Balloon technology could cut cost of solar energy 90% by 2010

The closely-held firm has developed a technology that essentially uses a string of balloons to concentrate and capture the sun’s energy without occupying valuable real estate or using large amounts of silicon. “Inflatable concentrators gather light and focus it onto photovoltaic cells, increasing the energy impacting the cells many times over,” explains the CoolEarth website. […]

Africa Tops Mideast As US Crude Source

When it comes to supplying the U.S with oil, Africa is quietly trumping the Middle East. U.S. crude oil imports from Africa topped supplies from the Middle East in 2006 for the first time in 21 years, government data show. As recently as 2001, U.S. imports from the Middle East topped African supplies by more […]

Alternative energy goes after investor dollars

Executives from some of the world’s leading alternative energy companies argued their case to big investors Wednesday, outlining why money thrown into the red-hot sector will pay off. Much of the rationale centered around costs, which leaders of renewable energy firms contend are dropping at a breakneck clip. CNN

Venezuela Orinoco May Top World Oil

The Orinoco oil zone, a key player in Venezuela s energy strategy, has the potential of becoming one of the world s largest oil reserves. PDVSA expects 15.3 billion dollar investments between 2006 and 2012 from partners in Argentina, Belarus, Brazil, China, Cuba, Iran, India, Malaysia, Russia, Spain, Uruguay and Vietnam. plenglish

Cleaner Coal Is Attracting Some Doubts

Environmentalists are worried, but they put their faith in a technology that gasifies the coal before burning. Such plants are designed, they say, to be more adaptable to separating the carbon and storing it underground. Most utility officials counter that the gasification approach is more expensive and less reliable, but they say there is no […]

New Alternative Fuel Directory Features Over 2200 E85 and Biodiesel Retail Locat

USA Energy Independence Publications announces the first ever directory covering both E85 Ethanol Fuel and Biodiesel Fuel retail stations nationwide. Designed to help the Flex Fuel Vehicle (FFV)-vehicle and diesel-powered vehicle owners find local retail outlets for these fuels, the directory also features a buyers guide for 2007 and earlier model Flex Fuel vehicles. yahoo

Iran: Unstable, troubled oil giant

Country struggles with falling oil production, soaring domestic use as dispute over nuclear program drags on. …But despite the political bravado, and events in the region that have arguably increased Tehran’s political clout, the country’s oil industry is in serious trouble. Oil production, which peaked at about 6 million barrels a day in the late […]

Glaciers Not On Simple, Upward Trend Of Melting

Two of Greenland’s largest glaciers shrank dramatically and dumped twice as much ice into the sea during a period of less than a year between 2004 and 2005. And then, less than two years later, they returned to near their previous rates of discharge. The variability over such a short time underlines the problem in […]

TOD:Canada: Kyoto, Canadians, Energy and the Environment

Last week, we learned that CanadaMuch more after the jump to TOD:Canada.

London mayor signs oil deal with Chavez

LONDON – London’s socialist mayor signed an agreement Tuesday with Venezuela’s state-owned oil company to provide discounted oil for the city’s iconic red buses, praising the idea as the brainstorm of the country’s leftist leader, Hugo Chavez. Ken Livingstone Venezuela has signed similar agreements with cities in several other countries, including the United States. Critics […]

Oil prices likely to dip – but not far

World oil prices will continue to fall, BP’s chief economist Peter Davies believes, but probably not back to the levels prevailing earlier in the decade. “We expect prices to stay over US$40 a barrel for the next three or four years at least,” said Davies, in Wellington for an international energy economists conference.He readily acknowledges […]

The Nuclear Side of the Moon

Baltimore, MD – By 2050, the world will have an estimated population of 12 billion people. The demand for energy will be enormous. But one solution to the world’s long-term energy demands may be 239,000 miles away. The world is desperately looking for an heir to oil. Among the contenders is the nuclear option. And […]

Bush’s Energy Obstacle: Ethanol

WASHINGTON, D.C. – For nearly a month now, President Bush has been touting his new energy proposals, calling for a reduction in dependence on foreign oil, an expansion of domestic drilling for oil and natural gas, and a doubling of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. All of which would likely mean bigger profits for American oil […]

Humans’ beef with livestock: a warmer planet

American meat eaters are responsible for 1.5 more tons of carbon dioxide per person than vegetarians every year. As Congress begins to tackle the causes and cures of global warming, the action focuses on gas-guzzling vehicles and coal-fired power plants, not on lowly bovines. Yet livestock are a major emitter of greenhouse gases that cause […]

Expanding Petroleum Reserve Won’t Raise Prices, DOE Secretary Vows

The Bush administration’s effort to expand the Strategic Petroleum Reserve will not drive up oil prices on the open market, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said today. The government will buy oil for the reserve in quantities that will be largely “inconsequential” on the worldwide market, Bodman told a Washington energy conference. The Energy Department currently […]

Green goes green

Imagine never having to endure the stink of gasoline or the pain of paying at the pump. Imagine cities that smell as clean as the countryside and towns that pump electricity back to the cities from solar plants and wind farms. Imagine energy so cheap and machines so efficient that an energy crisis will seem […]

Australia: Crop production worst in 20 years

The drought will slash Australia’s summer crop production to its lowest level in more than 20 years. After running a scythe through the winter grain harvest, the big dry is set to take a huge toll on water-intensive summer crops like cotton and rice. The federal government’s rural economic forecaster, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural […]

Sweet super sorghum – yield data for the ICRISAT hybrid

Its plant breeding experiments with sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) resulted in a cultivar that is relatively drought tolerant, needs comparatively small amounts of water and yields high amounts of easily extractable sugar that can be used as a feedstock for ethanol production: …one hectare planted with sweet sorghum will yield 95-125 tons after […]

Iraqi Oil Wealth Stays Locked Up

Foreign technology and capital are seen as vital to restoring Iraq’s crumbling oil industry. But as a draft petroleum law inches its way toward the Iraqi parliament, fresh opposition to the legislation is emerging, underscoring the difficulty that may still lie ahead for any move to invite in international oil companies. A petroleum law could […]

Namibia: Green Tower Project Could Solve Power Shortage

A one-day meeting that could see Nampower committing itself to the implementation of the Green Tower solar power project regarded as the best solution to the anticipated severe power shortage in the country, took place in the capital last Friday. Attended by about 50 experts in the local energy sector – Germany and South Africa […]

Ghana: Inadequate Power Supply Killing Major Cement Company

The Director in charge of strategy and corporate affairs of Ghacem Ltd, Dr George Dawson-Ahmoah has declared that the current shortfall of energy supplies in the country has significantly affected the production and supply of cement to the market. He made this declaration when The Business Chronicle contacted him on telephone over the week-end. He […]

US Nuclear Plants’ Power Output 2nd Highest Ever

The US nuclear industry generated its second-highest amount of electricity ever last year, while also reaching record low production costs, the Nuclear Energy Institute said Tuesday.The industry group said 103 nuclear plants nationwide generated 787.6 billion kilowatt hours of electricity last year, just off the 788.5 billion kwh record set in 2004. At the same […]

Eu Agrees to 20 Percent Cut in Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The European Union on Tuesday agreed to a 20 percent cut in carbon emissions by 2020 in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across Europe. The 13-year emissions cut is below the level of carbon emissions the EU pact is asking of the United States and other industrialized nations, which it would like to […]

Q. How many Australians does it take to change all the light bulbs?

A. One – Prime Minister John Howard, who banned incandescent light bulbs yesterday, making Australia the first country to take such direct action to stop global warmingAfter almost a decade as a pariah in the battle against global warming because of its refusal to join the Kyoto Protocol, Australia scored an environmental first yesterday by […]

Light at end of tunnel for British coal-mining industry

With lights twinkling brightly from their helmets, a group of miners emerge caked in dust from a deep coal-mine in the village of Cwmgwrach in south Wales. The reopening of Cwmgwrach (pronounced Kumrak) marks a much-needed glimmer of hope for Britain’s mining sector, which has been blighted by social and economic problems since the 1980s. […]

Czechs Grow Wary Over Russian Energy Muscle

A new centre-right government has begun shaping policies to protect the Czech Republic’s energy sector from the might of Russia, its main oil and gas supplier. Senior government officials have also warned that Russian state-controlled firms may set their sights on Czech energy supply routes and companies. The new cabinet led by Civic Democrat Mirek […]

Solar power to outshine carbon rival on pricing

Within five years, solar power will be cheap enough to compete with carbon- generated electricity, even in Britain, Scandinavia or upper Siberia. In a decade, the cost may have fallen so dramatically that solar cells could undercut oil, gas, coal and nuclear power by up to half. Technology is leaping ahead of a stale political […]

Oil-hungry Japan looks to other sources

After decades of struggling to reduce its excessively heavy reliance on the Middle East for its crude oil, Japan imported 2% less of the commodity from the region in 2006. Does this herald a lasting change in the nation’s oil-import structure or represent just a statistical quirk?Japan’s 2006 overall oil-import figures show signs of possible […]

Oil sands emissions could be curbed for $1 a barrel: study

The oil sands could be brought into compliance with Kyoto emissions-cutting targets at a cost of about $1 per barrel of oil produced, a Commons committee was told Tuesday. The estimate, contained in a Kyoto-compliance plan put forward by the Pembina Institute, suggests that greenhouse emissions from the sands could be curbed without compromising their […]

Top Five US Cities for Cleantech

Since their launch in fall 2006, SustainLane.us has been growing in spades, building out an extensive resource base for government agencies and employees to share best practices in an open-source network. They now have thirteen categories, from climate change policy to food and ag to waste management. On Friday they released their newest piece of […]

« Previous Page — Next Page »

LATEST NEWS HEADLINES

• Why the IEA is Wrong About Peak Oil Demand
• Did we inadvertently speed global warming?  
• Venezuela’s Oil Monopoly Eases
• Why Germany is Choosing Natural Gas Over Nuclear Power
• U.S. coal-fired electricity generation decreased in 2022 and 2023

• America Cracks Down on Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas Facilities
• Meet America’s Newest Oil Trader Extraordinaire: Joe Biden
• Is It Time To Refill America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve?
• Oil prices set to end year 10% lower as demand concerns snap winning streak
• What’s Driving America’s New Oil and Gas Boom?
• China’s peak oil demand bombshell eviscerates Danielle Smith’s energy strategy