The proposed design calls for 1,203 ““stalks,” each 180-feet high with concrete bases that are between about 33- and 66-feet wide. The carbon-fiber stalks, reinforced with resin, are about a foot wide at the base tapering to about 2 inches at the top. Each stalk will contain alternating layers of electrodes and ceramic discs made from piezoelectric material, which generates a current when put under pressure. In the case of the stalks, the discs will compress as they sway in the wind, creating a charge.

“Until about 2007 the world considered bioethanol to be our weird, tropical idea, and left us to get on with it,” says de Brito Cruz. “The game changed when George W Bush made biofuels an energy priority, and other countries entered the field. Then, we set up a bioenergy programme, to protect our intellectual property.”

Brazil produces more than 20bn litres a year of ethanol from sugar, to fuel the country’s 13m “flex” cars, which can run either on pure alcohol or on petrol (which itself contains about 20 per cent of added ethanol). A Brazilian petrol station often dispenses four fuels: ethanol, petrol, biodiesel and natural gas.

“We attribute this warming primarily to wind farms,” the study said. The temperature change could be due to the effects of the energy expelled by farms and the movement and turbulence generated by turbine rotors, it said.

“These changes, if spatially large enough, may have noticeable impacts on local to regional weather and climate,” the authors said.

The Boeing, operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA), flew between Boeing’s Delivery Center in Everett, Wash., and Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. It was powered by a mix of regular aviation fuel and biofuels, made mainly from used cooking oil.

According to Boeing, the plane emitted an estimated 30 percent less carbon dioxide emissions compared to similarly sized airplanes using conventional jet fuel.

A major increase in this industry, they concluded, would also result in shorter tree rotations, younger forests, depleted soil nutrients, increased risk of erosion, loss of forest biodiversity and function, higher costs for bioenergy than are now being anticipated, and increased use of fertilizers – also a source of greenhouse emissions.

“The main objective of bioenergy production from forest harvest is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but the strategy is likely to miss the mark,” said Beverly Law, a professor of forest science at Oregon State University and one of the co-authors.

The country intends to develop more nuclear power, starting this year, actively develop hydroelectric power, tackle key problems more quickly in the exploration and development of shale gas, and increase the share of new energy and renewable energy in total energy consumption. Analysts believe that the development of the solar and wind power industries will stabilise, while hydropower will have the top priority in renewable energy development.

Solar projects could produce equity returns of as much as 44%, and wind 51%, if the proposed rates are finalized, says Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The Fit could result in 10 GW of solar and 0.7 GW of wind capacity by 2014, representing an investment of $37.5 billion. That would make Japan the third largest solar market in the world.

Idaho Power has been seeking to reduce the price and the length of the contracts it is required to make under the federal Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act. It has argued the effort is to protect customers.

But renewable developers and supporters say the company doesn’t like PURPA projects because it doesn’t make money on them and they reduce the company’s opportunity to justify building new power plants like the new Langley Gulch natural gas plant, which do make money for its stockholders.

“PURPA expenses have grown by nearly 25 percent in the last year and that increase is reflected in this year’s request,” said Greg Said, Idaho Power vice president of Regulatory Affairs.

Dams on major U.S. waterways such as the Mississippi, Ohio, Alabama and Arkansas rivers and their tributaries have the greatest potential for added power generation, according to the report. The dams are run by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“Putting turbines on existing dams is going to be less harmful than building new dams,” said John Seebach, senior director for rivers management at American Rivers, a Washington- based group.