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Concentrating solar power (CSP) is an emerging technology that offers the potential to supply utility-scale peaking power competitively. In December 2008, a 1.5 MWe solar thermal central receiver system was declared operational by plant construction company Kraftanlagen Munchen. Although solar tower technology had been built as early as the 1970s and a second commercial tower is now close to completion (see REW magazine July/August 2008) the so-called Test and Demonstration Power Plant Julich, in Germany, is the world's first solar thermal power plant erected which uses air as the medium for heat transport. In all previous plants liquid media such as molten salt or oil have been used for the obvious reason of their high specific heat capacity, which in turn results in low volume flow rates and low pumping losses.

Builder and author Shay Salomon finds that the happiest home builders are often the ones with the smallest houses. They're less costly to build and maintain, more likely to be finished, use fewer resources and help people simplify their lives. One version of "smaller" is to share a house, which can ease our loneliness while building our social network. Co-founder of the Small House Society, Shay notes that scaling down can enable a ratcheting up of our whole lifestyle, as we revalue quality over quantity. Declaring "Enough", she says, is the most ecological thing one can do.

(NaturalNews) Scientists have increasingly warned that a hasty switch from fossil fuels to biofuels may actually accelerate global warming rather than helping to avert it, leading U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown to declare his opposition to new European Union biofuel standards that will soon be going into effect.

The Bush administration yesterday unveiled but immediately disparaged a proposal to seek public comment on whether the government should regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act, declaring at the outset that the proposed approach would be unworkable.

Twenty years ago NASA scientist, James Hansen told Congress that the use of fossil fuels was causing global warming. Earlier this year, Hansen and several co-authors published a paper titled Target Atmospheric CO2 that declared the amount of carbon reduction that needs to happen "if humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to put to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted."

Ecoinvent v2.1 is a life cycle inventory database that contains more than 4000 LCI datasets in the areas of agriculture, energy supply, transport, biofuels and biomaterials, bulk and speciality chemicals, construction materials, packaging materials, basic and precious metals, metals processing, ICT and electronics as well as waste treatment. The high-quality generic LCI datasets are based on industrial data and have been compiled by internationally renowned research institutes and LCA consultants. The data is available in the EcoSpold data format, and is compatible with all major LCA and eco-design software tools. Ecoinvent is used by more than 1500 users in more than 40 countries worldwide and is included in the leading LCA software tools as well as in various eco-design tools for building and construction, waste management or product design. It can be used for Integrated Product Policy (IPP), Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Life Cycle Management (LCM) and Design for Environment (DfE)."

A 2000 report by the World Commission on Dams showed a huge fall in popularity, leading some to declare the era of the dam was over. Almost two decades on and they are enjoying something of a renaissance. Andrew Tunnicliffe speaks with Professor Benjamin Sovacool about the impact dams have on the socioeconomics of a country and why corruption is often rife.