Renewable Energy : Features

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Renewable energy can counter economic downturn
11 December 2008
At a time when major US companies are announcing job layoffs almost daily, the renewable energy industry is hiring new workers every day to build wind farms, install rooftop solar arrays, and build solar thermal and geothermal power plants. The output of industrial firms that manufacture the equipment for these energy facilities is expanding by well over 30 per cent a year. These investments both create jobs and help prevent climate change from spiraling out of control.
Editor's Blog: A Green economy
27 November 2008
The world is hotting up , and so is public concern about climate change - despite the distracting financial crash and its economic aftermath. (Indeed, the lack of foresight over the credit crunch is only echoed by the failure by governments to act earlier on the far more dangerous eco-crunch.)
African agrofuels threaten local energy, food needs
13 November 2008
Although agrofuels are often described as an opportunity to unleash Africa's agricultural potential, these crops are grown to meet the needs of a global energy market, while Africans face an insecure energy future.
COMMENTARY: Flawed economics of nuclear power
28 October 2008
Over the last few years the nuclear industry has used concerns about climate change to argue for a nuclear revival. Although industry representatives may have convinced some political leaders that this is a good idea, there is little evidence of private capital investing in nuclear plants in competitive electricity markets. The reason is simple: nuclear power is uneconomical.
Iceland drills deep to release geothermal future
8 April 2008
Iceland is in the forefront of global research and development of geothermal energy. Now the country has launched an ambitious programme to tap deeper geothermal fields, up to 5 kilometres below the surface. If all goes well this could open the way to a geothermal future that could provide renewable energy to the whole of Europe, says Don Hinrichsen in this second special report from Iceland.
Solar project tackles Benin's arid land
26 March 2008
Western Africa's dry season wreaks havoc on the lives of millions of people year after year. But now some villages in Benin are going to harness solar power to solve their water problems. Robert Freling reports.
ICELAND EXCLUSIVE: Test driving the world's energy future
15 March 2008
As Iceland prepares the for the inaugural run, next month, of the world's first hydrogen-equipped commercial sea-going vessel, the country's 'hydrogen economy' is poised to take off - with stunning repercussions for the rest of the world, says People & the Planet Contributing Editor, Don Hinchichsen, just back from a first-hand investigation.
Heavy price of corn-based biofuels
4 March 2008
The irrational exuberance in the United States over ethanol that swept through the American corn belt over the last few years has given way to a dreary hangover, especially among those who invested heavily in the sprawling production facilities now dotting the rural landscape, says David Totman, writing in Technology Review. Here are some extracts from his article.
World's addiction to coal growing
2 November 2007
While China is closing some of its older dirtier coal mines, there are plans for a coal-fired power plant to go on line in China nearly every week. It is part of a worldwide coal rush, pouring CO2 into the air, just as the dangers of global warming become ever-more insistent. This first-hand report is from Maine Today.
Biofuels 'could benefit poor farmers'
21 August 2007
Biofuels have been under attack for taking up land that is needed to grow food and threatening biodiversity, but says a new study, the increase in world agriculture prices caused by the global boom in biofuels could benefit many of the world's rural poor.