The Age reports that the Australian Government will offer rebates to households who purchase energy efficient appliances. This is in line with their program to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition to planting trees and offering rebates to households, the Government would contribute to cutting carbon emissions by boosting green power use by its departments. The Government’s use of power from renewable sources such as wind, water and hydro is set to reach 25 per cent by 2010.

Aside from the United States, Australia is the other country which did not ratify the UN sponsored Kyoto Protocol which seeks to reduce Carbon Emissions in order to combat Global Warming. Australia is currently undergoing a very bad drought that has lasted for more than 6 years in some areas of the continent.

Article here

Great article from David Morris on Alternet that talks about George Monbiot’s Heat: How to Stop the Planet From Burning. He also explains why it is a good follow up to Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, because Monbiot gives realistic and practical solutions to the issue of Global Warming.

By not sugar coating the means, Heat provides an important public service. By clearly presenting his data, Monbiot lets us decide where we agree and where we disagree.

Article here

South Africa took the first step in developing their Biofuel industry by passing a Biofuel Strategy Draft which will be fine tuned further with the help of member of industry. Initial provisons call for a 8% blending of Ethanol with gasoline and 2% of biodiesel with PetroDiesel.
Read the rest of this entry »

John Deere, a renowned maker of farm equipment, announced that their website now has a section dedicated to biofuel which will be relevant to farmers and other producers. Initial content of the site are a biofuel reference report and a video.
Read the rest of this entry »

GE has been able to develop a procedure which will make development of Solid-Oxide fuel cells that uses gasified coal as a hydrogen fuel source economically viable. The main stumbling block of this technology has always been the high cost of production of the fuel cell.

The technology touts a 50% energy efficiency of energy conversion, compared to conventional power plants 35%.
Read the rest of this entry »