Marc O Riain explores how policy on both side of the Atlantic in the 1980s sabotaged a nascent revolution in renewables and energy conservation.

PassivClass, a new passive-certified modular classroom in London, aims to end the days of cold and draughty school prefabs – including a structure made from reclaimed materials.

An Taoiseach Mr Enda Kenny has opened one of the world’s "most advanced research and development facilities for space and water heating technologies" at the Glen Dimplex site in Dunleer, Co Louth.

A new 100kW solar photovoltaic system is helping to cut carbon emissions at the Snowmountain Enterprises cold storage warehouse in Cambridgeshire. 

The government is withdrawing grant support for heat pumps and biomass boilers and reducing grants for other energy efficiency upgrades as part of its new Better Energy national building upgrade programme. The government has allocated an additional €30m to the programme this year in addition to the €60m set aside in this year's budget. It expects the extra funding to support an additional 2,000 jobs in the retrofit sector in 2011.

Renewable energy in Ireland grew by an average of 15% per annum from 2005 to 2009 driven largely by a significant growth in wind energy of 28% per annum in that period, according to SEAI's latest Energy in Ireland report. Last year also witnessed a steady trend towards lower energy prices in Ireland for both domestic and business energy users.

Energy minister Eamon Ryan has said that formal preparations for a European electricity supergrid have begun.
 
In Brussels today, energy ministers from ten European countries signed an agreement on the North Seas Countries Offshore Grid Initiative, which will aim to develop a supergrid in northern Europe, increase the amount of renewable energy produced in the Europe's northern seas and facilitate large scale offshore wind projects.

Energy minister Eamon Ryan launched the new BE (Bachelor of Engineering) programme in energy systems engineering on Monday in NUI Galway.
 
The new course, which will be based in the new engineering building currently under construction on the campus, has been developed in partnership with members of the energy industry including ESB, GE Energy, Airtricity, Bord Gáis and Wavebob.

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) has announced that Ireland's renewable energy production is growing, and claimed that Ireland is "one of the world’s leading countries in the use of wind energy for electricity generation".

A new coalition of Irish business leaders has issued an open letter urging the government to leverage the State’s €17bn annual procurement spend to develop the green economy.

The CEOs and managing directors of companies including Siemens Ireland, Airtricity, Ecocem, Glen Dimplex and Bord Gais have signed up to Green for Growth, a coalition calling for the state to commit to buying greener goods and services to keep Ireland competitive domestically and internationally.

ELECTRICITY COMPANY Airtricity has been ordered not to use the term “green electricity” in its advertising, following a complaint by An Bord Gáis to the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI).

Scottish-owned electricity supplier Airtricity has announced the creation of 200 new jobs as it embarks on a drive to win new customers.

COMPULSORY eco friendly light bulbs could end up poisoning Ireland's lakes and rivers when they are dumped, experts have warned.

The notion that curbing CO2 emissions would damage economic growth has been used as an excuse from developed countries such as the USA not to switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy. However, as Richard Douthwaite reveals, the people of Austrian town Güssing are discovering firsthand that this couldn’t be further from the truth.