http://www.energy-daily.com/index.html Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST en-us The EU executive said Friday that Russian gas deliveries have fallen in nine countries, with Gazprom invoking flexibility clauses as it also braves a cold snap. The European Commission was highlighting the drop a day after Russian state gas giant Gazprom said it had increased volumes exported to European Union neighbours amid a sudden drop in temperatures. With more than 220 lives lost a]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST Iran will respond with threats of its own to intensifying warnings of military attacks and Western sanctions, its supreme leader said Friday in remarks particularly aimed at archfoe the United States. "The United States and others have to know - and they know - that, in response to threats of oil embargo and war, we have our own threats which will be implemented at the right time, if neces]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST A gas explosion in a southwest China coal mine Friday killed 11 workers and injured six others, state press said in the latest accident to hit the nation's dangerous mining industry. One worker remained missing after the explosion ripped through the Diaoyutai coal mine in Sichuan province Friday afternoon, Xinhua news agency reported. The cause of the accident was under investigation. ]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST A European Parliament committee this week approved an EU "road map" to a low-carbon economy that seeks to go beyond current greenhouse gas reduction targets. The European Parliament's Committee on the Environment Tuesday passed a report written by British MEP Chris Davies that backs the European Commission's "Road map for Moving to a Competitive Low Carbon Economy in 2050," giving it a ]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST Toyota Motor said Friday it aimed to sell 9.58 million units worldwide in 2012 after losing its number one spot in the global carmakers' league last year. Last week, Japan's largest carmaker said it sold 7.95 million units worldwide in 2011, down 6.0 percent, as it wrestled with a strong yen while its supply chains were disrupted by the country's March quake-tsunami disaster and record flood]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST The head of environmental pressure group Greenpeace warned Friday the world faced a "perfect storm" of crises and was heading for what he termed a crisis of "epic proportions." Speaking for the first time at the Munich Security Conference, Kumi Naidoo presented an apocalyptic version of the state of the world and accused leaders of "sleepwalking" into disaster. "The moment of history we ]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST Rice University scientists have created a nano-infused oil that could greatly enhance the ability of devices as large as electrical transformers and as small as microelectronic components to shed excess heat. Research in the lab of Rice materials scientist Pulickel Ajayan, which appears in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano, could raise the efficiency of such transformer oils b]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST Extremely thin, more stable than steel and widely applicable: the material graphene is full of interesting properties. As such, it is currently the shining star among the electric conductors. Photodetectors made with graphene can process and conduct both light signals and electric signals extremely fast. Upon optical stimulation, graphene generates a photocurrent within picoseconds (0,000 ]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST The Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, has experimentally confirmed a theory by Rice University Professor Boris Yakobson that foretold a pair of interesting properties about nanotube growth: That the chirality of a nanotube controls the speed of its growth, and that armchair nanotubes should grow the fastest. The work is a sure step toward defining all the mysteries inherent in]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST China's Premier Wen Jiabao said Friday the Asian giant had neither the ability nor the intention to "buy Europe", amid concerns over growing Chinese investment in debt-stricken eurozone economies. China is "willing to cooperate with Europe to fight the current crisis. Some people say this means China wants to buy Europe", Wen told a German-China business forum in the southern city of Guangzh]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST One day in 2010, Rutgers physicist Vitaly Podzorov watched a store employee showcase a kitchen gadget that vacuum-seals food in plastic. The demo stuck with him. The simple concept - an airtight seal around pieces of food - just might apply to his research: developing flexible electronics using lightweight organic semiconductors for products such as video displays or solar cells. "Or]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST Leaner, greener flying machines for the year 2025 are on the drawing boards of three industry teams under contract to the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate's Environmentally Responsible Aviation Project. Teams from The Boeing Company in Huntington Beach, Calif., Lockheed Martin in Palmdale, Calif., and Northrop Grumman in El Segundo, Calif., have spent the last year studying ho]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST The clean energy industry today urged governments and the broader community to beware of misleading claims about wind farms and health by anti-wind power activists and to reject their calls for extra regulations that would send jobs and investment out of Australia. Clean Energy Council acting Chief Executive Kane Thornton said government documents indicated that NSW Health had repeatedly w]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST An innovative low-cost smart paint that can detect microscopic faults in wind turbines, mines and bridges before structural damage occurs is being developed by researchers at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. The environmentally-friendly paint uses nanotechnology to detect movement in large structures, and could shape the future of safety monitoring. Traditional met]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST Semprius has set a new world record for photovoltaic module efficiency, reaching 33.9 percent (active area). The module was tested indoors at Standard Test Conditions (850 W/m2, 25C cell temperature, and a spectrum matched to AM1.5D) by the Instituto de Energia Solar at the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (IES-UPM). This efficiency result, certified by the IES-UPM and corroborated by out]]> Sat, 04 FEB 2012 07:51:04 AEST