In an attempt to clean up its reputation, Big Coal in Australia has been seeking a new look with “NewGenCoal”, aka New Generation Coal. New Gen Coal also appears to have been spending up on bidding for keywords such as “solar power” and other totally non-coal related renewable energy terms on some major search engines.

The rollout of tariffs by the UK government could see up to a quarter of households investing in renewable energy options. It’s been predicted 195,000 home wind turbines will be installed in the UK over the next 12 years and upwards of 900,000 households will install solar power and/or solar hot water systems.

In its latest green initiative, Wal-mart announced last Friday it would be partnering with a Duke Energy wind farm in Texas to provide renewable energy to up to 15 percent of 360 Wal-Mart stores and other facilities in the state

It is expected that the New South Wales government will unveil the introduction of a feed in tariff scheme to be rolled out next year when NSW Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Carmel Tebbutt, speaks at a solar power conference in Sydney later today.

The old jokes state ‘useful as deckchairs on a submarine’ or ‘flyscreens on a submarine’, but a solar powered submarine is not a joke or science fiction – it will be a reality soon.

Kyocera Corporation, a leading manufacturer of solar panels, late last week announced plans to construct a major solar cell manufacturing plant located in Yasu City, Japan, which will become the company’s largest production facility in the country.

France’s solar sector will be a major beneficiary of sweeping changes announced recently by the French Government who have unveiled an ambitious plan calling for expansion of solar energy based electricity production by a factor of 400 by 2020.

BP Solar yesterday stated it will close its photovoltaic (PV) cell and solar panel manufacturing plant in Sydney Olympic park (Australia) at the end of March 2009.

With solar uptake in Australia on the rise, local authorities may soon need to consider the implementation of a Solar Shade Control Act or Solar Rights Act, such as exists in the USA; specifically, California.

A solar powered plane trip around the world may soon leave the realms of science fiction and become reality. ‘Solar Impulse’, a 1500 kilogram solar plane with a 61 meter wing span, will be undergoing its first test flight in April next year