PARIS (AFP) − Europe could meet all its electricity needs from renewable sources by mid−century, according to a report released Monday by services giant PricewaterhouseCoopers.

A "super−smart" grid powered by solar farms in North Africa, wind farms in northern Europe and the North Sea, hydro−electric from Scandinavia and the Alps and a complement of biomass and marine energy could render carbon−based fuels obsolete for electricity by 2050, said the report.

Google has developed a prototype for a new mirror technology that could cut by half the cost of building a solar thermal plant, the company's green energy czar said on Friday.

Bill Weihl said that if development and testing go well, he could see the product being ready in one to three years. "Things have progressed," Weihl said in an interview. "We have an internal prototype."

Google has been looking at unusual materials for the mirror´s reflective surface and the substrate on which the mirror is mounted.

The United States Department of Energy offered a $1.37 billion loan guarantee on Monday to a California company planning to build a large−scale solar power plant in the Southern California desert.

The loan guarantee for BrightSource Energy of Oakland, Calif., is the largest the department has given for a solar power project. BrightSource´s planned project, the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, is the first utility−scale solar power plant to undergo licensing in California in nearly two decades.

Con Edison has filed a proposal with the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) to support the development of 25 megawatts (MW) of solar energy resources in New York City by 2015, which would offset about 16,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions annually.

The CO2 emissions avoided would be the equivalent of taking 2,400 passenger vehicles off the road, and the 25 MW of solar energy would power more than 38,000 room air conditioners (6,000−7,000 BTUs) when the sun is at its brightest.

The French energy company Areva SA is buying Ausra Inc., a California solar-power startup backed by high-profile venture capitalists.

Perhaps best known for its nuclear power plants, Paris−based Areva has branched out in recent years into designing and building wind farms and biomass power plants. The Ausra acquisition, which is slated to close in the next few months, would form the backbone of Areva´s new solar electricity business.

GA−Solar, a subsidiary of Spain´s Corporación Gestamp, announced plans to build a photovoltaic solar project in New Mexico with a capacity of up to 300 MW.

The company said it will invest $1 billion in the development of the project to be located on 2,500 acres in Guadalupe County.

HONG KONG − As it moves rapidly to become the world’s leader in nuclear power, wind energy and photovoltaic solar panels, China is taking tentative steps to master another alternative energy industry: using mirrors to capture sunlight, produce steam and generate electricity.

So−called concentrating solar power uses hundreds of thousands of mirrors to turn water into steam. The steam turns a conventional turbine similar to those in coal−fired power plants. The technology, which is potentially cheaper than most types of renewable power, has captivated many engineers and financiers in the last two years, with an abrupt surge in new patents and plans for large power operations in Europe and the United States.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) — Google Inc is disappointed with the lack of breakthrough investment ideas in the green technology sector but the company is working to develop its own new mirror technology that could reduce the cost of building solar thermal plants by a quarter or more.

"We've been looking at very unusual materials for the mirrors both for the reflective surface as well as the substrate that the mirror is mounted on," the company's green energy czar Bill Weihl told Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit in San Francisco on Wednesday...(more)

Ideas are taking shape in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa for a truly comprehensive, continent-wide energy landscape of the future. And some of the strategies coming out of planning bodies ´over there´ deserve serious attention on the North American continent. They also deserve a more liberal and disinterested response from legislators and regulators at the local level than these officials have historically been wont to give. And that makes us wonder whether we can rise above the technical challenges involved, only to drown in a sea of regulation and self—interest.

The Trans—Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation (TREC), an initiative of The Club of Rome non-governmental global think tank, has developed a concept known as DESERTEC, whose main elements include:

* Establishing large numbers of concentrating solar power (CSP) arrays in desert areas of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA);
* Transmitting power from these and other renewable sources throughout Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (EUMENA) via super-efficient high—voltage direct—current (HVDC) transmission lines.

We automatically think, in this country, that if power needs to be sent from generating station A to a town rejoicing under the name of B, then some line joining the two points must be sown with large metal skeletons keeping high—voltage wires safely above our heads.

It ain´t necessarily so. Thomas Blakeslee of Clearlight Foundation, writing in RenewableEnergyWorld.com, makes the case that using high—voltage DC instead of AC and burying the cables underground can cost the same or less than stringing them through the sky, for four reasons:..(more)