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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.

A shortlist of proposed plans to generate electricity from the power of the tides in the Severn estuary has been unveiled by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change.

The European Parliament has overwhelmingly backed a comprehensive energy plan for the region, including a 35% improvement in energy efficiency.A large majority of MEPs voted to endorse the EU’s Second Strategic Energy Review, which was proposed by the EC in November last year.The proposals form the basis of Europe’s ’20-20-20’ policy which aims to cut CO2 and energy use by 20% by 2020, and increase renewables by 20%.

While food-based biofuels are taking the heat for rising food prices, other solutions - like algae - are gaining a more serious following. For example, the UK’s Carbon Trust has announced plans for a project to make algae bio-fuels a commercial reality by the year 2020

USA Energy goals: Cheap, plentiful energy Clean energy with low environmental impact Reduce carbon emissions by 50% Reduce reliance on OPEC by 50% Achieve global energy leadership

it plans to install a 2.7-megawatt wave energy project off the northeast coast of Maui

oscillating water column technology

which aims to meet 70% of the state's energy needs with renewable energy by 2030

In February 2008, the Mexican environment minister announced that 30,000 environmentally-friendly homes are to be built by 2011. The new housing is to be equipped with smart devices like solar water heating, low-energy lighting, high-efficiency appliances and low-flow plumbing fixtures. This pioneering project is to be rolled out in subsequent years as Mexico’s plan for 20 million new homes over the next 20 years starts to unfold, using new building standards to allow energy efficient construction to be applied consistently in each housing development.

They look like foil party balloons, but they are actually very efficient solar concentrators. These solar “balloons” were developed by a company called Cool Earth, based in California, and it has just received $21 million dollars in investor funding. The company is now planning to build a 10-megawatt plant of solar balloons in the next couple years. This power plant would be comprised of 10,000 balloons, and cover roughly 80 acres!

This exciting and innovative showcase tidal farm scheme would be capable of generating 10.5 megawatts (MW) of clean, green power, drawn entirely from the sea’s major tidal currents.

Subject to successful planning consent and financing, the tidal farm could be commissioned as early as 2011 or 2012.

Ken-ichi Horie, a 69 year old Japanese sailor, is planning a solo 4,350 mile trip from Hawaii to Japan using an innovative wave powered boat. If successful, the trip would earn him a Guinness record while simultaneously proving the viability of wave powered propulsion.

A new approach to selling and recharging electric cars could overcome some of the basic issues that have kept them from being widely adopted. A startup called Project Better Place, which had the largest of any venture-funding round in 2007, raising $200 million, recently announced plans to install recharging infrastructure in Israel and Denmark and to sell electric cars using a business model much like that used today with cell phones.

Although the mention of a magnetically levitating train outside of US borders won't grab too much attention, saying that phrase here most definitely perks up ears.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc. may stop investing in Europe if it has to pay for emissions permits.

Utilities are hostile to the plans and are threatening to freeze their investments in the EU and to relocate operations.

The capacity factor of a power plant is the ratio of the electrical energy produced in a given period of time to the electrical energy that could have been produced at continuous maximum power operation during the same period. For a conventional fossil-fuel power station, the capacity factor is determined by planned maintenance downtime, unplanned equipment failure, and by shutdowns when the station’s electricity is not needed. For wind and solar energy, power output is also determined by the availability of wind and sunlight. The maximum power output, or ‘installed capacity’, is a rather theoretical value that is rarely reached. It would be clearer to quote the mean power for solar and wind energy, but because peak power is more commonly quoted, it’s important to know the capacity factor as well, to make sense of the peak numbers.

Nuclear energy is often touted by its supporters as being cheap, clean and plentiful. It's often stated in articles on the subject that Patrick Moore, purported co-founder of Greenpeace, is in favor of increased nuclear plants. In fact, there are about 30 new American nuclear plants currently on the drawing board. So, does nuclear live up to the claims of its supporters? Well, for one, it might not be as cheap as we've been told. Two reactors planned for Levy County, Florida may clock in at more than twice their original estimate at $10 billion. You can install a lot of distributed solar capacity for that kind of money. In fact Moody's Investor Services gave an estimate in October of $6,000 per kilowatt that Jim Hempstead (a senior credit officer at Moody's) stated in a recent article in the Wall Street Journal has been "blown by" after reviewing recent estimates from a handful of "experienced different nuclear operators".

Wacker Chemie AG and Schott Solar GmbH have officially commissioned a new solar silicon wafer factory in Jena, Germany. Wacker Schott Solar GmbH, a joint venture between the two companies, plans to ramp up the factory's annual capacity to 50 megawatts (MW) by the autumn of 2008, increasing total annual capacity to 120 MW by year's end.

The Government this week unveiled a plan to supply power to more than 261 health centres. The Euro 36.5m (about Frw27.4b) project was presented before development partners this week. Most of the targeted health centres are based in rural areas.