Clean Energy Transition

Parliament's Committee on Industry has backed a report by MEP Fiona Hall, which charges that Commission and EU member states have largely failed to realise their own commitments to reduce energy consumption.

The Internet uses 9.4 % of electricity in the US, 5.3 % worldwide

Thermoelectric energy conversion is a solid-state technology that is environmentally friendly. One of the more promising ‘down-to-earth’ applications lies in waste-heat recovery in cars.”Tritt said more than 60 percent of the energy that goes into an automotive combustion cycle is lost, primarily to waste heat through the exhaust or radiator system.“Even at the current efficiencies of thermoelectric devices, 7 to 8 percent, more than 1.5 billion gallons of diesel could be saved each year

Rolf Disch, designed the house that collects solar energy by following the sun all day. The entire house rotates on a central axle. Triple-glazed glass is used on one side of the house to maintain warm temperatures and uses super-insulation to do the opposite for the hot summer months.

A new solar thermal power station in southern Spain generates enough energy for about 6,000 homes. The 40-stories high concrete tower is bathed with intense light due to the 600 huge mirrors reflecting sunlight from the ground.

That is one reason for the rise of renewable energy middlemen like Clean Currents in Washington, D.C. The company bundles small businesses that want to buy wind power credits and submits a collective application to a utility. The businesses get better rates, and Clean Currents pockets a 1 percent commission.

Their schemes come with a caveat, of course: without backup power plants or expensive investments in giant batteries, flywheels, or other energy-storage systems, this solar-power supply would fluctuate wildly with each passing cloud (not to mention with the sun's daily rise and fall and seasonal ebbs and flows). Solar-power startup Ausra, based in Palo Alto, thinks it has the solution: solar-thermal-power plants that turn sunlight into steam and efficiently store heat for cloudy days.

Solar proponents love to boast that just a few hundred square kilometers' worth of photovoltaic solar panels installed in Southwestern deserts could power the United States. Their schemes come with a caveat, of course: without backup power plants or expensive investments in giant batteries, flywheels, or other energy-storage systems, this solar-power supply would fluctuate wildly with each passing cloud (not to mention with the sun's daily rise and fall and seasonal ebbs and flows). Solar-power startup > Ausra > , based in Palo Alto, thinks it has the solution: solar-thermal-power plants that turn sunlight into steam and efficiently store heat for cloudy days. >

SUEZ Energy Resources NA, the U.S. retail energy business of SUEZ Energy North America announced that it has won a contract to supply the city of Dallas with approximately 90% of it's electricity, 40% of which will be from renewable energy sources.

The vehicle, which would travel for roughly 40 miles on electric power from the grid before recharging its batteries with an onboard gasoline generator, represents a significant advancement in energy-efficient vehicles.

This could be a great commuting machine — it's an electric-powered bike designed by the French company Matra. The bike was recently introduced at the Paris Motorshow. It has a range of 60 miles, in addition to the mileage you add by using pedal power. It has a top speed of 30 miles per hour, but this is an artificial limit set on the motor.

French power provider, Sechilienne-Sidec signed an agreement with the municipality of Saint Laurent du Maroni that will make land available for the construction of a 12-megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic (PV) farm.

Not only the largest operational solar thermal energy system, but also the largest solar power system of any kind, SEGS is a trough system.

replicating a modified off-the-shelf motor, adding a Bedini-like circuit for improved efficiency, smoother running, and possible over-unity performance.

With very ambitious EU targets (5.75% biofuels to be used for transport by 2010 and 10% by 2020), Hodson and his colleagues are trying hard to keep up the credibility of the EU’s biofuels action by defining sustainability certification criteria for the use of the alternative fuels.

Data compiled by research firm Uclue indicates that the Internet burns 9.4 percent of all electricity consumed in the U.S., and 5.3 percent worldwide.

The purchase price of a two megawatt turbine has been pushed up from about $3 million to about $4.4 million as a result. The actual turbines represent from 20 to 50per cent of the final installed cost of any new wind farm, the rest being spent on site investigation, assessment and testing, as well as the installation and infrastructure costs required to connect to the grid, often from remote locations. ...Optimal sites require constant wind speeds of about eight to 10 metres per second. A wind capacity factor of about 35 per cent -- the amount of time the wind actually blows over a year -- is needed to make a site viable.

All high-energy light bulbs will be removed from sale in Britain within four years under a pioneering deal between the Government and major retailers.Bulbs rated at 150 watts will be taken off the shelves as early as January under the voluntary agreement launched yesterday by a string of high street names.Millions of 100-watt bulbs will be removed a year later, with all incandescent lights phased out by 2011, under the timetable agreed by the stores.

Power generation from low-carbon energy sources like wind, solar and nuclear should soon become competitive with electricity generated by coal, the cheapest of fossil fuels, the chief executive of FPL Group Inc. (FPL.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Wednesday.