint venture between NEC and Nissan.

Floating wind turbines are a little more complicated and require higher initial costs. But a new study, Project Deepwater, by the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) in the UK has found that due to their greater ability to access stronger and more consistent winds deeper out at sea, they are more economically efficient in the long term.

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.

We’ve been talking a while ago about Michael Strano and his thin carbon nanotubes that can transform fuel poured onto them into electricity. A chemical reaction is set up by heating the nanotubes, triggering the transformation at a speed of 10 meters per second.

While disposal of sharps (used needles and syringes) at hospitals and other large healthcare facilities is highly regulated, medical waste disposal by the ten million people who self-inject at home for diabetes and other conditions is largely unregulated. The health risks and resulting economic costs of improper sharps disposal are immense, from needles and syringes washing up on beaches and possibly creating needlesticks, to needlestick injuries that can expose sanitation and other workers to infection risk.

The project is following up on a pre-feasibility study conducted by the Clinton Climate Initiative. Fluor’s task is to develop a conceptual master plan to be unveiled at the South African Solar Park Investors Conference (Oct. 28 and 29), which will be held in the Northern Cape Province.

Results from EECA's energy audit programme show that on average, companies can shave 20% off their energy use and costs - 10% at little or no cost and a further 10% with a simple payback of less than five years. Typically, for every dollar invested in an energy audit, $7.50 of energy savings are identified.

Leave it to larger-than-life Texas to lead the U.S. into a new energy future. While the state is most closely associated with oil, it has also been an early pioneer of wind power, and is beginning to embrace solar energy along with armloads of new green jobs. Now the San Antonio Water System has set the national bar high in the sewage-to-biogas field, by becoming the first water district to hook a biogas facility up to a commercial gas pipeline.

With the second largest tidal range in the world, about 50 feet, the Severn estuary has been eyed for years as a potential energy source, particularly as the appetite for sustainable energy sources has been growing over the last few years. The U.K. has pledged to have 40 percent of its electricity generated from renewable sources by 2020 to meet European Union requirements.

At three feet (11 meters) tall, the SunCatcher is almost four times bigger than the world’s largest biological flower, the Sumatran titan arum. It has parabolic petals that appear virtually flat, like those of a buttercup. The device is made up of 40 mirrors, tightly arranged into a 3,400-square-foot (315-square-meter) dish that, like a real flower, angles toward the sun.

The ‘Global Wind Energy Outlook 2010’ (GWEO 2010) finds that wind power could play a key role in satisfying the world’s increasing power demand, while at the same time achieving major greenhouse gas emissions reductions. The 1,000 GW of wind power capacity projected to be installed by 2020 would save as much as 1.5 billion tonnes of CO2 every year.

The park, which will have its grand opening on October 22nd, has been built to showcase SANYO’s energy solutions to customers and to demonstrate efficient energy utilization. With the Kasai Green Energy Park, SANYO, a member of the Panasonic Group, will help reduce CO2 emissions all over the world, promoting ‘energy solutions for entire homes, buildings and cities’.

After participating in the GE Ecomagination Challenge and winning $50,000, Scott Brusaw and his wife Julie Brusaw are much more optimistic in what concerns their Solar Roadways project, which aims to make the road produce electricity through embedded solar panels.

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?

There are more than two billion people worldwide with no access to drinking water. This is the reason why researchers over the globe are trying to find solutions such as desalination. This reverse osmosis of water is the most efficient and economical form of desalination but the problem is that it needs 3 kWh per cubic meter of water. Solar panels and wind turbines can be used to supply this power.

DOE encourages the growth of these programs nationwide by selecting exemplary programs to receive Green Power Leadership Awards. This year's winners include 3Degrees, Bonneville Environmental Foundation, SolarCity and SunRun – recognized by DOE as the Non-Utility Green Power Suppliers of the Year – and La Plata Electric Association and Portland General Electric – recognized as the Utility Green Power Programs of the Year.

Arizona is one of the four most improved states in terms of energy efficiency, according to a study released today by the American Council for an Energy – Efficient Economy. The state ranked 18th, up 11 spots from 2009, tying Utah for the most movement. Close behind were New Mexico and Alaska, which both leaped eight spots.

California has topped the American Council for an Energy Efficiency Economy (ACEEE)’s state energy efficiency ranking for a fourth year in a row. The State Energy Efficiency Scorecard ranks each region on its energy efficiency policies, programmes, transport policy, building performance codes, combined heat and power and appliance standards.

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.

The schools superintendent dubbed her the Princess of Darkness. Co-workers have nicknamed her the Queen of Green. Just don't call Susan Warren a spendthrift. The Freedom High School art and yoga teacher has an improbable second set of job duties these days: Identify situations in which the school district is wasting energy -- and eliminate them.

A Chevrolet Volt electric vehicle seen here October 7 charging at a solar-powered charging station in Detroit, Michigan. More than 5,300 charging stations will be installed in Michigan as the birthplace of the US auto industry prepares for the introduction of electric cars.

Municipal governments looking to tap into New Jersey’s cost-saving energy audit or “Direct Install” programs can get the assistance they need under a shared services program unveiled by the Burlington County Freeholders in cooperation with the county Bridge Commission.

The city may enter a three-year contract aimed at saving the city an estimated $3 million on electric power acquisition and distribution over 12 years for $1.8 million over three years. The proposed agreement would be made with non-profit American Municipal Power Inc. (AMP) to operate an energy efficiency program called Efficiency Smart Power Plant. Cuyahoga Falls has its own municipal electric system and purchases power through AMP.

South Yorkshire is the greenest part of Yorkshire, according to The Energy Saving Trust. The Trust says that since April people in South Yorkshire have installed more renewable energy systems than the rest of the region put together. There are now a total of 426 installations in the county - most of them in Sheffield, followed by Rotherham, Barnsley, and then Doncaster. That compares with 199 installations in West Yorkshire, 78 in North Yorkshire and 40 in the Humber.