An excavator clears land for a palm oil plantation in southern Sierra Leone for a Lichtenstein-based a company. Such projects are criticised by some as ‘land grabs’.
Reuters/Simon Akam
International development banks are supposed to ensure adherence to human rights in the projects they fund. Instead, their practices provide fertile ground for human rights abuses.
An ancient form of energy: a wood pellet manufacturing facility in upstate New York.
thewildcenter/flickr
Tim Baye, University of Wisconsin Colleges and the University of Wisconsin-Extension
The future of two key energy policies – the EPA's Clean Power Plan and Renewable Fuel Standard – will decide whether bioenergy will continue to grow in US or not.
A biogas plant in Queensland.
NH Foods Oakey Beef Exports
The government has issued a draft direction to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to invest in "emerging" clean energy such as bioenergy. But what are the prospects for bioenergy?
Biomass will help meet Australia’s renewable energy target.
David Cootes
When we think of renewable energy, it’s easy to picture spinning wind turbines or rooftop solar panels. But what about bioenergy? While wind and solar are now well established – in South Australia wind…
Fill ‘er up… with biological burnt offerings.
Mejidori
Bioenergy and biofuels have an important role to play in lowering the use of carbon-intensive fossil fuels – a point underscored by the IPCC report which confirmed the need for further research to improve…
Frustrated by battery drain? A new superfast charger is still a couple of years off … but it’ll be more environmentally friendly than the toxic batteries we use today.
rpavich/Flickr
If you’re one of the thousands of smartphone users experiencing battery drain, you’d have been pleased to read that Tel Aviv-based start-up StoreDot recently unveiled a prototype charger that fully charges…
Deforestation must be balanced with biofuel demands.
mauroguanandi
Biofuels have come under scrutiny in the latest IPCC report, which outlines some of the emergent risks associated with their production. In principle, biofuels seem to be an ideal solution to reducing…
Harnessing the energy in wood may help wean Australia off fossil fuels.
Flickr/chriscardinal
With Australia trying to meet renewable energy targets and reduce emissions wherever possible, we should be considering bioenergy. Bioenergy can be made by burning biomass in a variety of forms, including…
Whether more power stations should switch to burning wood or biomass is debatable.
David Cheskin/PA
Many countries have turned to the planet’s forests to meet their need for renewable energy, burning wood chips and pellets produced at home or abroad in power stations to generate electricity. But a report…
From the plate to the power station.
Flickr/tomylees
The amount of scrap food thrown away worldwide is staggering. WRAP, a government-funded non-profit set up to encourage recycling and clamp down on waste, reports that in the UK we discard more than 7.2m…
