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renewable energy > features
Making solar townships viable in Malaysia
Solar cells are notoriously costly. But this will soon change with the launch of a project aimed at making them affordable for Malaysians, reports Tan Cheng Li. ... more
Sweden goes for green energy
Twenty years after Sweden alerted the world to the meltdown at Chernobyl, it aims to phase out nuclear power and end dependency on fossil fuels, putting the country in the vanguard of green energy policy. ... more
ANALYSIS
Biofuels can power cars of the future
by Danielle Murray
At the fuel pumps in S�o Paulo, customers have a choice: gas or alcohol? Since the mid-1970s, Brazil has worked to replace imported gasoline with ethanol, an alcohol distilled from locally grown sugarcane. Today ethanol accounts for 40 per cent of the fuel sold in Brazil. Danielle Murray reports on the potential of this new form of green energy. ... more
Short path to oil independence
by Lester R. Brown
With the price of oil above $50 a barrel, with political instability in the Middle East on the rise, and with little slack in the world oil economy, oil guzzling economies such as the United States are in urgent need of a new energy strategy. Fortunately, says Lester Brown, the outline of a new strategy is emerging with two new technologies. ... more
Creating the climate for change
by Klaus Toepfer
As the world meets in Bonn this week to discuss the future of renewable energy, Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), calls on the world to look beyond the oil crisis to two more fundamental threats. ... more
Electric olives
by Claire Doole
In the hills of Andalucia, olive farmers are doing their bit in the fight against climate change - turning waste from olive oil into green electricity. Claire Doole reports on this enterprising endeavour. ... more
Europe leads way to wind energy age
by Lester R. Brown
Europe is leading the world into the age of wind energy. In its late 2003 projections, the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) shows Europe's wind-generating capacity expanding from 28,400 megawatts in 2003 to 75,000 megawatts in 2010 and 180,000 megawatts in 2020. By 2020, just 16 years from now, wind-generated electricity is projected to satisfy the residential needs of 195 million Europeans, half of the region's population. ... more
Coal: US promotes while Canada and Europe move beyond
by Lester R. Brown
On Monday, November 24 (2003), the US Congress abandoned all hope for this year of passing an energy bill laden with subsidies for fossil fuels, including coal. While the White House strongly supports heavy subsidies to expand coal burning, other industrial countries are turning away from this climate-disruptive fuel, including Canada. Lester Brown reports. ... more
Restructuring the energy economy
by Lester R. Brown
The year 2002 was the second warmest on record. The three warmest years on record since record-keeping began in 1867 have come in the last five years. Here, Lester Brown reviews the prospects for a stablising the world's climate by creating a world economy based on renewable energy. ... more
Barefoot, female and a solar engineer
by Shruti Gupta
Gulab Devi, 45, comes across as the quintessential rural woman from Rajasthan, in north east India. Completely illiterate, and mother of four, she is now a successful pioneer in the Barefoot Solar Engineering Project which is bringing solar power and women�s liberation to hundreds of villages across India. Shruti Gupta reports. ... more
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