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Converting livestock manure into a domestic renewable fuel source could generate enough electricity to meet up to three per cent of North America's entire consumption needs and lead to a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), according to new research.

A Canadian company says that it has developed a way for makers of precast concrete products to take all the carbon-dioxide emissions from their factories, as well as neighboring industrial facilities, and store them in the products that they produce by exposing those products to carbon-dioxide-rich flue gases during the curing process. Industry experts say that the technology is unproven but holds great potential if it works.

A tiny rectangle superimposed on the vast expanse of the Sahara captures the seductive appeal of the audacious plan to cut Europe's carbon emissions by harnessing the fierce power of the desert sun. Dwarfed by any of the north African nations, it represents an area slightly smaller than Wales but scientists claimed yesterday it could one day generate enough solar energy to supply all of Europe with clean electricity.

PETROL should be included in Australia's carbon emissions trading scheme, but low-income households should be compensated for higher power and fuel bills, the nation's top climate change expert has warned. Issuing a stern challenge to the Rudd Government to include petrol in the scheme, when it begins in 2010, Ross Garnaut warned of dire consequences for Australia's natural icons unless urgent and decisive action is taken.

A fuel station producing enough hydrogen to run householders' homes and cars has been unveiled today. The British invention, due to go on sale within two years, is roughly the size of a heating boiler and will cost under £2,000. Its creators say it will revolutionise commuting, help homeowners slash energy bills, and give easy access to a fuel that does not produce carbon dioxide emissions, helping to combat climate change.

A leading U.S. Senate Democrat accused the Bush administration on Tuesday of a "cover-up" aimed at stopping the Environmental Protection Agency from tackling greenhouse emissions. "This cover-up is being directed from the White House and the office of the vice president," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, the California Democrat who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

In a ruling believed to be unprecedented, a Georgia judge halted the construction of Dynegy's Longleaf coal-fired power plant because it had not made provisions for reducing its emissions of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas most widely implicated in man-made global warming.

Wind supplied more of Britain's electricity that water for the first time last year, while power generators preferred gas to coal and nuclear output continued to decline, according to new government data. Five percent of Britain's electricity came from renewable sources in 2007, up from 4.6 percent in 2006, as more wind farms started feeding clean electricity into the network, helping cut the country's carbon emissions.

Federal policy-makers have taken few of the steps necessary if greenhouse emissions from coal-fired power plants are to be captured and stored underground, according to a new government report. Coal industry backers are banking that "carbon capture and storage" will allow the industry to survive efforts to control global climate change. But the U.S. Government Accountability Office report, released this week, adds to growing concerns that the technology isn't ready now - and might not be for a long time.

Amid growing concerns over the preservation of the environment, the quest for energy efficient and greener technologies is intensifying in Europe, especially after the signing of the Kyoto Protocol. Green initiatives have encouraged the gravitation towards environmentally friendly technologies such as flywheel UPS systems. The European Commission energy efficiency action plan has also helped drive the uptake of flywheel UPS systems. New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.powersupplies.frost.com), European Flywheel UPS Markets, finds that market earned revenues of over €25.4 million in 2007 and estimates this to reach €58 million in 2014. "Although the technology has been in existence for a long time, it has seen widespread acceptance and increased uptake only over the past three or four years," says Frost & Sullivan programme manager Malavika Tohani. "Flywheel UPS systems use kinetic energy, eliminating harmful emissions and disposal issues and reducing the impact on the environment."

The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lied to Congress about his rejection of a request from California meant to curb global warming emissions, Sen. Barbara Boxer said on Tuesday. Boxer, a California Democrat who has called for EPA chief Stephen Johnson to resign, made the statement at a hearing on regulation of greenhouse gases under the U.S. Clean Air Act.

Energy Matters has a post on a new solar PV farm in Portugal - Portugal's Largest Solar Farm Opens. Portugal's Acciona Energy recently opened the country's largest solar power farm, executing the construction of the project in a record time of 13 months. The solar farm covers an area of 250 hectares in the municipality of Moura (Alentejo region), near the border with Spain. The AUD$571 million 48 MW facility will provide power to over 30,000 Portugese households; producing 93 million kWh of electricity annually and avoiding over 89,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions compared to a similar output via coal fired power generation.

The Guardian has a report on some new tidal power technology from a company in Wales inspired by ship propellers and wind turbines - Tidal power gets a boost from propeller and wind turbine techonology. Propellers on ships have been tried and tested for centuries in the rough and unforgiving environment of the sea: now this long-proven technology will be used in reverse to harness clean energy from the UK's powerful tides. The tides that surge around the UK's coasts could provide up to a quarter of the nation's electricity, without any carbon emissions. But life in the stormy seas is harsh and existing equipment - long-bladed underwater wind turbines - is prone to failure.A Welsh renewable energy company has teamed up with ship propulsion experts to design a new marine turbine which they believe is far more robust.

While harnessing more energy from the wind could help satisfy growing demands for electricity and reduce emissions of global-warming gases, turbulence from proposed wind farms could adversely affect the growth of crops in the surrounding countryside. Solutions to this, and other problems presented by wind farms - containing huge wind turbines, each standing taller than a 60-story building and having blades more than 300 feet long - can be found blowin' in the wind, a University of Illinois researcher says.

Today the Department of Energy (DOE) announced the award of 16 new Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs) that could result in up to $80 billion in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and water conservation projects at federally-owned buildings and facilities. ESPCs help to meet the federal government's energy efficiency, water conservation, and renewable energy goals. The federal government is the largest single user of energy in the United States and these awards demonstrate a commitment to sound government stewardship by recognizing efforts to save energy, reduce federal energy costs, cut greenhouse gas emissions, bring more cutting-edge technologies to use, strengthen national security, and create a stronger economy.

The best ways to improve energy security, mitigate global warming and reduce the number of deaths caused by air pollution are blowing in the wind and rippling in the water, not growing on prairies or glowing inside nuclear power plants, says Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford. And "clean coal," which involves capturing carbon emissions and sequestering them in the earth, is not clean at all, he asserts.

If you don't already know it by now carbon dioxide is the leading cause of global warming. Since it is the largest factor in global warming it would be prudent for us to eliminate this emission first. Although we can never fully eliminate carbon dioxide, because we and every other air breating creature exhale it, it is possible to reduce it enough to the point it doesn't cause global warming.

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."

Imagine cars with no tailpipes and no direct carbon emissions into our atmosphere - powered by an electrical energy system getting cleaner by the year through Renewable Portfolio Standards in effect in California and across the nation. More than a decade ago, I was one of the original owners of the EV1, an electric vehicle produced by General Motors (GM). When GM discontinued the series and reclaimed all of the EV1s, it was a major setback for the American car industry. Instead of leading the charge to create a new generation of vehicles - America fell behind.

Reuters has a report on Australian wave power company Carnegie Corp and the vast potential for wave power in southern Australia - Aussie firm sees buoyant future in wave power. For millennia, Australia's rugged southern coast has been carved by the relentless action of waves crashing ashore. The same wave energy could soon be harnessed to power towns and cities and trim Australia's carbon emissions. "Waves are already concentrated solar energy," says Michael Ottaviano, who leads a Western Australian firm developing a method to turn wave power into electricity. "The earth has been heated by the Sun, creating wind, which created the swells," he told Reuters from Perth, saying wave power had the potential to supply all of Australia's needs many times over.