Mercedes-Benz has already started the production of a small series of 100 Vito E-CELL electric vans and according to the company, another 2,000 units are planned for 2011.The van, targeted for particularly environmentally sensitive areas and for inner-city operations, is based on the long-wheelbase Mercedes-Benz Vito with a typical roof.

International Green Energy Expo Korea 2010 was chosen as the venue where SunPods SP-300 was first displayed. This is the first factory built-to-order solar-powered integrated electric-vehicle charging station – ready for powering up immediately. This ready-to-use solar power platform from SunPods is called EV Plug-N-Go.

DOE announced on July 22 the creation of the Fuels from Sunlight Energy Innovation Hub to develop revolutionary methods of generating fuels directly from sunlight. The Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP), led by the California Institute of Technology in partnership with the DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, will operate the initiative.

Success greets the research team of National Research Council’s National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT) and the University of Alberta. The plastic solar cells have now an operating life of 8 months instead of mere hours. And they are low-cost, environmentally efficient, unsealed plastic dollar cells – a green energy source.

Wednesday Hawaiian Electric Company asked the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission to approve a proposal for an Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Rate Pilot Project with reduced rates to encourage early adoption of electric vehicles and help make Hawaii EV-ready.

The USC team's graphene organic photovoltaics, recently discussed in the journal ACS Nano, have a host of benefits: They're flexible, cheap to produce, are easy to manufacture, and they're light-weight. And while they're considerably less efficient than silicon cells, they offer unique applications.

According to a new study, the Caribbean islands represent one of the perfect location for the development of renewable energy. Qualibou believes that by drilling in the right places, they can build a geothermal plant capable to produce about 150 megawatts of geothermal power.

The rise of the electric vehicle segment, as well as the industries which support it, is making companies not usually linked with EVs get into the heat of the moment and announce their involvement in the market.The chargers, announced by ECOtality this week, will be offered in two models, one for in-home use (residential wall-mount ) and one for commercial use (stand-alone charger). The chargers are currently undergoing testing for Underwriters Laboratories (UL) certification.

Honolulu-based Natural Power Concepts has recently designed a mobile, retractable-blade wind turbine that is capable to generate both solar and wind energy. Being equipped with solar panels, this turbine becomes one of the newest inventions in the alternative energy field.

In order to help India’s rural masses who lack electricity, Vodafone Essar Ltd. recently developed a solar-powered mobile phone. According to officials, there are almost 20 million new mobile subscribers each month in India. The problem is that many of them live in rural areas, where the energy supply can be patchy at best.

Dubbed Plugless Power, the device makes use of proximity charging technology to power the vehicle. Evatran’s system works by using a shoebox-sized device mounted to the undercarriage of the vehicle and a parking block which also contains a transmitter that can move within the box and thus get as close as possible to the receiver on the vehicle.

They opted for the computer simulations to probe deeper into the indium/gallium combination to increase the efficiency of Copper indium gallium (di)selenide (CIGS) thin-film solar cells. Till now CIGS has shown only about 20% efficiency though theoretically they can attain the efficiency levels of 30%.

Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena were selected to lead the ambitious research project, the energy department announced Thursday. Its aim is to master the basic science involved, and develop applications that can be scaled up for commercial use.

The United Arab Emirates is a world leader in oil exports, but if Sultan Al Jaber has his way, the Middle East nation one day will become the global leader in alternative energy. "The United Arab Emirates has the third-largest oil reserves in the world. But that does not mean oil and gas will be there forever," said Mr. Al Jaber, an anternationally recognized alternative energy expert.

Forget about revolutionary light-weight composite materials: a four-seater propeller plane is more likely to hold the key to the future of aviation. Or at least that's the hope of European aerospace and defense giant EADS.

The REF – a World Bank-supported public institution aiming to provide electricity to every Cambodian village by 2020 – plans to sell the solar panels to rural households on a monthly payment basis, executive director Loeung Keosela was quoted by the Phnom Penh Post as saying.

Students at Cambridge University look towards hydropower to light up homes in developing countries. Deniz Erkan, Li Jiang and Ned Stuart-Smith have developed a portable hydroelectric generator that is capable of producing up to 1kW of power when installed in free-flowing rivers. The 500kg device designed by these third-year students does not require special infrastructure or equipment, it is very easy to install.

RoseStreet Labs Energy Inc. (RSLE) reveals its IBand technology as the first successful attempt at multiband, high-efficiency photovoltaic solar.No, I'm not talking about a nifty cover for your Ipod Touch or some strange wristband that remembers who you've shaken hands with.

The building of new renewable energy sources continued to outstrip new fossil fuel power plants in Europe and the US during 2009, a report has shown. The UN-backed study said renewables accounted for 60% of new electricity generation capacity in Europe. And in the US, green electricity accounted for more than half of the generation capacity built last year.

ATK, a company that builds the space shuttles’ booster rockets may have a solution for the massively-polluting coal power plants, by using rocket nozzle technology to turn the carbon dioxide into dry ice, and capture it easier than they can do with chemicals.

Microalgae could be one key to a more sustainable, less risk energy future for the U.S., and researchers are working on several fronts to find a low cost, high efficiency process for extracting renewable biofuel from the tiny plants. At Unitel Technologies, Inc., researchers have developed a microalgae – to – biofuel process that leaps over at least one obstacle, and that is the large amount of energy currently required by most oil extraction methods.

Today a long-standing electronic dream has become a reality thanks to research done by a team of scientists from Bar-Ilan University, Israel, supported by U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Producing superconducting nano-scale wires to facilitate faster and more powerful electronic devices has been the long-time ambition which had eluded achievement until now.

As much as we all want coal as an energy source to go away completely, we also know it will take the government and private sector sometime (too long in our opinion) to fully move to clean energy sources. In the meanwhile, methods need to be developed which can minimize the impact of fossil fuel usage on the environment.

Germany already leads the world on renewable energy and could become first G20 country to kick the fossil-fuel habit. Germany could derive all of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2050 and become the world's first major industrial nation to kick the fossil-fuel habit, the country's Federal Environment Agency said today.

Spain's industry ministry has reached agreements with two key renewable energy lobbies, the Spanish Wind Energy Association and Protermosolar, aimed at reducing special tariff premiums for wind farms and solar thermal plants.

This could very well be the magic formula for future power generation. Yes, scientists are busy crafting what is now called as “solid organic electric battery based upon treated potatoes.” These are absolutely eco-friendly batteries – based on the hidden powers of potatoes – which will be an economical answer to the growing power needs of developing and developed countries.