World:
¶ The International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) has its third annual conference underway in Abu Dhabi, and has provided a Global Renewable Energy Atlas [gulfnews.com]
¶ An important focus of Irena is to bring energy to all people. Renewable resources are making this goal reachable, where electric grid power did not. [The Guatemala Times]
¶ China has announced it is joining Irena. [The National]
¶ The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership will fund 28 new projects for renewable energy and energy efficient solutions in Africa and Asia. [ESI Africa]
¶ The Scots, after long feeling they were taking a back seat to the English, are taking pride in environmental leadership, as they work toward 100% electrical energy independence in 2020. [The National]
¶ Renewable power is seen as a major investment opportunity in Myanmar. Solar costs about half as much as diesel in Southeast Asia, and produces no emissions. [CleanTechnica]
US:
¶ So far, Google’s investment in renewable power comes to over $1 billion. [Techi]
¶ Muons, Inc. and ADNA Corp. are proposing using an accelerator-driven subcritical reactor for heat for production of synthetic fuels and chemicals. The reactor could use spent nuclear fuel. [Green Car Congress]
geoharvey 
January 16, 2013 at 10:37 am
Ironic that the Muons/ADNA proposal is to use this technology to convert coal into liquid fuel. Sigh.
January 16, 2013 at 11:46 am
I agree.
But the fact is that there is a lot of road to cover between now and the end of the day. There are other ways they could use the power from the plant they are proposing, and there are a lot of other sources of feedstock besides coal. The Sabatier process could be used instead of Fischer-Tropsch, and in such a case the source of carbon could be carbon dioxide from any source that produces it. There have even been experiments in which it was taken directly from the atmosphere.
gh