According to today's Guardian , the pioneering Pelamis wave energy project off the coast of Portugal is in trouble after the collapse of majority shareholder Babcock & Brown. The company went in to voluntary administration last week, and its 77 per cent stake in the Pelamis projectis now up for sale.

A few interesting stories on ScienceDaily today that touch on the costs of both solar thermal and solar PV technologies.

Google will soon launch free software that allows consumers to track their energy use at home and improve efficiency, according to the Independent of London.

The company is currently in talks with energy utilities worldwide. The program, which will be open-source, is expected to show energy consumption in real time on consumers' computers or mobile phones.

Here's a simple and effective idea, courtesy of TreeHugger. Toronto based green retrofit specialists Greening Homes put signs like this in the front garden of houses the company is renovating. As well as providing free advertising for the firm, the sign lets everyone passing by know what kind of work is being done, and encourages neighbours to consider green refurb too.

While it is one of the most ecological building materials around, rammed earth - a mixture of earth, sand, gravel and clay - is usually associated with buildings with an earthy, less-than-modern aesthetic. A new house in Vorarlberg, Austria, could change that.

According to Building.co.uk, the three leading international tools for assessing the environmental impact of buildings will soon be combined to create a common international standard.

The best examples of sustainable planning and building in Northern Ireland were honoured in a joint awards ceremony held last month by the Royal Town Planning Institute and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. The RTPI described the winning projects as follows:

Following the annoucement that the government is commiting 100 million euro this year to domestic energy refurb, the UK's climate change secretary Ed Miliband has announced that all British households will be retrofitted by 2030.

 According to Treehugger, Professor Colin Humphries' team at Cambridge University has developed a new LED bulb that can last up to 60 years. Treehugger says: 

Humphries claims within five years, the new bulbs will be available, cheap, mercury free, dimmable and

A small US company has developed a shipping container-sized device that turns waste into electricity and heat. Rather than burning it, IST Energy 's Green Energy Machine (GEM) gasifies waste products such as food, plastics and agricultural waste.

Kjellgren Kaminsky, an architecture firm based in Gothenburg, has published a fascinating mixed-use proposal for Heden, a greenfield site in the Swedish city. The development would feature parks, apartments, offices and sports facilities.

Clayton Homes, the US's largest producer of manufactured housing, has announced plans for a $100,000 green home. The i-House will be 992 square feet in size, and its roof is specifically designed for the  rainwater harvesting system that's included with the house.  The i-House can also support an optional $8,000 solar PV system, and will include bamboo flooring, recycled decking

A free plant “volume” that looks to the East, North and

The Irish Times reports energy minister Eamon Ryan saying that a carbon tax is likely to be introduced this year. During last October's carbon budget, environment minister John Gormley also hinted that such a tax was likely to be introduced in 2009. Ryan said a floor price on fossil fuels was an alternative possibility.