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There have been major strides in producing everything from sandals to military hardware in more eco-friendly ways. Likewise, the reduction of waste has also been improved, through both new technology and behavioral changes. But perhaps the most intriguing sector of the "sustainability industry" is the one populated by companies and organizations capturing waste and converting it into useful, carbon-neutral resources.

Geothermal resources have been successfully utilized in many locations worldwide with significant economic rewards, but geothermal energy for electrical power is currently an untapped, power source in the Canadian energy market and specifically in Canadian oilfield operations. At present, this hot water resource is readily available through the existence of numerous deep, end-of-life oil and gas wells in the Canadian Foothills and the use of the hot water resource for electricity production has the potential to increase energy efficiency and offer carbon offsets for the oil and gas companies.

"Human history has been the story of obtaining and using increasing quantities and quality of energy. Till right about now. Today, human society is well into a transition from increasing to decreasing availability of energy and other resources--a circumstance that is also worsened by our increasing populations. In that context, the EnergyResources Group aims at objective and accurate understanding of what this means to our lives and future."

Aren't the terms '50' and 'Manhattan project' in the same sentence an apparant contradiction. If we have to invent the atomic bomb 50 times, we'd be in real trouble.

My brother, Abe, and his wife, Josie, built an amazing house down in Terlingua, Texas, basically out of mud and empty bottles. OK, that's oversimplifying it, but they built the dwelling with their own hands, mostly out of adobe, rocks they collected from their property, and other scrounged materials. It's a beautiful, self-sufficient abode that includes a rainwater catchment system, solar and wind power, and a groovy Tolkienesque fireplace. They've now moved to the state of Chihuahua in Mexico, and are working on another house while raising a new baby.

My Clean Break column today is actually more of a feature looking at compressed-air energy storage (CAES) and how Ontario, geologically, would be an excellent location to give it a try. About 50,000 natural gas and oil wells have been drilled in southwestern Ontario over the past 150 years and most of them are depleted. Turns out that depleted gas fields are one of several types of underground reservoir that can be used to store compressed air. Salt caverns are another option, and we have plenty of those as well. In fact, 60 per cent of Canada's natural gas storage is in the region. Compressing and storing air wouldn't be that different technically. Another benefit is that southwestern Ontario has strong wind resources, so building a 1,000 MW-plus CAES facility on its own or as part of a partnership with area wind developers could prove quite economical. The idea, of course, is that cheap wind power generated overnight when demand is down could be used to compress and store the air. The air could then be released to generate electricity during daytime peaks, making wind a dispatchable resource in Ontario and more of a realistic replacement for coal power as it gets phased out of the province. Surplus overnight nuclear power, when we have it (mostly during the summer), could also be stored this way.

I thought it was about time I put out a wind power generators guide for those who want to know the top resources in this area.

The UK renewable energy industry can meet the European Union target of generating 20 percent of the region's electricity from renewable resources by 2020 with effective government support, said the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA)in a recent statement.

The UK renewable energy industry can meet the European Union target of generating 20 percent of the region's electricity from renewable resources by 2020 with effective government support, said the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA)in a recent statement.

Homeowners this fall will be able to buy a wind turbine at hardware stores that tackles the small wind industry's bete noire: slow wind. WindTronics has developed a wind turbine sized for individual homes that it says can operate at speeds as low as 2 miles an hour. It will be sold for $4,500 as the Honeywell Wind Turbine... ... generate 2,000 kilowatt-hours in a year for a home with a very good--called Class 4--wind resource, according to the company. That's between 15 and 20 percent of the annual electricity consumption for the average U.S. home.

"The renewable energy map has been developed to fill what seems to be a gap in information about the major renewable energy schemes in the UK. Though there are a number of lists and project details available, these are often developed to indicate a point in time or a specific technology. The BWEA is an example of the latter, an excellent resource but specifically focused on wind. The data that has been gathered for the renewables map has invariably come from a wide range of web resources, in all cases these will be referenced, usually by a link to that information. Locations are either taken from existing data, usually from planning applications, or by painstakingly identifying the location on the ground using online maps. There are of course errors (such as landfill's at sea), though these are corrected as soon as they are identified."

"The German government has dubbed 2010 the "Energy Year" during which it will fund energy-related research projects with more than $600 million. It's one of the biggest challenges of our time: How should we shape our energy mix in times of a changing climate, dwindling natural resources and a growing demand for energy in quickly growing economies? Germany aims to tackle -- and maybe even answer -- this question this year with a multitude of events and funding efforts linked to the energy mix. "Financing energy research is among the top priorities of our science agenda," Germany's Science Minister Annette Schavan said Monday in Berlin. "The Energy Year is aimed at bringing into the middle of our society a debate about new solutions and concepts for the future energy mix." "

The development of renewables in an oil state - worth an article on Leonardo ENERGY? Or a story already told too many times?