GREEN EARTH Sinivasa Raghotham Around the world, governments and power utilities, struggling against skyhigh oil prices and global warming, are turning to solar power as the next big source. Here are some of the largest projects under implementation or planned.

Carol E. MurphyThis week, through Friday, Carol E. Murphy will be taking questions about alternative energy choices for consumers, what New York City is doing to decrease its reliance on fossil fuels and how city dwellers can decrease their "carbon footprint.' Submit your question in the box below.

Electricity from renewable sources may be fairly cheap to make, but it cannot be stored and produced when needed. But the solar industry is moving to solve both problems with a single approach: gather heat from the sun, boil water into steam, spin a turbine and make power. Solar power, the holy grail of renewable energy, has always faced the problem of how to store the energy captured from the sun's rays so that demand for electricity can be met at night or whenever the sun is not shining.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Thursday said that energy efficiency and renewable technologies would have to go hand-in-hand to overcome present power shortage. She appealed to all concerned persons in the Capital to ensure that Delhi emerged as the greenest city not only due to the greenery as a result of trees but also because of a paradigm shift towards greater use of green energy.

The North-east India Energy Summit 2008 was held in Guwahati on March 29.

THAT'S NOT COUNTING the energy efficiency technology market aimed at reducing power consumption.