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| Report: Wind energy expected to grow dramatically |
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 Guest writes:
WASHINGTON (AP) — An Energy Department report concludes that wind turbines can produce a fifth of the nation's annual electricity needs within about two decades. That is about the same share of electricity produced today by nuclear power.
Wind energy today accounts for only about 1% of the nation's electricity. The government report to be released Monday said by 2030 wind energy could account for 300,000 megawatts of power, or about 20% of the total electricity generated.
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| Are Backyard Ethanol Brewers an Answer to High-Priced Gas? |
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| A company banking on drivers' weariness of skyrocketing gasoline prices unveiled a home refinery device on Thursday offering another option: ethanol. E-Fuel Corporation says its EFuel100 MicroFueler can produce up to 35 gallons (132 liters) of ethanol a week that consumers can pump directly into their cars and trucks. There is no combustion inside the device, which runs on a standard household 110- to 220-volt AC power supply (consuming about 150 watts per day) and uses a membrane system to distill the sugar, yeast and water solution required to make ethanol rather than combustion heating elements, as commercial ethanol producers do.
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| Tesla's electric sports car aiming at Europe market |
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| Earth-friendly thrill-seekers in Europe can get into the driver's seat of their own Tesla Roadster, provided they have a trunkful of cash to buy an electric sports car that zips from zero to 100 kph (60 mph) in less than four seconds.
California's "green" governor Arnold Schwarzenegger bought one. So did actors George Clooney and Kelsey Grammer.
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| Australia: Solar energy technology must be improved: G-G |
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| Governor-General Major General Michael Jeffrey has stepped into the energy debate, saying solar power is Australia's best prospect of securing a large-scale clean and sustainable energy source.
Speaking at a Future Summit in Sydney, he suggested water, food and the environment would be among Australia's top issues in 50 years time, and that all three were linked to plentiful and reasonably priced energy.
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| Ghana: 'Literally, This Is Energy From Dirt' |
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| You've heard of solar power, and also wind power. Now, you might start hearing about soil power as well.
Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) that make use of the energy given off by soil microbes are amongst the technologies that hold promise for bringing power to developing states, where electricity is often scarce.
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| Oil powered Norway gradually turns into the wind |
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| Guest writes:
UTSIRA, Norway (AFP) - As Norway prepares for a future after oil, the gale-force potential of harvesting wind power off its long coastline has become an increasingly attractive proposition.
"Wind-mapping shows that ... Norway is among the (world's) most ideal locations for wind power, both on the coast and offshore," said Norwegian Deputy Petroleum and Energy Minister Liv Monica Stubholdt.
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| Nuclear Fuel Recycling: More Trouble Than It's Worth |
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| Plans are afoot to reuse spent reactor fuel in the U.S. But the advantages of the scheme pale in comparison with its dangers
Although a dozen years have elapsed since any new nuclear power reactor has come online in the U.S., there are now stirrings of a nuclear renaissance. The incentives are certainly in place: the costs of natural gas and oil have skyrocketed; the public increasingly objects to the greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels; and the federal government has offered up to $8 billion in subsidies and insurance against delays in licensing (with new laws to streamline the process) and $18.5 billion in loan guarantees. What more could the moribund nuclear power industry possibly want?
Just one thing: a place to ship its used reactor fuel. Indeed, the lack of a disposal site remains a dark cloud hanging over the entire enterprise. The projected opening of a federal waste storage repository in Yucca Mountain in Nevada (now anticipated for 2017 at the earliest) has already slipped by two decades, and the cooling pools holding spent fuel at the nation’s nuclear power plants are running out of space.
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| Food crisis: Is Lanka sitting on a volcano? |
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| It is said that without subsidies there would be no free market demand for biofuel. Ethanol contains 30% less energy than gasoline; so that new ethanol blended fuels reduce gas mileage, increase engine maintenance cost and lower engine reliability. People are starving in Africa so that American politicians can court votes in farm states. Biofuel production harms environment by needlessly eroding topsoil and encouraging the destruction of forests.
Biofuel production speeds up global warming because the entire production process releases huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere while destroying native forests. Journal Science confirms this, the production of biofuels from grains and switch grass greatly increases the release of greenhouse gases, nearly doubling emission in 30 years and increases greenhouse gases for 167 years, and is far worse than using gasoline.
What a crime! Corn produced at large expense of fossil energy is then transformed, with even more fossil energy into pure ethanol.
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| Interest in nuclear power fuels uranium rush |
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| Thanks to renewed interest in nuclear power, the United States is on the verge of a uranium mining boom and nowhere is the hurry to stake claims more pronounced than in the districts flanking the Grand Canyon's storied sandstone cliffs.
On public lands within 5 miles of Grand Canyon National Park, there are more than 1,100 uranium claims, compared with 10 in January 2003, according to data from the Department of the Interior.
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| Building Small Prototype Homes, an Israeli Solar Experiment |
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| In Israel's Negev Desert, engineer Hy Brown is building small prototype homes that run entirely on solar power. He explains, "We have the opportunity by putting solar power on each house, more than what the house(s) use, of turning each house into a mini power plant which is a different way to provide energy for the Neg. Desert."
His partner in the REAL Housing Ltd. project is Michael Brandemuehl. "It’s getting to the point where with good energy efficient technologies the typical roof areas that people have on their houses is more than enough to produce the energy they use over the course of a year and still put more energy back into grid,” Brandemuehl said. “All the roofs that are around the country are in some ways a great resource that is under utilized."
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| Uranium miners on the prowl, as spot prices fall |
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| Yellowcake miners and processors are on a massive mission, flexing their financial muscles investing in new uranium projects and expanding existing ones, in the face of the metal's spot price that has recently caught a cold.
The uranium spot markets are under pressure and the price has been in freefall. In late June last year, uranium spot prices hit the highs at US$136 per pound, from a low of US$7 per pound in 2000, bolstered by a tight market and speculative buying. Currently, the price is down by slightly over 60% from June's, sending quivers throughout the markets.
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| Rising costs threaten UK wind farm programme |
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| Guest writes: ...Two wind farms, Lynn and Inner Dowsing, with a combined 180MW capacity which Centrica has built off the Lincolnshire coast, doubled in price in the time they were built. They are about to come on stream and Centrica has plans at three more sites off the Lincolnshire and Norfolk coasts.
"The worrying trend is that if the manufacturing costs continue to increase, then I think that the wind target is under threat," said Mr Sambhi.
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| Salt water tested as fuel source |
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| Guest writes: SEATTLE – For more than a year, it's been widely circulated on the Internet as a scientific oddity.
Now a process that converts sea water into a possible fuel source is gaining legitimacy.
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| For Sale: Machine To Make Home-Made Ethanol |
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| Guest writes:
NEW YORK - A new company hopes drivers will kick the oil habit by brewing ethanol at home that won't spike food prices.
E-Fuel Corp unveiled on Thursday the "MicroFueler" touting it as the world's first machine that allows homeowners to make their own ethanol and pump the brew directly into their cars.
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| Go Easy On Biofuels Until More Clarity - World Bank |
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| A senior World Bank official said on Thursday that countries should not greatly increase biofuels production until there is more clarity about how much they have contributed to the global food price crisis.
Juergen Voegele, director for agriculture and rural development department at the World Bank, cautioned against shifting a lot of the blame to biofuels but also said massive subsidies for the biofuel industry was not helping the crisis.
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