Labels That Talk, from Kailua Hawaii, has come up with software that lets consumers print high-density bar codes on strips of paper that store recorded voice messages. Scan it with a handheld scanner and it plays back a message. The strip of paper you see in the picture can hold about eight kilobits, enough for a ten-second voice message, said Ken Berkun, president and founder.

To support the necessary growth and expansion of offshore wind in order to meet the EU's 20% renewables target, several barriers need to be overcome. Low feed-in tariffs for offshore, limited and costly grid connections and complex authorisation procedures are seen as key obstacles by the offshore industry, delegates heard at the second day of the European Offshore Wind Energy Conference in Berlin.

If Europe wants to meet its 20% binding target for renewable energy by 2020, it must increase its use of offshore wind, delegates heard today at the opening of the Offshore Wind Conference in Berlin, Germany. Two concrete steps towards large scale deployment of offshore wind were taken this morning: the European Commission announced an offshore action plan for 2008, and regional cooperation was promoted through the signing of a trilateral offshore research agreement by Germany, Sweden and Denmark.

Nearly 19,000 wind turbines cover Germany: dotted across the countryside, nudging to the edge of cities and whirring alongside motorways. They generate 5 percent of Germany's electricity -- more than in any other country in the world. But with the best plots already taken, there are now few spaces left where companies are allowed to build more.

Irish-based Offshore wind energy developers today confirmed that they have projects at an advanced stage of preparation for the development of over 2,000mw of renewable energy in Irish waters at a capital cost of over €4 billion. The announcement was made by the five largest offshore wind companies in Ireland at the launch of NOW Ireland, a new organisation to promote the development of the offshore wind industry in Ireland.

Industrial greenhouse gases prevented from entering the atmosphere through the use of so-called carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology are to be credited as not emitted under the EU emissions trading scheme, according to Commission plans to be put forward next year.

Blue Source is piping industrial carbon dioxide from a natural-gas processing plant in southeastern Colorado to an undisclosed oil producer that will, in turn, pump it into an aging oil field. The result should be increased crude production and a carbon-dioxide emissions reduction equivalent to taking 70,000 cars off the road.

Wind Technologies Ltd, the result of a collaboration between Dr Richard McMahon at Cambridge University and Prof Peter Tavner at Durham University has developed the Brushless Doubly-Fed Generator (BDFG), a new maintenance-free generator which doubles the lifetime of generators in wind installations and significantly reduce maintenance costs and increase reliability.

A company in Japan has developed a novel way of making solar cells that cuts production costs by as much as 50 percent. The photovoltaic (PV) cells are made up of arrays of thousands of tiny silicon spheres surrounded by hexagonal reflectors.

A new method for making materials just a few atoms thick could pave the way to automotive fuel cells that use readily available fuels instead of hydrogen, which is difficult to produce and store. The new fuel cells would be smaller, lower-temperature versions of solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFCs)

Can glorified glow lamps stop blackouts and slash energy costs? Manhattan-based ConsumerPowerline thinks so. This winter, about a thousand participants in the company's energy-conservation program will receive small plug-in boxes that glow red when power demand peaks, urging them to turn off space heaters, defer dishwasher runs, or otherwise save electricity.

Given the political will, Europe could within a few years meet 100 percent of its electricity needs from renewable energy sources, at no cost difference to today's fossil fuel-based system. The scenario includes the construction of a high-voltage direct current European super grid linking all countries in Europe, and the continent externally to Africa and the Middle East.

Subaru has released a second generation battery-electric vehicle, the G4e (for "Good 4 earth"). The 5-seater has a maintenance-free 65-kilowatt electric motor, and features high energy-density vanadium enhanced lithium-ion batteries, which give the G4e a 124 mile (200km) range from a charge (more than double the first generation R1e's range, previous post) and using a quick-charger it can be charged to 80% in only 15 minutes

The savings claimed here are against CFL, FL and HPS - not tungsten! Cree, Inc, a manufacturer of LED solid-state lighting components, released the results of the first phase of the conversion of its Durham headquarters to LED lighting, which has resulted in the use of 48% less energy than the lights they replaced and plans to convert all lighting at the headquarters and manufacturing facility to LED lighting.

IBM announced a new semiconductor wafer reclamation process that uses a specialized pattern removal technique to repurpose scrap semiconductor wafers to a form used to manufacture silicon-based solar panels.

Firefly Energy Inc. the leader in developing next generation carbon and graphite foam batteries, announced that the first preproduction versions of its BCI Group 31 truck battery will be available for review and testing during the first quarter of 2008. The battery will primarily be utilized when the truck's engine is turned off, and provide up to 50 percent longer runtimes than competitors when powering accessories which collectively make up a truck's "hotel loads."

The Kyoto Protocol is a symbolically important expression of governments' concern about climate change. But as an instrument for achieving emissions reductions, it has failed

Biopact reports that Jean Ziegler, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, presented his annual report to the General Assembly in New York, which calls for a 5-year moratorium on the production of first-generation liquid biofuels made from food crops such as corn, wheat, palm oil and rapeseed. A UN special rapporteur is an independent expert, who does not receive any financial compensation for his or her work.

To do big-time wind, you need to put in upgraded and new transmission capabilities,

Ministers are planning a U-turn on Britain's pledges to combat climate change that "effectively abolishes" its targets to rapidly expand the use of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power.