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Matthew Simmons has received quite a bit of press in the past week, after his Ocean Energy Institute floated a proposal to build a $25 billion, 5 GW wind farm in the Gulf of Maine. Offshore wind farms have a number of advantages over their land based equivalents - they are less hazardous to wildlife, have fewer objections raised on NIMBY concerns and winds are generally stronger over the oceans than they are over land.

One man in the classroom earned more than $100,000 framing tract homes during the building heyday. Another installed pools and piloted a backhoe. Behind him sat a young father who made a good living swinging a hammer in southern Utah. But that was before construction jobs vanished like a fast-moving dust storm in this blustery high desert. Hard times have brought them to a classroom in Kern County, about 120 miles northeast of Los Angeles, to learn a different trade. Tonight's lesson: how to avoid death and dismemberment. This is Wind Technology Boot Camp at Cerro Coso Community College, where eight weeks of study and $1,000 in tuition might lead to a job repairing mammoth wind turbines sprouting up across the nation.

In a new study, conducted by the Rock Mountain Institute, it has been found that electricity consumption can be reduced by 30 percent through energy efficiency and coal powered power generation can be reduced by 60 percent. vote nowBuzz up! The study, which spanned across 50 states, identified five states with highest electric productivity rates - New York, Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware and California - and stated that if all other states were to adopt similar efficiency parameters are implemented in other states the whole country can save up to 1.2 million gigawatt-hours annually. The study also brought out the long-term benefits of improving the electric productivity

A trend is spreading through small towns across Germany. Tight budgets have forced hard decisions, including turning the lights out at night. No one is on the streets at night anyway, so why pay for the electricity to run the street lights? But residents have revolted. They fear an uptick in crime, or simply for their safety while stumbling through the dark streets to walk the dog or return from a late night out. Proving necessity is the mother of invention, a handful of clever solutions are being implemented; some with interesting consequences. The solution seems to have started in the small town of Morgenröthe-Rautenkranz in the Erzegebirge. Over one and a half years ago, the 900 citizens of Morgenröthe-Rautenkranz were plunged into darkness each night, but given the option to turn the lights on by mobile telephone. Older citizens were concerned about their ability to master this new technology, but practice makes perfect. The first two weeks of the program, the lights remained on almost all night long as residents remained awake late for an opportunity to test the new system! But now the lights stay off except when needed. The town saves 4000 euros ($5300) per year. According to the Berliner Morgenpost daily newspaper, Morgenröthe-Rautenkranz is the inspiration for 4300 person community of Groß Pankow, the most recent community to consider on-call streetlight.

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.

As part of the Senate's proposed tax stimulus plan, tax credits of up to $7500 have been included for plug-in electric vehicles! This is huge proposal and signifies the Senate is willing to work with President Obama to wean the United States off its dependency on foreign oil.

Spiegel Online published a series of pictures titled "Desertec: Strom aus der Wüste" (translation: Desertech: Electricity from the desert). It includes this image of how much land would be needed to power the world, Europe or Germany with solar-thermal power. The idea is similar to a post we did a year ago: How Much Land to Power The Whole World with Solar?

The virtual march will wrap up on Friday, but between now and then, march organizers are mobilizing Pickens' New Energy Army to voice support for the Pickens Plan, including a bill introduced just today into the House of Representatives called the NAT GAS Act. "I applaud Congressmen Boren, Larson, and Sullivan for introducing the NAT GAS Act today. In doing so, they're showing that a bi-partisan approach to energy policy is not only possible, but do-able," said Pickens in a statement. Pickens will be in Washington this week, attending meetings, bill introductions, press conferences and meeting with the news media.

Bayer has honored the Professor Eberhard Jochem of the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI) for "pioneering technical and economic contributions to energy efficiency." Professor Jochem's commitment to environmental causes dates to his childhood, when he observed a cloud of pollution darkening his home while returning to the Ruhr district of Germany from a trip through the Netherlands by bicycle. Professor Jochem believes that a "commercially profitable 80 percent boost in energy efficiency in the industrialized nations" is possible before the end of this century. By combining his theotical and practical expertise, Professor Jochem has proven that hypothesis, making him a particularly effective advocate for energy efficiency. The key contributors to this tremendous goal are described further below.

As the site says Climate science from climate scientists. This page has links for complete beginners.

In February, President Obama called for a doubling of the US renewable energy capacity within three years. Yesterday, Obama visited a wind energy company in Newton, Iowa and again emphasized the importance of new forms of power generation: "Now, the choice we face is not between saving our environment and saving our economy. The choice we face is between prosperity and decline. We can remain the world's leading importer of oil, or we can become the world's leading exporter of clean energy." vote nowBuzz up! With billions in stimulus dollars heading toward improving the electricity grid and building sustainable energy infrastructure, emission-free power may be coming to your neighborhood sooner than you think. Here are five of the biggest, most ambitious projects that are in the pipeline, both in the US and elsewhere.

If China's addicted to solar hot water heating, the city of Dezhou is it's dealer (and one of it's biggest customers). A new video from Greenpeace, above, highlights the build-up of solar among residents and as an industry. Some facts from this shining example: Of the city's 5.5 million residents, almost all living in the new town use solar heating, and about 90 percent of homes in the old town have solar heating. In 2007, 800,000 people had jobs in the solar panel industry, or about one in three people of working age in the city. That figure is expected to grow to 150,000 by 2020. No wonder: Dezhou is home to the world's biggest solar water heater manufacturer. And compared with an electric heater, a solar heater in Dezhou, which starts at about US$190, pays for itself in five and a half years. The numbers in Western countries, by comparison, make us want to shield our eyes.

The whole thing is happening without flashy ad campaigns, so it's not surprising if you've never heard of municipal solar financing. But the financing program, also known as property tax financing, is a veritable underground solar revolution. It all started in Berkeley, CA with the Berkeley FIRST Program, which allows homeowners to pay for solar panels through property tax bills over a 20 year period. The bills carry a fixed interest rate and stay with the house, so there's no need to worry about paying for panels on a house you don't live in anymore. The Berkeley program was so popular that California passed the AB811 bill to let any interested city in the state launch a similar program.

Officially grid-connected and set to work this week in Germany is a new wind tower from ATS. The novel tower construction allows very high hub heights that may increase a turbine's yield by 20% or more. With its hub height of 133 meters (436 feet), the system has an overall height of 180 meters (590 feet). "This is a great day for wind energy." said Frans Brughuis, Managing Director of the tower construction specialist Advanced Tower Systems (ATS). "Now the pilot project can demonstrate the high cost-effectiveness and efficiency of the ATS concept," The system, one of the largest wind energy systems with hybrid tower in the world, is installed at Germany's Windtest test field at Grevenbroich, near Cologne.

Wandering through the Maker Fair expo, I came across this solar charger I hadn't heard of before. It's called GoBe, and looks like a great portable way to charge up some hefty devices, possibly even your laptop. It comes in two parts - a brief case-sized fold-out solar panel that can be propped up at different angles, and a lantern-sized battery pack. The solar panel has a max of 13 watts, which means you'll get back-up power to a laptop after a day's worth of charging, but can't really run a laptop off of it. However, it's great for charging up the GoBe hub so you have spare power for a wide range of other devices.