Prospects for a new U.N. climate pact in Copenhagen have brightened but negotiations must speed up to meet a December deadline, the head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat said on Tuesday.

Despite Washington's nearly single-minded focus on healthcare reform, the Obama administration still expects the U.S. Senate to pass climate change legislation, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said on Tuesday.

The Board of Investment (BOI) of Sri Lanka has granted approval to a proposal submitted by a joint private venture to set up two windmill projects in the Puttalam district, BOI Assistant Manager (Media) Dudley Perera said.

The Western Provincial Council (WPC) is planning to use wind power to illuminate Colombo city in association with Concurrent (India) Infrastructure Ltd an Indian based private company, while there is another plan in the pipeline to use wind power for the streetlamps islandwide.

The Sustainable Energy Authority (SEA) will initiate action to build a new wind power plant in Hambantota and Puttalam after which they hope to add 80 MW of electricity to the national grid, spokesman for the Ministry of Power and Energy said.

Luis MirandaWith nearly 20 per cent of its Rs 6,000-crore corpus invested in clean energy, IDFC Private Equity has identified clean technology as a focus area. The seven-year-old company, which manages three funds, has committed over Rs 1,100 crore to nine companies, the latest being Krishna Godavari Gas.

Los Angeles: The future of wind farms and hybrid cars may well hinge on what happens to a 55-acre hole in the ground at the edge of California

A parliamentary standing committee yesterday asked the energy, power and mineral resources ministry to prepare a master plan on generating electricity from alternative sources such as solar, wind and wave power.

The ministry was also asked to submit the plan to the committee and the government within three months.