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A massive switch from coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear power plants to solar power plants could supply 69% of the US's electricity and 35% of its total energy by 2050, according to Scientific American. However, $420 billion in subsidies from 2011 to 2050 would be required to fund the infrastructure and make it cost-competitive, the publication says in "A Solar Grand Plan" presented in its January 2008 issue.

Chinese scientists claim to have discovered a new clean energy source - simply by using dry air. "The breakthrough makes it possible to use dry air, instead of electricity, to cool down the water and the indoor air, and be applied at least to power large-scale air-conditioning equipment in office buildings," Jiang Yi, director of the university's architecture science department, who leads the research project, told China Daily.

Genetically engineered bacteria could make cellulosic ethanol cheaper to manufacture, researchers report. The finding could unlock more energy from the waste products of farming and forestry. Ethanol from cellulose, the kind of sugar in cornstalks and sawdust, is being promoted as an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels, with the advantage that it does not use food crops such as corn as raw materials.

HAIFA, Israel (Reuters) - Giant solar energy balloons floating high in the air may be a cheap way to provide electricity to areas lacking the land and infrastructure needed for traditional power systems, researchers in Israel say.

A market worth more than £50bn will be created for new wind, wave and tidal power equipment in British waters by 2020, the head of the new government-backed energy research and development group has said.

Technology Review has an article on new fuel cells that don't require platinum - A Catalyst for Cheaper Fuel Cells. A new catalyst based on iron works as well as platinum-based catalysts for accelerating the chemical reactions inside hydrogen fuel cells. The finding could help make fuel cells for electric cars cheaper and more practical. Fuel cell researchers have been looking for cheaper, more abundant alternatives to platinum, which costs between $1,000 and $2,000 an ounce and is mined almost exclusively in just two countries: South Africa and Russia. One promising catalyst that uses far less expensive materials--iron, nitrogen, and carbon--has long been known to promote the necessary reactions, but at rates that are far too slow to be practical.

Fred Pearce has framed his latest opinion piece in Yale Environment 360 as one about Europe fiddling around with its climate change commitment (with German Chancellor Angela Merkel as lead violin), while the US is poised to reengage with the world under the Obama administration. What it's really about though is what the US would need to do to take that lead, and it all has to do with renewable energy. Though some of this may be recap for avid TreeHugger readers, it's worth repeating: Stephen Chu Appointment a Good Sign Beyond his stated commitment to dealing with climate change during the campaign, Pearce indicates that the appointment of Stephen Chu as energy secretary is the real sign that the US could soon lead the renewable energy/climate change race. Not only has he done pioneering research on solar power, energy efficiency and cellulosic biofuels at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, he's also an advocate of a nationwide expansion of the electric grid to bring renewable energy from where it's most easily generated (west of the Mississippi) to where the greatest demand is (east of the river).

Networking giant Cisco has estimated that the market for smart grid communications will grow into a $20 billion-a-year opportunity as the infrastructure is built out over the next five years, and a new report from researchers at Specialists in Business Information (SBI) forecasts the market will grow to $17 billion per year by 2014 from today's $6 billion.

This Wired article summarizes and links to a poster for the American Geophysical Union meetings (pdf) from Elaine Hart, a graduate student in civil and environmental engineering at Stanford. Her power flow simulation suggests that the existing transmission network in California can accommodate up to 70% of renewables in the portfolio on a hot summer day. The number of overloaded lines in the simulation rises from 11 to 31, which is not that large an increase given that there are almost 5,000 transmission lines in California. Still, this kind of work can be really useful to help target transmission investment. The Wired article also has some good links for further reading. I look forward to seeing more of this research!