Energy Law

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Steven Chu, U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) Secretary Ken Salazar, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada announced today the site of the new Solar Demonstration Zone to demonstrate cutting-edge solar energy technologies. The Solar Demonstration Zone will be located in the southwest corner of the Nevada Test Site, a former nuclear site, on lands owned by the Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and administered by DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration. Secretaries Chu and Salazar signed an interagency Memorandum of Understanding that will enable the Department of Energy to develop innovative solar energy projects at the Nevada Test Site. These projects will serve as proving grounds for new solar technologies, providing a critical link between DOE's advanced technology development and full-scale commercialization efforts.

Germany could derive all of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2050 and become the world's first major industrial nation to kick the fossil-fuel habit, the country's Federal Environment Agency said today.

The country already gets 16% of its electricity from wind, solar and other renewable sources ? three times' higher than the level it had achieved 15 years ago.

"A complete conversion to renewable energy by 2050 is possible from a technical and ecological point of view," said Jochen Flasbarth, president of the Federal Environment Agency.

"It's a very realistic target based on technology that already exists ? it's not a pie-in-the-sky prediction," he said.