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"About the 2050 calculator This tool is an interface to the first version of a calculator to help policymakers, the energy industry and the public understand these choices. This work is not about choosing a pathway out to 2050 today - such a task would not be feasible given the major unknowns and timeframe involved. However, this work enables us to better manage some significant long-term uncertainties and helps us to avoid making long-term decisions that are incompatible with meeting our 2050 emissions target."

Interesting that EWEA develops this kind of tool.

The tool takes information such as your postcode, local surroundings and the type of turbine being considered and works out how much power it could generate, the costs and the level of carbon savings.

Steven Chu at the Department of Energy just opened up $346 million in stimulus funds for boosting the energy efficiency of new and existing buildings - but thinking ahead to new design, he wants the best ideas to be incorporated into structure designs from the beginning. How better tap into the hive mind than with an open-source software platform. He wants the DOE to provide advanced design tools for free or at very low cost so that it will become almost automatic that builders use the tools.

Low Carbon West Oxford's EcoLibrary of shared energy saving tools

Fourteen California counties and 126 cities launched the nation's largest PACE program, an innovative financing tool to help commercial property owners reduce their buildings' energy and water use, under the auspices of California's largest state...

"t is a crucial, if geekish, point: Wind and solar power are NOT intermittent, they are VARIABLE. If someone talks about problems with the intermittencies of wind and solar energies, it is out of ignorance or to intentionally discredit them. Obviously, the sun does not always shine and the wind does not always blow but those things can be scheduled and forecasted and are no reasons whatsoever not to keep building wind power and solar energy as fast as is humanly possible. The Western Wind and Solar Integration Study, from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), says transmission system tools are now available that would allow the Mountain West and Southwestern states to get 35% of their electricity from wind and solar energies by 2017. All it will require, aside from the building of the wind and solar production capacity, is a change in the WestConnect group of grid operators' standard operating procedures."

"WeSave is a web based tool for helping you to work out your carbon footprint, and to find ways of reducing it."

Given the steady drumbeat of news about climate change, water shortages, food riots and high oil prices, many of us are pretty well-versed in the basics of protecting the environment. What's lacking, particularly for us tech-lovers, are the tools to help us live our on-grid, totally Wired lives with the smallest possible impact. And we do need some help. If everyone lived like North Americans, we'd need at least five planets to support our lifestyles. Here are some online actions you can take to "plug in greener." This article is a wiki. Got extra advice? Log in and add it.

Houston-based Trulite is developing a portable hydrogen-powered generator, the KH4. Pour water into the unit, and it will crank out 150 watts of power, and 200 watts at its peak. While that won't run your house, it's enough to recharge power tools or a laptop or run a small appliance