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New policies include: adjusting the federal production tax credit (PTC) to make it more effective in the midst of the current economic downturn and extending it for a longer term (it expires at the end of 2009); establishing a national renewable electricity standard (RES) with a target of generating at least 25% of the nation's electricity from renewables by 2025, and a near-term target of 10% by 2012 (a Washington Post poll in early December found that 84% of Americans support such a standard); legislation and initiatives to develop a high-voltage interstate transmission "highway" for renewable energy; and strong national climate change legislation.

Comprehensive and accurate information on government interventions in energy markets. Doug Koplow founded Earth Track in 1999 to more effectively integrate information on energy subsidies. For nearly 20 years, Mr. Koplow has written extensively on natural resource subsidies for organizations such as the Global Subsidies Initiative, the National Commission on Energy Policy, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Greenpeace, the Alliance to Save Energy, and the US Environmental Protection Agency. He has analyzed scores of government programs and made important developments in subsidy valuation techniques.

The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) has teamed up with Discovery and the Siemens Foundation to launch a new initiative called the "Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge." The initiative calls on K-12 students to develop green solutions for their schools, homes, and communities. The initiative comprises several components, including introducing students to concepts in sustainability, educating students on environmental issues, building up STEM skills, and, eventually, connecting students with scientists to tackle environmental challenges through real-world projects.

Scientists are developing high-performance energy storage units, a prerequisite for effective hybrid motors.

Project Nova's innovative aerogenerator wind turbine is based on a pair of giant V-shaped composite wings that will be scaled up to 120m high and rotate around the central axis to create power. Invented by David Sharpe and developed by Wind Power Limited, the aim is for a large-scale demonstrator to be installed offshore within six years and for offshore vertical-axis turbines to provide 1GW of power by 2020.

Green Ocean Energy Ltd. has developed a wave power machine that attaches to an offshore wind turbine. The company says the economics of both machines are enhanced as infrastructure such as the foundation and cabling will now be shared.

Big gains await developing countries if they raise their energy productivity, research by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) has found:

Six page article from 2003 provides an in depth discussion on existing and Future Nuclear Systems:  "In Response to the difficulties in achieving sustainability, a sufficiently high degree of safety and a competitive economic basis for nuclear power, the U.S. Department of Energy initiated the Generation IV program in 1999. Generation IV refers to the broad division of nuclear designs into four categories: early prototype reactors (Generation I), the large central station nuclear power plants of today (Generation II), the advanced lightwater reactors and other systems with inherent safety features that have been designed in recent years (Generation III), and the next-generation systems to be designed and built two decades from now (Generation IV) [see box on opposite page]. By 2000 international interest in the Generation IV project had resulted in a nine-country coalition that includes Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, Japan, South Africa, South Korea, the U.K. and the U.S. Participating states are mapping out and collaborating on the research and development of future nuclear energy systems."

National Semi and Advanced Energy Industries cite market declines for layoffs of more than 2,000 global employees.

a battery that is "charged" by applying a large magnetic field to nano-magnets in a device called a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ). The new technology is a step towards the creation of computer hard drives with no moving parts, which would be much faster, less expensive and use less energy than current ones. In the future, the new battery could be developed to power cars. The study will be published in an upcoming issue of Nature and is available in an online advance publication of the journal.

Rubloff and his colleagues have developed an energy storage device that improves on the performance of electrostatic capacitors - a device that stores energy as electric charge. The tiny capacitors consist of a layered structure of metal-insulator-metal thin films. The devices are fabricated in massive arrays using minute holes at a density of 60 billion per square inch.

The public got scared, embraced the "steady as she goes" line, and pretty much derailed any hope of serious federal action on climate change and clean-technology development

Researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology developed a new type of small-scale electric power generator, based on stretching and releasing zinc oxide wires encapsulated in a flexible plastic with two ends bonded.

A major new research, development and demonstration initiative called the Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA) aims to cut the cost of offshore wind energy by 10% or more through a combination of wind farm cost reductions and performance improvements. It will focus on the short to medium-term, covering key topics related to wind farm design, construction and operation

A Norweigan company, SWAY A/S, is developing a deepwater wind turbine system. It seems that this system may offer a technical solution to two issues which are related to wind.  These  issues are that turbines are an eyesore for some and that of positioning turbines to receive a consistent wind flow. By enabling turbines to be placed far out to sea SWAY theoretically overcomes the eyesore issue. Also, wind flow may be more consistent in the open ocean and therefore a more approporiate environment to harvest consistent wind.
 

a new study released by the Common Fund for Commodities at an international forum on biofuels held recently in Kuala Lumpur. "Fundamentally, there is a link between poverty reduction and biofuels sector development that can be promoted," said Ambassador Ali Mchumo, the managing director of the Common Fund in Amsterdam.

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy says efficiency could make an even larger contribution toward stabilizing energy prices and reducing emissions.

I was browsing Greentech Media and learned about a Massachusetts aerospace company called FloDesign that's developed a new wind turbine design around the concept of a jet engine. This could allow for a more efficient wind turbine that produces two to three times more wind power than typical machines.