Countries such as Germany have seen their solar electricity industry grow exponentially and exceed expectations.

EU support for solar electricity is critical if the technology is to achieve its global potential, according to the "Solar Generation II" report released by the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) and Greenpeace.
"Countries such as Germany have seen their solar electricity industry grow exponentially and exceed expectations. But a solar future needs Europe-wide commitment now," said Sven Teske of Greenpeace International, one of the authors of the report. "The EU needs to look beyond the Kyoto Protocol, which comes into force next month, and set legally binding targets for renewable energies for 2020. There should be an end to all subsidies for fossil fuels and nuclear energy. Every euro invested in solar electricity contributes to climate protection, innovation and less dependence on imported fuels."
In the report the organizations postulate that by 2020 solar power could deliver electricity to more than 1 billion people, provide over 2.2 million jobs, and reduce CO2 emissions by 169 million tons a year. Those estimates are equivalent to the current output of 75 coal-fired power stations. By 2040, solar electricity could supply over 20 percent of global electricity needs. The report shows that solar electricity can make a major contribution to a secure global electricity supply, including in remote regions, and help prevent dangerous climate change, solaraccess.com reported.
It sets out a blueprint for a 62-billion-euro industry within 15 years.
EPIA represents many of Europe's solar electricity companies, and is always trying to keep up with the challenges of such a dynamic industry.
"The solar electricity industry is now one of Europe's fastest growing sectors, creating a significant number of jobs in manufacturing, installation and service, and attracting considerable new investment," said Murray Cameron, who is the vice-president of EPIA. "Every EU member state can benefit from this industry expansion by introducing market promotion mechanisms. EPIA is pressing for the introduction of a feed-in tariff scheme in each member state, since this has proven to be a highly effective instrument which does not rely on government subsidies."

Ever since President George W. Bush announced his hydrogen fuel initiative, the energy carrier has been all-the rage. Through the Department of Energy, the Bush Administration has appeared more interested in producing hydrogen through "clean coal" or nuclear power, but that inclination hasn't stopped a variety of proposals from making themselves heard.
One of the latest--and decidedly less conventional--methods of producing hydrogen comes from a biotechnology company called Infectech.
The Pennsylvania-based company, which predominantly develops diagnostic kits for infectious diseases, is proposing the development of a bioreactor that would use the company's patented bacterial culturing methods in order to produce hydrogen. And they say they could do so inexpensively.
While hydrogen is often referred to as an energy source, it's more appropriately described as an energy carrier. It doesn't reliably exist in a pure form anywhere on earth and therefore must be broken from other molecules like oxygen, in the case of water, or carbon, in the case of hydrocarbons like coal or natural gas. Regardless of the raw material, there are inevitable energy conversion inefficiencies and costs to the process, solaraccess.com reported.
Currently, "cracking" hydrogen from natural gas is the cheapest method. Unfortunately, natural gas prices seem to be heading in only one direction, up. And using natural gas to create hydrogen doesn't allow for movement away from fossil fuels--which is often the stated goal for the President's Hydrogen Initiative.
Infectech believes they can solve both the cost and fossil fuel issue.
With commercialization in mind, the company has signed an agreement for a feasibility study with the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering of Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania to develop this bioreactor.
The company believes the most likely method for low cost production of massive quantities of hydrogen as an alternate energy source is hydrogen combustion using Clostridia bacteria, which produces hydrogen as a by-product.
They might not be the only ones with an interest in producing hydrogen from Clostridia bacteria.
"Infectech has ascertained through its patent counsel that there are eleven relevant US patents concerning the database containing the terms 'Clostridia' and 'Hydrogen Production.' Infectech presently owns five of these eleven issued patents," the company said in a recent statement.
The company is currently researching hydrogen grants made available through the DOE's Hydrogen Fuel Initiative.

Oil and gas exploration in the northeastern corner of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska can be conducted with "minimal impact" on the area's wildlife.

Citing a need for domestic energy, the government plans to open for exploratory drilling thousands of acres on Alaska's North Slope that have been protected for decades because of migratory birds and caribou.
The Bureau of Land Management has concluded that oil and gas exploration in the northeastern corner of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska can be conducted with "minimal impact" on the area's wildlife.
While most of the 22 million-acre reserve is open to oil development, its lake-pocked northeastern corner has been fenced off, dating back to the Reagan administration, because of environmental concerns. That area also is viewed as having the highest oil and gas potential within the reserve.
Interior Secretary Gale Norton is expected to sign off on the BLM's recommendation next week, said a department official, speaking on condition of anonymity because a final action has not been announced.
The NPRA, which was created in 1923 specifically to have access to oil if needed, is not to be confused with the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge farther to the east, which has been the focus of intense debate in Congress over oil development, bosto.com reported.
The Fish and Wildlife Service, which like the BLM is part of the Interior Department, has said the area around Lake Teshekpuk in the northeast corner of the NPRA is among the most important molting areas in the entire Arctic for wild geese. It is also used for calving and insect relief by herds of caribou.
The BLM, however, has concluded that more than 400,000 acres surrounding Lake Teshekpuk should be opened for exploratory drilling with restrictions. The government estimates the area contains about 2 billion barrels of economically recoverable oil and 3.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Henri Bisson, the BLM's Alaska director, outlined the planned action in a speech posted Friday on the agency's Web site, predicting the decision will prompt strong criticism from environmental activists and a likely lawsuit.
"I have been told flat out ... to expect an all out fight to the finish to keep this from happening," said Bisson in the speech, given earlier this week to a business group in Anchorage.
The Anchorage Daily News reported on Bisson's speech Friday.
Bisson called the decision to open the northeastern corner "one of the most difficult projects that we have attempted yet at BLM" but said the reason was simple: "The country needs access to its oil and gas resources and this area is a petroleum reserve."
A broad section of environmentalists and conservationists, from the Wilderness Society to Ducks Unlimited, have urged continued protection of the lake region, noting that almost all of the NPRA already is available to oil companies.
"You do need to have oil and gas development in the NPRA, but not on every single acre," said Eleanor Huffins of the Wilderness Society in Alaska. She said environmentalists have little confidence that the government restrictions will be protective.
"When industry asks for exemptions they give it to them," she said in a telephone interview from Anchorage.
Bisson said the development plan would identify seven lease tracts, of 46,000 to 59,000 acres each, north of Teshekpuk Lake, including 217,000 acres of key habitat for waterfowl. Exploratory leases also will be made available for 157,000 acres east and south of the lake, the area used by caribou.
He said ice roads, graveled drilling pads and other facilities would be limited to 300 acres, excluding pipelines, and exploration would be restricted to winter months, resulting "in minimal impact to the wildlife resources that live in this area."
However, if oil is found--as it widely expected--year-round production will follow, environmentalists said.
Most of the federal petroleum reserve was opened for oil drilling during the Clinton administration, although then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt fenced off 840,000 acres, including the area around Lake Teshekpuk. Norton expanded drilling in the reserve last year, but also left the northeastern section alone.

The amount of coal produced within the UK has been declining pretty rapidly over the past years.

Britain's coal industry, in sharp decline since the country's infamous miners' strike 20 years ago, could be set for a brighter future, thanks to high oil prices and the country's dwindling gas supplies. "The current climate is better than it has been for decades," said Stuart Oliver, spokesman for UK Coal, Britain's biggest coal producer.
Scottish Coal, the only major coal producer left in Scotland, has meanwhile confirmed beginning talks with the country's landowners about developing coal reserves that could eventually be mined. The group would establish two opencast mines in Canobie, in Scotland's south, where they hope to exploit what is described as "the biggest untapped reserve of coal in Scotland", according to local press reports.
The project could lead to the creation of 2,000 jobs in Scotland, reports added, although Scottish Coal, which currently employs 1,000 people, said this was wide of the mark and that fewer posts would be created. "We are just looking at the plans at this stage," a Scottish Coal spokesman told AFP.
"We have not actually done surface drilling or any study to determine if it is going to be economic to mine in the future or not." Nevertheless, talk of a British coal-mining revival has proved to be a boost for the industry, 20 years after the bitter year-long miners' strike that led to the loss of thousands of jobs. British coal production has dropped by 80 percent from 130.1 million tons in 1980 to 28.3 million in 2003, according to official data. The number of miners in work has plummeted from 180,000 to 9,000 over the same period.
But things could be looking up for the country's coal industry, following a 40 percent hike in the cost of crude oil last year and the fact the country's natural gas supplies are fast running out. "Coal is by far the cheapest form of electricity generation and the world's most abandoned field," said UK Coal spokesman Oliver, adding that the industry could be boosted further by a decline to Britain's nuclear industry. Coal prices, though cheaper than other forms of energy, have benefited from sharp rises in crude.
"Coal prices have gone up and the coal mining companies should be making much better profits today than two years ago," said Seymour Pierce analyst Charles Kernot. "The fact that oil prices went up is now having a very strong effect on coal," he said, adding that the industry has benefited also from "a much tighter control of supply" thanks to the mining sector being largely in the hands of four major global companies: Anglo American, BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata.
"That definitely makes coal more attractive," Kernot said. Any recovery to Britain's coal industry was likely to take place in Scotland, analysts agreed. Coal in Scotland has a much lower sulfur content than in England, making it easier for the small British territory to obtain licenses for opencast mining. UK Coal recently made three requests for opencast mines in England, all of which were refused on the grounds that they might increase nitrogen and sulfur emissions, main causes of acid rain. "It is becoming increasingly difficult in England to secure new planning consents for opencast mining," said Oliver. Kernot said any new project at Canobie would be significant.
"The amount of coal produced within the UK has been declining pretty rapidly over the past years, so any significant new project must be seen as pretty important," he said. Britain's year-long miners' strike, which led to bloody battles between workers and police, began in March 1984 and was fought over the then Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher's decision to close nationalized pits with the loss of some 20,000 jobs.

Spending in oil and gas exploration by foreign companies in Indonesia is expected to nearly double to $1.1 billion in 2005, an official at industry watchdog BPMIGAS said on Monday.
"Foreign spending in 2004 was $590 million and they (oil and gas contractors) submitted spending for 2005 at $1.1 billion," Zanial Achmad, BPMIGAS deputy chief for planning, told Reuters.
Foreign oil and gas contractors are expected to drill 111 wells in 2005, compared with 63 in 2004.
"BPMIGAS has accelerated the process of licensing for oil contractors... This is important to develop oil and gas areas," Achmad said.
Indonesia produced on average 1.09 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and condensate in 2004, he said. An industry source said the country's average production of crude oil was 968,200 bpd and condensate was 129,800 bpd last year.
"Indonesia seems to find it difficult to add oil production in 2005 because some oil wells are ageing and there are no significant new finds," Achmad said.
In the 2005 budget, Indonesia estimates crude oil and condensate production to rise to an average of 1.13 million bpd, asia.news.yahoo.com reported.
Some industry sources have expressed doubts Indonesia would make that target because of old fields and a lack of fresh investment in the sector. Such constraints turned Indonesia into a net oil importer last year, despite its membership in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Indonesian crude oil production rose to 974,000 bpd in December from 963,800 bpd in November, industry sources have said. Condensate output rose to 133,000 bpd in December from 128,900 bpd in November.
Indonesia has a quota of 1.399 million bpd under OPEC's formal production ceiling of 27 million bpd, but condensate is not included in the limit.
Oil and gas contractors in Indonesia include US firm ConocoPhillips, ChevronTexaco Corp. and France's Total SA .