Engineers claim that building estuary barrages in the North West could provide more than 5% of the UK's electricity. Researchers examined ways to generate electricity from tidal sources of renewable energy in the Eastern Irish Sea. The study showed that four estuary barrages, across the Solway Firth, Morecambe Bay and the Mersey and Dee estuaries, could be capable of meeting approximately half of the North West region's electricity needs.

In the future, natural gas derived from chunks of ice that workers collect from beneath the ocean floor and beneath the arctic permafrost may fuel cars, heat homes, and power factories. Government researchers are reporting that these so-called "gas hydrates," a frozen form of natural gas, show increasing promise as an abundant, untapped source of clean, sustainable energy.

Researchers find great promise in a process that could use solar energy to use hydrogen, the third most abundant element on earth's surface, as the ultimate alternative to fossil fuels. This process increase dramatically the efficiency of titania photoanodes used to convert solar energy into hydrogen in fuel cells.

The Black Sea harbors vast quantities of hydrogen sulfide, the toxic gas associated with the smell of rotten eggs. This noxious gas could be used as a renewable source of hydrogen gas to fuel a future carbon-free economy, according to researchers.

The concept of delaying global warming by adding particles into the upper atmosphere to cool the climate could unintentionally reduce peak electricity generated by large solar power plants by as much as one-fifth, according to a new study.

An analysis of the engineering and economics for a solar water-heating system shows it to have a payback period of just two years. Researchers report on the success of the 1000-liter system operating at a university hostel.

Chemists have grown a titanium nanostructure that delivers a 33 percent gain in power-collecting efficiency. Part catalyst and part conductor, the novel material could serve clean power applications like water-splitting, where a titanium catalyst has been shown to separate and store hydrogen and oxygen gases.

With adequate financial and political support, renewable energy technologies like wind and photovoltaics could supply 40 percent of the world's electricity by 2050, according to new findings. However, if such technologies are marginalized, its share is likely to hover below 15 percent.

Dual catalysts may be the key to efficiently turning carbon dioxide and water vapor into methane and other hydrocarbons using titania nanotubes and solar power, according to researchers. Burning fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal release large amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. Rather than contribute to global climate change, producers could convert carbon dioxide to a wide variety of hydrocarbons, but this makes sense to do only when using solar energy.

Engineers have developed a technique to "denature" plutonium created in large nuclear reactors, making it unsuitable for use in nuclear arms. By adding Americium (Am 241), a form of the basic synthetic element found in commercial smoke detectors and industrial gauges, plutonium can only be used for peaceful purposes.

Researchers report that records from a decade's worth of solar power installations indicate that overall costs have declined significantly because of decreases in associated expenses such as labor and overhead -- most likely because of federal, state, and local support for solar photovoltaic systems.

The ability of plants to turn sunlight into energy through photosynthesis has been successfully mimicked by scientists to produce a new generation of solar cells.

One of the hydrogen economy's roadblocks to success is the hydrogen itself. Hydrogen needs to be purified before it can be used as fuel for fuel cells, but current methods are not very clean or efficient. Researchers have developed a class of new porous materials, structured like honeycomb, that is very effective at separating hydrogen from complex gas mixtures. The materials exhibit the best selectivity in separating hydrogen from carbon dioxide and methane.

Dutch power stations are able to cope at any time in the future with variations in demand for electricity and supply of wind power, as long as use is made of up-to-date wind forecasts. Researchers demonstrate that there is no need for energy storage facilities.

Solar cells today are made from expensive materials such as crystalline silicon or exotic thin films of rare elements like cadmium and tellurium. A new study finds that unconventional solar cell materials, such as iron pyrite -- fool's gold -- may be a better deal if photovoltaics are expected to meet energy demands of the future. These materials are more abundant and cheaper to extract, which can offset their somewhat lower efficiency.

Dispersed wind farms and solar panels on people’s homes are posing new challenges for managing power grids that were designed when all electricity was generated in centralized plants. A new semantic web technology promises a solution.

Tomorrow's fuel-cell vehicles may be powered by enzymes that consume cellulose from woodchips or grass and exhale hydrogen. Researchers have produced hydrogen gas pure enough to power a fuel cell by mixing 14 enzymes, one coenzyme, cellulosic materials from nonfood sources, and water heated to about 90 degrees.

For the first time, farmers have data that tracks at the county level on-site and off-site energy use and carbon dioxide emissions associated with growing crops in the United States.

An historic British town has placed itself at the cutting edge of green technology by hosting the world's first trial of a renewable heating oil that can be used in existing boilers.

In an attempt to minimize the potential risks -- such as blackouts -- of USA's growing dependence on renewable energies, scientists are developing a wind power forecasting model for the country. The platform for wind power prediction will be linked to a decision support methodology for network operators that will help reduce wind power production and system operation costs.