As the renewable energy market shifts and evolves each year, industry experts need to know where the next hot region will be in order to keep up with the changing tides.

As the renewable energy market shifts and evolves each year, industry experts need to know where the next hot region will be in order to keep up with the changing tides.

Bio-energy forest plantations will supplement woody biomass from other sources such as logging residues. In the southern U.S., projections are for an increase of up to 25 million “new” tons of woody biomass demand for bioenergy. To supply this woody biomass demand will require purpose grown plantations of various species including pine, eucalypts, sweetgum, hybrid poplar and cottonwood, amongst others. Forest plantation yields can be 8-15 green tons/acre/year on rotations of 5-12 years. Utilization of this renewable and sustainable biomass resource will be as feedstock “designed” for a large number of bio-energy applications.

The United States broke one record after another for extreme weather in 2013. From deadly floods in Colorado to prolonged drought across the Southwest, Americans saw what unchecked climate change can do to our communities. But we also witnessed another kind of powerful force: real and positive climate action.

PensionDanmark A/S and other Danish pension investors backed a state fund to finance emission-reduction projects in developing countries as the Scandinavian nation seeks to export its climate know-how abroad.

The European Union is poised to take its first formal steps to expand the world’s most ambitious limits on fossil fuel pollution. That may widen a rift in how it balances green policies with the need for cheaper power.

Wind and solar power producers say they're at risk of losing investment after the European Union's executive arm scrapped proposals for a mandatory target on renewable energy use in 2030.

Renewable energy companies will derive more of their funding from bond markets as banks curb lending to the industry, Citigroup Inc.’s head of environmental finance said.

Renewable Energy Generation Ltd., a British low-carbon asset developer backed by BlackRock Inc., will build six waste-to-power plants with Caterpillar Inc. and Finning U.K. Ltd. in an expansion of plans published last month.

AlgaEnergy SA, part-owned by Spain’s Iberdrola SA and Repsol SA, is in talks with potential partners to set up a plant in Mexico to supply the American markets with biomass made from algae.

The latest hydroelectric power news and information for March 2014

Suez Environnement, Europe’s second-biggest water company, and Chinese partners agreed to build an incinerator near Shanghai to treat hazardous and medical waste that will generate steam and supply energy.

Talks between Germany and Norway about how to boost the trading of electricity from renewable sources are being held up by concerns that the power cable running under the North Sea won’t ever make money.

Three G-20 nations saw an increase in clean-energy investments last year even as funding declined globally for the second consecutive year, according to The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Royal DSM NV, the world’s largest vitamin manufacturer, expects to begin producing cellulosic ethanol in the U.S. by July as the government considers reducing the amount of renewable fuel that oil companies will be required to buy.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government stopped short of setting goals for renewable energy in the final version of a draft plan that reinforces atomic power’s role in Japan’s energy future, calling it a vital source of generation.

Simplifying finance vehicles for renewable energy will lure more investors and lower the costs of capital.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pushing Japan’s coal industry to expand sales at home and abroad, undermining hopes among environmentalists that he’d use the Fukushima nuclear accident to switch the nation to renewables.

The world needs to triple the energy it gets from renewables, nuclear reactors and power plants that use emissions-capture technology to avoid dangerous levels of global warming, United Nations scientists said.

What’s a beleaguered utility to do when forced by the government to close its profitable nuclear power plants?

Clean energy investment rose by 9 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier on surging demand for rooftop solar panels from the U.S. to Japan.

China, the world’s biggest investor in renewable energy, reiterated plans to boost construction of solar and wind power plants along with projects to transmit electricity from the clean sources.

Germany’s biggest utilities face dwindling market shares as the shift to renewable energy spurs regional power generation and storage technology, a senior member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party said.

Collection of articles related to hydropower technology from April 2014

Drax Group Plc, Dong Energy A/S and SSE Plc will get guaranteed power prices for U.K. biomass and offshore wind plants, the first renewable energy projects to benefit from a new aid program.

The Obama administration is considering cutting greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants by reaching beyond the plants themselves — an unusual approach that could run afoul of anti-pollution laws.

Vestas Wind Systems A/S said scaling back Australia’s renewable energy target would cut the value of more than A$10 billion ($9.4 billion) in large projects across the industry and discourage international investors.

Ohio is debating the sharpest break from a three-decade campaign by 29 U.S. states to reduce reliance on fossil fuels by promoting power from renewable sources.

The U.K. Green Investment Bank aims to boost the capital it commits to carbon-cutting projects to 700 million pounds ($1.2 billion) this year as it chases deals in offshore wind, waste and energy efficiency.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi appointed a former banker to oversee coal, power and clean-energy reforms in a move aimed at resolving fuel bottlenecks and chronic blackouts hampering economic growth.

Japan said the U.S.’s proposed cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions from its power plants is a bold step to tackle climate change.

A first-of-its-kind study of net evaporation at a hydroelectric facility reveals that the project has very little effect on the loss of water to the atmosphere as compared with pre-impoundment conditions.

The European Union needs an ambitious emissions-reduction goal, targets for energy- efficiency and renewables as well as tools to foster investment under its planned 2030 policies, an advisory panel to 14 ministers said.

Spain set new rates for electricity suppliers that use renewable sources, waste and co-generation based on a “reasonable return,” formally ending a subsidy system dating to the 1990s that had spun out of control.

Caisse des Depots et Consignations, a French state bank, is setting aside 5 billion euros ($6.8 billion) for green projects after the government proposed a law to spur use of renewable electricity and boost efficiency.

Billionaire Rubens Ometto’s Cosan SA has the potential to triple its power generation by burning sugar-cane leftovers if the government offers power-purchase contracts for biomass producers.

U.S. Export-Import Bank Chairman Fred Hochberg mounted a defense of the 80-year-old agency as Republicans weigh eliminating the lender they say backs major corporations with political connections.

The latest news on global small hydroelectric facilities from July-August 2014

The top hydroelectric power news for July 2014

Shinsei Bank Ltd., a lender for Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s clean-energy projects in Japan, plans to provide as much as 200 billion yen (US $2 billion) in loans for renewable developments.

The European Commission approved the U.K. government’s renewable energy contracts and so-called capacity payments, saying the program that benefits power plants complies with state-aid rules.

The U.K. said renewable-power projects will compete for guaranteed payments worth more than 200 million pounds ($340 million) a year as part of its first auction of contracts to spur low-carbon electricity.

France’s planned energy law will mobilize about €10 billion (US $13.4 billion) in investment through tax credits and low-interest loans to spur efficiency and renewable power, Environment Minister Segolene Royal said.

Gevo Inc.’s biofuels plant in Minnesota, which has suffered production delays because of contamination, may break even by the end of 2014 as output of ethanol and isobutanol from agricultural waste increase.

India will begin construction this year on an $8 billion project backed by Germany’s development bank to upgrade its grid to handle a more than doubling of renewable power capacity by 2022.

Scotland’s Macallan whisky distillery is set to get most of its heat requirement from a combined heat and power plant part-funded by the government.

Australia is frightening developers away from renewable energy even before the government decides whether to overhaul targets for the industry’s growth.

Investments in new clean-energy capacity will total $1.61 trillion through 2020 even as the expansion of renewables is expected to slow, the International Energy Agency said.

Chevron Corp.’s attempts to turn plants into alternative fuels for profitable, large-scale production have failed.

Abengoa SA, a Spanish energy and environment company, plans to issue its first green bond to raise 500 million euros ($642 million) to finance projects.