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The advanced industrialized economies were lucky to have had their development fuelled by cheap fossil energy. Today’s developing economies have a much tougher challenge. It was a very short window of opportunity which opened just about 150 years ago and is likely to close in the next 40 years, by when the known reserves will be depleted at current levels of consumption. All told, 200 years is a very brief interlude considering thousands of years of human civilization and hopefully hundreds of thousands of years yet to come. At some time in the distant future, they will look back and remark that the age of fossil fuel was a short inflection point, a point at which humanity passed through the bottleneck of dependency on oil from the ground. Before that point, humanity’s primary source of energy was the sun, and so it will be after that point.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car expects a move from PCs to HP thin clients will cut energy consumption by 5 million kilowatt-hours, save about $500,000 annually, and reduce CO2 emissions by 6.5 million pounds per year, Computerworld reports. The network of more than 45,000 thin client terminals – operated through 743 terminal servers – connects Enterprise rental offices throughout the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany and Puerto Rico. Thin clients use only 13.6 watt-hours and 2.4 watt-hours of electricity in active and passive states, respectively, compared with the 77.1 watt-hours and 1.8 watt-hours consumed by PCs.

Solar insolation is the rate of solar radiation (kilowatt-hours per square meter) over an area.The world map shows the amount of solar energy in hours, received each day on an optimally tilted surface during the worst month of the year. This is used as an indicator of solar energy potential.

And one company that we met in the halls of the conference that is helping companies manage power is San Francisco-based CSRware, which offers what it calls “eco-analytics,” or a suite of services that measures and manages a company’s energy consumption, water use and waste.

Tenders are being called for companies to design, supply and install energy and rainwater storage solutions and also to supply and install innovative, energy efficient lighting options for Government schools.

“Under the Australian Government’s National Solar Schools Program, schools are being offered grants of up to $20,000 for solar technology and up to $30,000 for solar hot water systems, rainwater tanks and other energy efficiency measures,” Mr Bartlett said.

The term cleantech therefore tends to be a more amorphous industry group than, say, environmental services, and a less rigid investment asset class than, say, financial services.Sectors that appear to fit into the definition of cleantech without dispute include:Renewable energy – wind, solar thermal and photovoltaics, wave, tidal, hydro, geothermal, biomass and biogas;Water technologies that increase efficiency;Energy efficiency, green buildings and biomaterials;Waste management and recycling;Energy storage and fuel cell technologies;Low emission vehicle technologies; andEnvironmental Services

Speaking at the launch of the new strategy, which sets out how the U.K. plans to meet its target of generating 15 percent of energy from renewable sources by 2020, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that the "green revolution" would result in a tenfold increase in the U.K.'s current renewable energy capacity.

FTSE said that it has teamed up with cleantech-focused investment firm Impax to launch a new index dedicated to tracking investments in alternative energy and energy efficiency, water treatment and pollution control, and waste technologies and resource management.

Meanwhile, NASDAQ OMX Group said last week that it was to introduce a series of Carbon indices designed to both underpin derivatives trading and provide a benchmark for the global carbon market. The company said that the new indices would make it easier for investors to enter the carbon market and gain an accurate picture of how their investments are performing.

Faced with a surge in the number of proposed solar power plants, the federal government has placed a moratorium on new solar projects on public land until it studies their environmental impact, which is expected to take about two years. The Bureau of Land Management says an extensive environmental study is needed to determine how large solar plants might affect millions of acres it oversees in six Western states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah

Razzle-dazzling the reps at a Select Committee hearing on Energy Independence and Global Warming, Agassi explained that if the average American got 25 miles (40 kms) per gallon (3.8 litres) and paid $4 for every gallon guzzled, he’d end up paying 16 cents per mile (1.6km). Still with us? Meanwhile, the operating costs of an electric car, including the depreciation of the battery, works out at only six cents a mile. Savings in Europe where petrol is even more ludicrously expensive would be significantly higher.

Purchasing ethanol from so far away may seem a little counter-intuitive, but Anders Fredikson, VP of Sekab, says that this sustainable ethanol will reduce CO2 emissions from farming, production and transportation to Sweden by 85% compared with petrol. Plus, mills will receive 5-10% more for their traceable product than mills that do not adhere to the sustainability guidelines. Half of the 800 million liters of ethanol consumed by Sweden per year is supplied by Brazil, so going with sustainable ethanol will make a significant impact.

Both are in the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an area peppered with volcanoes and home to the world's biggest reservoir of geothermal power. "When I think of Indonesia and energy, I think geothermal. Indonesia has more than 500 volcanoes, of which 130 are active," Lester Brown, president of the Washington-based Earth Policy Institute, told CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets in a speech in June.

Rudd locks in green power plan Chris Hammer Canberra July 3, 2008 THE Rudd Government has set Australia on course for a new era of greener but more expensive electricity, pressing ahead with a plan to make 20% of ou

THE Rudd Government has set Australia on course for a new era of greener but more expensive electricity, pressing ahead with a plan to make 20% of our power come from renewable sources within just over a decade.

A new era for solar power is approaching. Long derided as uneconomic, it is gaining ground as technologies improve and the cost of traditional energy sources rises. Within three to seven years, unsubsidized solar power could cost no more to end customers in many markets, such as California and Italy, than electricity generated by fossil fuels or by renewable alternatives to solar. By 2020, global installed solar capacity could be 20 to 40 times its level today.