The IT industry accounts for about 2 per cent of global carbon emissions - close to the same as the aviation sector - and has an important role to play in the environmental agenda. The main issue for IT is the amount of electricity that computers use. Data centres in particular have come into focus as heavy consumers of power. The average centre uses 50 times more energy than the average office and can cost around

Efforts are on to establish windmills for power generation in areas where the velocity of wind is high in Anantapur district. Winds blow at a velocity of 45 km per hour from April to September in the district and are convenient to generate power. The Non-Conventional Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (Nedcap) officials have identified in a survey, that Ramagiri, Kadavakallu, Vajrakarur, Talarichervu, Nallakonda, Mustikovela and Penakacherla Dam are convenient for setting up windmills in the district.

Europe's fourth-largest utility, RWE of Germany, said on Wednesday it will enter renewable energy projects with municipal utilities to lower its output of carbon dioxide. RWE said it had signed a letter of intent with the ARGE group of 50 local utilities for power projects using sources such as wind and biomass in Germany and abroad. Chief Executive Juergen Grossmann wants to cut carbon dioxide emissions as allowances to emit the greenhouse gas, given out under a European Union-wide scheme, are made scarcer and costlier to moderate global warming.

Credit Suisse-backed private equity firm Hudson Clean Energy Partners will focus on investments in wind, solar and biofuels, with deal sizes averaging about $100 million, its managing partners said Wednesday. John Cavalier, former head of Credit Suisse's renewable energy investment banking practice, and Neil Auerbach, Hudson's founder, said in an interview that the firm was focused on companies with commercialized technology, or those that are on the verge of commercialization.

People have seen a change in their quality of life, thanks to the solar lighting system. "My son stays up later than all of us, studying through the night," says Guddi Devi, a resident of Dabkan- Kartikeya Singh, Alwar It is a simple device but it has shrunk the nights in Rajasthan's countryside. Over the past decade, thousands of families in the state's remote villages, unconnected with the grid, have installed solar lighting systems at their homes, which harness solar energy to generate electricity.

ONLY George Orwell could have invented

Technology Smooths the Way for Home Wind-Power Turbines New Ways to Store Solar Energy for Nighttime and Cloudy Days (April 15, 2008) No one tracks the number of small-scale residential wind turbines

M.T.A. to Tap Solar Power for Electricity at Some Buildings By WILLIAM NEUMAN Published: April 15, 2008 The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said on Monday that it would install solar panels on about a dozen bus depots, warehouses and other facilities with large roofs as part of a push to make its operations more environmentally friendly.

Japanese sailor Kenichi Horie set sail from Hawaii, the US, to Japan on a wave-powered boat on March 16. The three-tonne boat, called Suntory Mermaid II, is made of recycled aluminium and relies on

South Africa has launched a pilot project to introduce solar water heaters. With an objective to exploit one of its abundant resources, sunshine, the project aims to create awareness and