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Just as EU ministers are due to rubber stamp the extension of tariffs on Chinese exports of energy-efficient bulbs at their meeting in Luxembourg on Monday (15 October), a major Italian lighting firm is planning to challenge the decision at the European courts.

Al Gore has made a major speech in Washington this morning, setting out an ambitious goal for the USA to produce all of its electricity from carbon-free sources by 2020. I thought I'd comment on the technical feasibility of the plan, and the underlying economics of such an endeavour.

The short answer is: while 100% is probably unrealistic, it's not unreasonable to expect to be able to get pretty close to that number (say, in the 50-90% range) in that timeframe, and it is very likely that it makes a LOT of sense economically.

StatoilHydro has decided to build the world’s first full scale floating wind turbine, Hywind, and test it over a two-year period offshore Karmøy. The The company is investing approximately 400 million NOK. Planned startup is autumn 2009.

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];

Energy guru Amory Lovins lays out his plan for weaning the US off oil and revitalizing the economy in the process. It's the subject of his book Winning the Oil Endgame, and he makes it sound fairly simple: On one hand, the deadly risks of continued dependency, and on the other, some win-win solutions.

Hydro energy’s potential may be overlooked because; it is “old” renewable energy, or because like nuclear energy, some hydro electric schemes have been criticized by environmental groups, but most importantly a perception by many, that most hydro electric potential in North America has already been exploited. Hydro electricity deserves more scrutiny because; 1) North America has significant undeveloped potential, 2) the technology is well understood, although technical improvements continue to be made, especially for low head and small hydro, 3) hydro has a very high energy return on energy investment (ERoEI), 4) additional hydro can enable more wind and solar energy capacity to be absorbed by the grid, 5) hydro potential is more geographically dispersed than wind and solar, and finally, 6) the cost of developing additional hydro capacity is moderately low and has very low technical and financial risk.

The researchers, working under the banner of the Aurora Research Institute in Inuvik, N.W.T., plan to conduct 10 days of tests next month on Richards Island and the west side of Mallik Bay. The drill site itself, where a service rig is being set up, is about 65 kilometres west of Tuktoyaktuk and 130 kilometres north of Inuvik. About a kilometre underneath that rig is 113.3 billion cubic metres of methane, frozen in an ice-like state under about 600 metres of permafrost.

Details of the plans have not been revealed yet, but the motorcycle is expected to go on sale in 2010. Vectrix Corp, based in the United States, claims to be the world leader in zero emission electric scooters and high-performance bikes, building its Electric Vx1 and Vx1e scooters in Poland.