UK-based Local Generation has announced plans for a food-waste to energy plant in Cambridgeshire, UK.

The food recycling company is investing £9-12 million (€10.3-13.7 million) in an anaerobic digestion system, which will produce up to 2.5MW of power to supply 1,500 local homes and businesses.
Local Generation intends to submit a planning application for the site in the town of March in Q2. Operations are expected to begin in mid-2010.
Food-waste feedstock for the plant will come from the recycler’s sister company potato packer Fenmarc as well as other local sources.

Sierra Leone has launched a $200 million (€154 million) renewable energy project, which includes the production of ethanol.The project’s sugarcane plantation will take 20,000 hectares of land and the ethanol plant will produce more than 1.2 million litres of ethanol a year.In addition, a 30MW power plant will also be in operation. The project’s funding has been approved and construction is expected to begin in June.Sierra Leone’s special trade agreements with EU countries, where they would eventually find a market for their products, would be beneficial to their enterprise, President Ernest Bai Koroma says.

There is a great deal of information and enthusiasm today about the development and increased production of our global energy needs from alternative energy sources. Solar energy, wind power and moving water are all traditional sources of alternative energy that are making progress. The enthusiasm everyone shares for these developments has in many ways created a sense of complacency that our future energy demands will easily be met.

Global Solar Energy has announced the full operation of the largest solar electric array worldwide using CIGS photovoltaic (PV) technology. The 750-kilowatt (kW) system, located at Global Solar's manufacturing facility in Tucson, is the first commercial-scale deployment of the company's highly efficient CIGS thin-film solar technology and will help power its manufacturing plant.

The Solar Thermal Systems (STS) market for hot water and heating has changed considerably over the past few years in Europe as market shares spread into new countries. In 2003, close to 80% of the solar thermal market in operation was concentrated in Germany, Greece and Austria. Just a few years later, these same countries only hold 55%, making room for countries like Spain, Italy and France that previously only held about 10% of the total market share each. Now France, Italy and Spain are among the fastest growing solar thermal markets in Europe