NASA reports 2008 is ninth warmest year since 1880
WASHINGTON — The year 2008 was the ninth warmest year since instrumental temperature measurements began in 1880, and all of the nine warmest years have occurred in the past 11 years, NASA reported on Tuesday.

Algeria’s gas fields seek to set eco-example
IN SALAH, Algeria – A gas field in the Sahara Desert is seeking to set a global environmental example with a project to bury carbon dioxide instead of spewing it into the atmosphere.

Phoenix Motorcars to Bring All-Electric Vehicles to Maui
Hawai’i Governor Linda Lingle recently announced a plan to bring all- electric vehicles and an electric vehicle infrastructure to the island of Maui through a partnership with Phoenix Motorcars by 2009.

Israeli Company Testing Piezoelectric Road
[E]ngineers from Innowattech are planning to test a network of Piezo Electric Generators (IPEG) on a 100 meter stretch of road. As with other piezoelectric devices, the IPEGs embedded in the road will turn mechanical strain into an electrical current or voltage. The IPEGs can generate energy from weight, motion, vibration, and temperature changes.

Engineers Developing Energy-harvesting Radios
Kansas State University engineers are helping a semiconductor manufacturer implement its idea of an energy-harvesting radio. It could transmit important data — like stress measurements on a bridge, for instance — without needing a change of batteries, ever.

Solar Energy Used to Heat Gaza Strip Ovens
They say that necessity is the mother of all invention. In the Gaza Strip, due to the restrictions placed by Israel, one Gazan engineer has developed a solar oven that uses the abundant supply of sunlight to cook food

FERC Approves First Hydrokinetic Installation at Existing Hydro Project
In a December 13 order , FERC approved a hydrokinetic generator that City of Hastings, Minnesota proposes to install by April 2009 in the Mississippi River… The city estimates the new hydrokinetic units will generate an average of 364 MW-hours of electricity per year…  The city must monitor the project for any adverse impacts on water quality, fish, or birds.  If the monitoring shows any adverse impacts on water quality or avian life, the city must modify the project’s operation, including removing the turbines or barge if necessary.

Maximizing Wave Power, by Design
Researchers at Portugal’s Technical University of Lisbon and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are working on a device to tap the power of waves, which was designed using millions of calculations in order to capture the maximum amount of energy possible in a specific location… The team plans to pilot the maximized OWC at the entrance of the Douro River in Porto, in northern Portugal, and eventually put three of them there, which together would generate 750 kilowatts of wave power. The group says the icing on the cake is that the OWCs can actually calm the waters of the area by absorbing some of the wave energy.
I’ve been wondering about the potential effects of the wave power and even geothermal power capture technologies.  Could these technologies disturb the existing ocean flows?  Could they cool the earth’s interior faster than it is already cooling?

Cedar Ridge wind farm goes online in Fond du Lac County
From a media release issued by Alliant Energy: MADISON, WI – December 15, 2008 – Wisconsin Power and Light Company (WPL), a subsidiary of Alliant Energy Corporation (NYSE: LNT), has begun commercial operation of Cedar Ridge Wind Farm, providing an additional 68 megawatts of emissions-free wind energy for its customers.

Answers to huge wind-farm problems are blowin’ in the wind
“By identifying better siting criteria, determining the optimum spacing between turbines, and designing more efficient rotors, we can minimize the harmful impacts of large wind farms,” said Somnath Baidya Roy, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the U. of I. “Through careful planning and testing, we can avoid some of the worst pitfalls altogether.”

Survey: EU consumers reluctant to ‘buy green’
While consumers in many emerging South American and Asian markets prefer to buy from companies that promote their environmental credentials, Europeans appear to adopt more sceptical views of green marketing, a new survey by TNS Global found. The 17-country study, published earlier this month, revealed that 24% of respondents from across the world acknowledged that companies’ green marketing had a “significant or large influence” on their purchasing decisions.

EPEAT Registration and Purchasing Gets Easier with EcoLogo Partnership
PORTLAND, Ore. — Adding more momentum to the green IT movement, the Green Electronics Council has joined forces with EcoLogo to make it even easier to certify and promote electronics that are energy efficient, easily recyclable and free of toxic chemicals.

Most Beverage Companies Fail Recycling Scorecard
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — The second report on recycling and packaging in the beverage industry finds some companies making bigger strides than others, though there is no clear leader.

Dell’s Packaging Plan: Cut 20 Million Pounds, Save $8 Million
ROUND ROCK, Texas — Over the next four years, Dell plans to cut packaging for desktops and laptops worldwide by 10 percent and use more renewable and recycled materials.

Kone to Launch More Energy-efficient Elevators
Finland’s Kone , which makes elevators and escalators, announced a new line of elevators yesterday that will use LEDs and regenerative braking to cut power use, targeting a 50 percent reduction in its elevators’ energy use by 2010. The first of the new elevators, due out next year, are expected to reduce energy consumption by 30 percent compared to Kone’s current models.

Four Small Business Centers Get Big Grants for Energy Efficiency Assistance
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Business development centers in Idaho, Nebraska, Nevada and New York are receiving a total of $500,000 from the U.S. Small Business Administration to help fund energy efficiency projects.

U.K. Shipping Industry Proposes Maritime Cap-and-Trade
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM — The program would put a price on maritime greenhouse gas emissions and incentivize companies to adopt low-carbon technologies.

“Death map” shows heat a big hazard to Americans
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Heat is more likely to kill an American than an earthquake, and thunderstorms kill more than hurricanes do, according to a “death map” published on Tuesday.

Biofuel Plantations On Tropical Forestlands Are Bad For The Climate And Biodiversity, Study Finds
Keeping tropical rain forests intact is a better way to combat climate change than replacing them with biofuel plantations, a study in the journal Conservation Biology finds.

In “eat local” movement, Cuba is years ahead
HAVANA (Reuters) – After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Cuba planted thousands of urban cooperative gardens to offset reduced rations of imported food. Now, in the wake of three hurricanes that wiped out 30 percent of Cuba’s farm crops, the communist country is again turning to its urban gardens to keep its people properly fed.

Japan’s Automated Eco Cycle Parks Bikes Underground
One major deterrent for city bicyclists is lack of parking. Some Japanese cities have taken it upon themselves to remedy the problem with the Eco Cycle , a profoundly weird machine that takes your bike and parks it underground for safe-keeping. 

Homes available: Energy efficient, easy to maintain and no mortgage
MIAOGOU VILLAGE, China — Like millions of other Chinese, Li Zhanjun lives in a dwelling that is fireproof, noise proof, warm in winter, cool in summer and the epitome of an eco-friendly design. Moreover, it’s cheap. Li lives in a cave.

Waterpod Floating House Points to a Nomadic Future After Global Warming
Most scientists are now in agreement that global warming is happening, and that, in the not too distant future, we may all have to get used to living in a world of mass species exctinctions, population explosion, resource scarcity and rising oceans. The question on many people’s lips is, how will mankind adapt to this drastically different future world? One possible solution to this dilemma has come from a collective of New York based artists, who have proposed a mass shift towards a waterborne, nomadic existence. In May 2009, the team will launch a new work called Waterpod , a floating eco-habitat designed to support a fully sustainable community

New species of extinct animals found in Sahara
LONDON (AFP) – British and Moroccan scientists said Tuesday they had found the remains of two new species of extinct animals in the Saharan desert, describing the find as one of the most important of the past 50 years.