represents nothing less than a bold invitation to the entire Notre Dame family to embark upon a thoughtful and comprehensive course of sustainability in our personal lifestyles, our institutional practices, our intellectual life and research, and our civic commitments.

The IAEA has revised upwards its nuclear power generation projections to 2030, while at the same time it reported that nuclear´s share of global electricity generation dropped another percentage point in 2007 to 14%. This compares to the nearly steady share of 16% to 17% that nuclear power maintained for almost two decades, from 1986 through 2005.

The joint statement stressed the urgent need to promote Africa electrification and agreed to launch as soon as possible the process for the elaboration of an Electricity Master-Plan for Africa; they also agreed to further define the Capacity Building Programme in support to the African Power Pools and AFUR[1] which will be financed under the Energy Facility[2];

They cost around $1100 and are available at Pioneerelectronics. They use 6% less electricity that standard models. The Power consumption is 90Watts when running and just 1 Watt when not. The driver has a 30cm bass driver, the frequency is 25 to 4000Hz.

UK Government announcement (8 pages, PDF) of a plan to “propose legislation requiring energy suppliers and electricity generators to contribute an estimated additional £910 million” towards a “Home Energy Saving Programme”. This cost estimate relates to the period to March 2011.

"It really is renewable energy gone wrong," said the Franklin County district attorney, Derek P. Champagne, who began a criminal inquiry into the Burke Town Board last spring and was quickly inundated with complaints from all over the state about the wind companies. "It's a modern-day gold rush," he said.

By the time I actually got to the festival, however, I realized that my whole attitude had changed. The environmental benefits of taking public transportation are well known. Less cars on the road mean less pollution. Less fuel used by individual motorists means less of our natural resources consumed. But I realized by the time I hit Headhouse Square where the festival was being held that there are other benefits to taking public transportation.

Today’s energy situation is reminiscent of Soviet cold war times. In 1957, Russia launched the first satellite into space, and in 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human in orbit. Afraid Soviet space domination would make our country unable to defend itself, President Kennedy announced Apollo, a 10-year, $100 billion program (in today’s dollars) to land a man on the moon. Eight years later, Neil Armstrong made his “giant step for mankind” and America quickly regained world leadership.

Veerabhadran Ramanathan recaps 35 years of key findings, and brings his audience up to date on the latest climate data, models, and observations which together demonstrate how CO2 is but one piece of a complex puzzle.

Norway plans to use some of its vast sovereign wealth fund to develop sustainable energy. Despite being flush with oil, an unspecified proportion of Norway’s USD 400 billion savings account called the Government Pension Fund is being earmarked for investment in environmental projects that not everyone in the government approves of.

Shareholders of two publicly listed firms, Kenya Power & Lighting Company and Kenya Electricity Generating Company, are bracing for uncertain times as electricity tariffs once more become a bone of contention.

Heat pump water heater (HPWH) systems mine the energy content of air to produce hot water very efficiently (Figure 1). Depending on cold-water and ambient-air temperatures and on patterns of hot water use, heat pump water heaters do the same job as standard electric water heaters using two to three times less electric energy.

Aside from impacting or not impacting electricity rates, system loss reduction has the following benefits: Reduction of fuel emissions due to lesser use of fossil-fuel generating plants - this has societal impact as it cover environmental concerns. Utility system capacity savings - decrease in losses provides released extra capacity for the distribution lines and transformers. Promotion of Energy Efficiency - it will be noted that the Distribution Utility (DU) is an energy-efficient electric company as it tries to decrease its system loss. Improvement of system voltage profile - the utility is regulated to supplying a range of voltage level and reduction of losses will produce a marginal system voltage quality that may be acceptable. This will also provide good power quality at the convenience outlets of consumers allowing their electric equipment/appliances to operate without mis-operation or loss of life. Increase Utility Commercial Appeal - a DU aiming at system loss reduction gets an added commercial appeal in the restructured power industry. This is important in the changing environment of the power industry, have you seen MERALCO TV commercials?

It is no longer sufficient to think of energy usage as being driven by economic development. The time has come to begin assessing the role of energy versus other inputs as a means of stimulating development.

Providing electricity to people in countries where either the grid is not reliable, or nonexistent and unlikely ever to be built, can make a huge difference in people’s quality of life in very practical ways. We’ve written before about companies such as D.Light Design which have solar-powered replacements for kerosene lanterns , and efforts to bring small-scale solar panels to off-grid villages in Laos. Hand cranked cell phone chargers, radios and flashlights are other proven options that have received attention.