The European Union’s climate change package, including 20% cut in emissions, 20% improvement in energy efficiency and 20% increase in renewables by 2020, was finally agreed at the end of last week. The EU also promised to up the reduction target to 30% if an international agreement on emissions is reached in Copenhagen next year. But […]
Scotland is making progress in energy efficiency, according to a report from Audit Scotland, but public spending on energy has increased because of rising costs. Although the sector cut energy usage in public buildings by nearly 5% over the last three years, spending on energy rose nearly 47%. Stronger leadership on energy efficiency is needed from the Scottish […]
Better Place, the electric car infrastructure developer, is teaming up with Subaru-maker Fuji Heavy Industries and other Japanese carmakers, including Honda, on an electric vehicle project for the country. The Japanese Ministry of Environment has invited Better Place to build a battery exchange station in Japan and engage with the country’s carmakers. The project, which begins in the […]
A super-efficient way of powering, heating and cooling homes using vegetable oil could be on the cards thanks to research at the Newcastle University in the UK. The system burns vegetable oil to power a generator to provide electricity. Waste heat from the process is used for space and water heating, as well as being harnessed to […]
R&D efforts to accelerate the development of solar technology through efficiency improvements appear to be gaining ground. Scientists from Massachusetts Institute of Technology report boosting the output of ultra thin film silicon cells by as much as 50%. The new solar cells boast an antireflection coating on the front and a combination of multilayered reflective coatings and […]
The International Standards Organization (ISO), led by the UK, US and Brazil, is developing a general standard for energy management across all energy-using sectors. A working draft has already been agreed and the ISO is aiming to publish the new standard, ISO 50001 by the end of 2010. The standard will define a management system for all […]
