After 2 years of planning, IRENA’s founding conference will be held today in Bonn, Germany.

Irena - the International Renewable Energy Agency - will be the driving force for promoting renewable energies in all UN countries. The first time in human history, renewable energies will be the focus of an international governmental agency. The founding of this new agency gives the urgency of the energy and climate crisis a new face - the face of hope and possibilities, and the face of trust and cooperation. It will help bridge the gap between rich and poor countries, as IRENA is going to offer support to both industrialized and developing nations.

Its main tasks will be (more…)

On July 24, in just 5 days, Barack Obama will meet Angela Merkel in Berlin. Let’s take this meeting as a historical chance to encourage both of them to step forward courageously and independently of the pressure from fossil fuel industries to develop an electricity future based on 100% renewables as Al Gore recently suggested.

We do not have time to wait for the world. What is needed are courageous steps of a few countries to show the world that 100% renewables ARE possible. (more…)

Reprinted with permission from Yale Environment 360 at http://e360.yale.edu

Two news reports highlight the growing awareness among American entrepreneurs that renewable energy is on the verge of going mainstream. In its “Environmental Capital” blog, The Wall Street Journal reports that a consortium of commercial fishermen — a group long opposed to offshore wind farms as hindrances to navigation — is vying to develop a major wind power project in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of New Jersey. The group, Fishermen’s Energy of New Jersey, is made up of leading commercial fishermen and dock operators and is competing with four other companies to develop the wind farms. The state of New Jersey will decide in August which group to back and will award it $19 million in grants. (more…)

The Solar Thermal Industry Forum offers solar experts from industry,research and development a platform for the exchange of information

Based on current forecasts by the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF), the outlook is sunny for solar thermal technology in 2008, with particularly high growth expected in the Mediterranean countries. The one-day Solar Thermal Industry Forum, which will take place as part of Intersolar 2008 in Munich for the first time, will focus on the development of international markets as well as technological innovations in the industry. The Forum is co-organized by the University of Stuttgart’s Institute for Thermodynamics and Thermal Engineering (ITW) in cooperation with Solar- und Wärmetechnik Stuttgart (SWT), and is supported by the German Solar Industry Association (BSW Solar). (more…)

Capturing and storing carbon dioxide (CCS) is predicted to be one of the most important measures to counter the threats to our climate. But the technology still hasn’t been tested in full scale, and the complications and risks it entails may have been grossly underestimated.

This is the conclusion drawn in Anders Hansson’s dissertation at the Department of Technology and Social Change, Linköping University.

He studied documents from the EU and the UN Climate Panel about CCS (Carbon dioxide Capture and Storing), as well as some of the research they are based on. The UN Climate Panel released its most thoroughly considered report ever last year, supported by an uncommonly unanimous research community.

The Climate Panel sees CCS as offering great potential. (more…)