Writing in the Irish Times today, science editor Dick Ahlstrom says:

 A much-trumpeted plan for limitless supplies of free energy has been dashed by the revelation that something cannot be produced from nothing.

An Irish company had promised it could deliver non-polluting, virtually cost-free power but an international jury said yesterday it did not work.

However the verdict has not deterred the company, Steorn Ltd, from continuing to develop a magnetism-based technology it calls “Orbo”. “It is a disappointment, but we had seen this coming for quite a while,” chief executive Seán McCarthy said yesterday.

Steorn took out an ad in the Economist a few years back looking to recruit an international team of scientists to review their device. But the panel has now announced that it is to disband, stating on its website: 

“The unanimous verdict of the jury is that Steorn’s attempts to demonstrate the claim have not shown the production of energy,” it stated. “The jury is therefore ceasing work.”

Steorn, which employs 22 people, remains undeterred - the company is inviting 300 engineering companies to sign a developer licence agreement giving them access to the technology. 

The humble electric immersion could play a key role in fighting climate change, according to Dr Mark Barrett, a rearcher at the Energy Institute at University College London.

According to the Guardian: 

Dr Barrett says the heaters could be switched on and off rapidly to compensate for the erratic output of wind turbines and solar panels, each heater controlled by a gadget that responds to signals sent through the electricity grid – a system used since the second world war. "Everybody is always looking for a shiny new silver-bullet solution" says Dr Barrett, "but this idea is cheap, safe, and based on technology that's been around for decades"....

...Dr Barrett explains that 19m domestic tanks, each fitted with a standard 3kW (kilowatt) immersion heater, would provide over 55GW of potentially flexible demand, which could be adjusted to suit the output of renewable generators. The immersion controller would ensure the water temperature stays above a set minimum – so the house would never be without a hot shower – but within a range of 45C-65C the grid would be in control. Along with hot-water storage in commercial buildings, this would provide balancing capacity greater than peak consumption today, and is a key feature of the computer model Dr Barrett has devised to investigate how Britain could best achieve a high proportion of renewable power.

  Check out the Guardian's interactive guide to greening your home. 

Leeds based architects Garnett Netherwood have won an international competition to construct 12-meter high "wildlife towers" along the Leeds and Liverpool canal. The towers will be constructed from parts of demolished buildings.

Writing on TreeHugger, Lloyd Alter takes a look at two supposedly carbon neutral buildings. The first is the Satander building in Milan, which architects Mario Cucinella have billed as "first zero CO2 office building in Milan."

Speaking in London yesterday, US energy secretary Steven Chu said that painting roofs and pavements white could help to mitigate global warming by reflecting sunlight back into space.

Mario Cucinella architects have produced an interesting theoretical prototype for a low cost sustainable home, dubbed 'Casa 100k'.