Horizon Nuclear Power, a joint venture between UK and German energy giants, recently confirmed its plans to install a high capacity nuclear power plant in Wales. The company expects to lodge the planning application by 2012 and get the plant commissioned by 2020. It also aims to submit plans for a second high capacity nuclear plant in Gloucestershire once the construction for the one in Wales begins. Each of these reactors will be able to produce 3,300 MW of low-carbon energy. Apart from this, they will also provide 800 permanent jobs and 5,000 jobs during construction, giving a huge economic boost and making the localities, nuclear centres of excellence.

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Nissan plans to start taking orders for its all-electric Leaf, in US from April 20th. This 4-door hatchback is priced at $33,000 before tax and other benefits. Nissan expects to sell around 50,000 units in the first year itself. This car can travel up to 100 miles on a single charge. Nissan also recommends installing a charging station at home, provided by Aerovironment which will cost $2,200 before tax benefits. After deduction of tax and other benefits the car has effective price of around $25,000 which is mid-level considering the US car market and much better than the competition. Taking into account the battery degradation, after a period of 10 years the car would only be able to cover 70 to 80 miles on a single charge instead of 100. However, with appropriate warranty for the battery and pricing of spares the Leaf could move on to becoming a big hit with consumers resulting in saving of millions of litres of fuels and reducing carbon emissions by thousands of tonnes.

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In view of the new Rationalization in Energy Use law to be implemented in Japan from April 1, 2010, Sanyo is offering two new products called STAIMS and ERMOS. STAIMS offers air conditioning and lighting regulation of a building. It figures out the number of people in a 20 sq. m. area and adjusts the lighting and air conditioning accordingly. The STAIMS system, which is to be implemented in about 100 organizations, will cost around $60,000 to be implemented in a building of gross area 12000 sq. m. The ERMOS offers a facility to record power consumption patterns. The data relating to amount of power consumed is stored in a central server located at Sanyo’s business place in Gunma Prefecture, and can be checked remotely by any client subscribing to the service.

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Although the use of wind energy, which is cheaper than solar energy on a cost per watt basis, has doubled in recent years, it accounts for only 2% of global energy production. This is due to the high space requirement of turbines harnessing wind energy and when scaled down, they aren’t as effective. The piezoelectric turbines developed to harness wind energy for small energy requirements are also ineffective at high wind velocities. However, Humdinger has recently developed the microBelt, which uses aerostatic flutter and vibration of a membrane instead of turbines to generate energy. The microBelt is capable of generating a power output of 2mW from winds flowing at, as little as, 3-5 m/s. This device has a very effective application in the area of powering wireless sensors which are used to monitor temperature and structural integrity in buildings.

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Infinyte offers an eco-friendly solution to the problem of noise and excess fuel consumption of normal outboard motors on boats. It has replaced the normal fuel-guzzling outboard motor with two, two horsepower electric motors resulting in a quieter and green journey. It also replaces the wheel with a simple joystick making maneuvering the boat even simpler. Though this boat is not the fastest one available, it still manages to cruise at 8 knots while boasting of a battery that can last up to 10 hours on a single charge. When compared with the normal motors which return only 5 miles to the gallon while cruising at 20mph, the Infinyte travels at a much slower speed but the saved fuel cost and lesser damage to the environment make it worthwhile. There are 3 sizes of boats available with electric motors; the first two are essentially fishing crafts while the other is big enough to carry a family of five.

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Here’s a mobile phone that gives you that closer-to-nature feel. The Touch Wood phone by NTT DoCoMo was recently unveiled at the CTIA Wireless 2010. Now don’t go thinking that these phones resulted in a massive deforestation. They have a body made out of surplus wood obtained from trees cut during forest thinning processes. This apparently helps maintain healthy forests. Using a cypress wood body, the phone is available in its natural wood finish without any artificial colors. For those who choose to confirm to black plastic bodies, this phone isn’t meant for you. It’ll probably give your colleagues the impression of you trying to communicate using a block of wood.

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Hamilton Architects rechristened itself as BFLS recently with a name clubbing the initials of the four founders, Ian Bogle, Jason Flanagan, David Lawrence and John Silver. Changing names isn’t all the company has done though. They have also taken a step greener with an added modification to the 408-apartment tower at Elephant and Castle.

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Abu Dhabi is sure keen on setting up its green eco-friendly city soon. The Masdar City (the same city to use electric taxis and robots) is designed to be a zero waste and zero carbon city. That probably means that you won’t see back-alley dumpsters and smoke belching taxis here. This six square meter city will house around 50,000 people who will have their homes power up by solar energy. Masdar will also house a university and 1,000 businesses.

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The wind blew its self to glory in 2009 setting records with a cumulative installed wind power capacity growth of 158,000 megawatts. This 31% jump in wind power production helped spark the needs of around 250 million people. Globally, around 70 countries now harvest wind energy and 17 produce at least 1,000 megawatts. China tops the list with 13,000 megawatts by building more than 10,000 megawatts in just one year. China currently has seven more wind farms being chiseled out which together will produce 130,000 megawatts. USA reached a cumulative of 35,000 megawatts with the state of Texas as a leader.

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The new Apple of the tree, the Apple iPad has managed to grab a whole lot of attention with its recent release. However, it has received stiff nods of disapproval from the green community. This is because devices like these depend on cloud computing. Cloud computing burn up a whole lot of fuel to get them working and greedily suck up energy. It requires large data centers to have them work efficiently. According to Greenpeace estimates, in 2020, these data centers will consume more energy than what France, Brazil, Canada, and Germany together use today.

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Solar technology is finding more uses and applications as the days go by. This time, its RVs that go solar powered. With a few tweaks using products from AM Solar, you can now turn your gas-guzzling pile-your-family-in-and-drive RV into a clean eco-friendly one. The company offers the AM 100 Solar Panel made up of 44 high-efficiency mono-crystalline cells measuring 21.25” at 20.5 lbs. for maximum efficiency, couple this with the company’s charge controllers which boosts operations by 35-65%.

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You might probably lose faith in the Energy Star label after reading this. This label is usually seen on energy efficient appliances around America in an effort to promote the manufacture and use of greener technology and saving energy. However, a gasoline powered alarm clock recently managed to cheat its way into being labeled with the Energy Star recently. By submitting false documents claiming that the clock was 20-percent more efficient than its peers, this gas-guzzling device managed an Energy Star label.

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The world’s greenest sky scraper will soon be completed in China. The Pearl River Tower will have a heart of green and has just had its top floor constructed. Located at Guangzhou, this near zero energy sky-scraper will house the CNTC Guangdong Tobacco Corporation and will be finished as the year ends. Using cutting edge technology with the help of renewable energy sources like wind and solar energy, this building will be an environment friendly architectural marvel of this age.

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Here’s a “car” that sure grabs attention everywhere. The Power One, driven by Marcelo da Luz for two-years on a 35,750-kilometre on a trip across Canada and the United States, is powered by solar energy. That probably explains why it looks like E.T.’s flying saucer. This car has managed to grab unwanted attention too, like that of law enforcements. Marcelo has been stopped 26 times on this trip by the U.S. Secret Service, a SWAT team from Washington, D.C., and even Alberta Mounties.

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Honda has come up with a new compact generator. Known as the ENEPO EU9iGB, this generator powers-up using butane-canisters instead of gas-fuel. Moving the generator around is a piece of cake thanks to its compact size, two base wheels and its cherry-on-top fold-down handle. This generator can supply energy to any device using less than 900W, including computers, cooking equipment etc.

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