It is hoped that the LEDs will use fifty percent less energy than a standard light fixture and therefore save Anchorage around $360,000 each year in energy bills. The council are said to have invested $2.2 million into the plan so the lights will hopefully pay for themselves over the next decade.

The lights are of crucial importance to Anchorage as the city has 85 days a year without less than eight hours of sunlight therefore the new LED lights could be a crucial step forward for cheaper energy bills and better energy efficiency.

Ministers have announced that they want a six-fold rise in the amount of electricity being generated by onshore wind-farms by 2020 to help the country meet European targets on green energy. The target means that an extra 4,000 wind turbines must be built in the country – that’s the equivalent of building a new wind turbine every day for the next twelve years. The plans are the latest in a string of green announcements – last month, the UK Government announced plans for another 7,000 wind turbines to be build off the coast.

Great Britain already has 2,000 onshore turbines and there are many people who are not keen to see more being erected – many believe that the turbines are ugly and blight the look of the English countryside and are far less reliable than those which are located out at sea. It is expected that the new wind turbines will be met with fierce opposition.

Around half of the new turbines are expected to be built in Scotland; Around a quarter will be built in England; Around 18 percent will be built in Wales, and Northern Ireland will house the remaining ten percent.

The Convention Center have an interesting contract with Pepco, the local electricity firm. Pepco are paying to have the solar panels installed at the Center and the Convention Center will then buy back the electricity they generate from the utility firm.

It is expected that the solar cells will generate around 2.36 megawatts of energy each day – enough to power around 280 houses. Work is planned to start within the next month and should be completed by the end of the year. The Convention Center is also looking at the possibility of using wind turbines to help generate even more power from renewable sources.

However energy minister, David Parker, has denied claims of rolling power cuts but has urged households to try and cut their electricity consumption, particularly during peak times.

Hydroelectric power stations normally produce around three quarters of New Zealand’s electricity. In recent weeks, this figure has fallen to just 50 percent thanks to a lack of rain across the country. Coal, diesel and gas-fired power plants are trying to make up the electricity short-fall, but should the percentage contributed by the hydroelectric plants fall further, and combined with the arrival of winter in the southern hemisphere, many believe that many will experience power outages.

Politicians have insisted that the power crisis is not an emergency, however they are asking people to be more vigilant over their power usage.

The situation is not unusual in New Zealand – in 2001, 2003 and 2006, the public were urged to save power, and in each instance, rain fell in time to stave off any major power threats. The last serious power shortage was in 1992 when street lighting was rationed, households had hot water restriction, and businesses had to use liquid petroleum gas and diesel.

It may seem strange that the quakes have been occurring for quite some time and the people working on the ice sheet haven’t noticed but the reason is quite simple – the quakes are a very slow event. In standard earthquakes, the energy is released in a few seconds causing massive tremors; these ice quakes are releasing their in around 20 minutes therefore the movement of the earth is virtually unnoticeable.

The first time that the ice quakes were noticed was three years ago when Douglas Weins, a seismologist at Washington University, analysed data from 43 sensors spread across Antarctica. He was hoping to pick up faint signals which would lead him towards previously undiscovered fault lines, however he increasingly saw vibrations emanating from the same Antarctic area.

In 2004, a second scientist, Sridhar Anandakrishnanm placed some sensors on the Whillans Ice Stream to measure it’s flow as the stream was known to have strange behaviour – usually, a glacier will move forwards in a continuous fashion; The Whillans Ice Stream is at a standstill for much of the time and surges forward around half a metre twice daily as the ocean tides lift and lower the part of the ice that extends into the Ross Sea.

By analysing the two sets of data side by side, the researchers realised that the surges made by the glacier matched the seismology data suggesting that the ice quakes were caused by the ice grinding over a rough spot in the ice below the glacier.

The research here is important because finding the cause of ice quakes may help to better understand glacial movement and therefore garner a better understanding of how climate change might affect them.

The prototype is being built by Global Research Technologies in Tucson, Arizona, and will cost around $200,000 to build and take around two years to complete. The prototype isn’t small – each device is around the size of a shipping container and millions would have to be built to completely counter the amount of carbon emitted by human activities.

Klaus Lackner, the lead physicist behind the invention, is enthusiastic about the project stating that it is a strong product because people will use fossil fuels therefore it is better to counteract the effects rather than trying to constrain human activities.

The machine uses ion exchange membranes which are normally used to purify water. These huge plastic sheets can be use to capture carbon dioxide in the air and when humid air is applied to them, they will release the CO2 they have trapped leaving them ready to absorb another load of carbon dioxide. The research team have said that the captured carbon dioxide can be put to good use in places like large greenhouses where the CO2 will aid plant growth.

Pickens’ wind farm is planned to have enough capacity to supply power to over 1.2 million homes in North Texas. Each of the wind turbines will produce around 1.5 megawatts of electricity, and the first phase of the project should see 1,000 megawatts being produced – that’s enough power to supply 300,000 homes.

The first delivery from GE will be in 2010, and the turbines are expected to start producing power a year later in 2011. It is expected that the entire project will be complete in 2014 and will cost Pickens’ company, Mesa Power, a cool $10 billion. Once complete, the turbines are projected to produce 4,000 megawatts of energy.

According to Professor Arnold Wilkins, the flickering of sunlight which occurs as the blades turn, can trigger seizures in more vulnerable members of the public. Professor Wilkins is calling for the risk to be considered when building wind farms.

Epileptics are usually in danger of a seizure if light flickers three times or more a second. Wind turbine blades running at a good speed will create more than three flickers a second. Professor Wilkins is concerned that where turbines are located close to each other, the shadows of the blades can cross over leading to a greater frequency of flickers therefore there is a big risk to epileptics living or working in the shadow of wind turbines.

Scientists have said that Colonia glacier’s melt is increasing thanks for rising world temperatures. The increased melt filled the Cachet Lake and put increasing amounts of pressure on the ice sheet. The water then bored a five mile tunnel through the glacier before landing in the Baker River. Remarkably, the flow was so strong that the water actually moved against the river’s normal currents.

The team initially were looking into ways to making steel last longer. One of the areas they researched was the degradation of paints on steel surfaces and they soon reaslised that using some form of solar panel would not only help steel’s life expectancy, but could also help the building’s energy requirements.

Their idea involves coating each piece of steel cladding with a solar cell paint. As the steel cladding is manufactured, it is passed through rollers and each pass sees a thin coat of solar cell paint applied. The solar cell paint itself is designed to capture low level solar radiation which means that the solar cell paint should work well in areas where the sun is not directly shining on it.

The research team are not the first people to have come up with the solar cell paint idea – last year researchers at the New Jersey Institute of Technology developed a special coating which could be printed or painted onto various plastic surfaces, creating instant solar panels.