Meet the underwater Anaconda snake that could solve our energy problems

Looking like something out of a Fifties B-movie, it slithers and slides through the waves.

But far from being a deadly predator, the 600ft-long rubber sea snake could one day be the answer to the country's energy crisis.

The device - named the Anaconda after the large snake that lives in water - is a wave power generator, which converts the rise and fall of the oceans into cheap, green electricity.
Its creators say it could offer a reliable alternative to the thousands of wind turbines due to be built in the next decade.

Professors Francis Farley and Rod Rainey, the snake's inventors, predict that, if tests continue to be successful, the first 'Anaconda farms' could be built within five years.

The device, which is 20ft wide, is made up of a long rubber tube, closed at both ends and filled with water.

Designed to be anchored with one end facing the oncoming waves, it should be used in water between 120ft and 300ft deep, typically about one or two miles from shore.

Because it is made of rubber - meaning it is lighter than other wave generators and does not need complicated hydraulic ramps, hinges and articulated joints - it is cheaper to build and needs less maintenance.
By DAVID DERBYSHIRE

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Biofuels are prime cause of food crisis, says leaked report

Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% — far more than previously estimated — according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian. The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.

The figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.

Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush. "It would put the World Bank in a political hot-spot with the White House," said one yesterday.

The news comes at a critical point in the world's negotiations on biofuels policy. Leaders of the G8 industrialised countries meet next week in Hokkaido, Japan, where they will discuss the food crisis and come under intense lobbying from campaigners calling for a moratorium on the use of plant-derived fuels.

It will also put pressure on the British government, which is due to release its own report on the impact of biofuels, the Gallagher Report. The Guardian has previously reported that the British study will state that plant fuels have played a "significant" part in pushing up food prices to record levels. Although it was expected last week, the report has still not been released.

"Political leaders seem intent on suppressing and ignoring the strong evidence that biofuels are a major factor in recent food price rises," said Robert Bailey, policy adviser at Oxfam. "It is imperative that we have the full picture. While politicians concentrate on keeping industry lobbies happy, people in poor countries cannot afford enough to eat."
BY Aditya Chakrabortty

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The bulb hoarders

The government wants your old-fashioned energy-hungry incandescent tungsten light bulb gone, and gone soon. But some people are willing to go to great lengths to hang onto the lights they love.

Incandescent bulbs - that's the traditional kind to you or me - waste 95% of the energy they use, according to Greenpeace. They calculate that phasing them out in the UK will save more than five million tonnes in CO2 emissions a year.

And yet some households are so attached to them that they not only keep buying them - they're stockpiling them ahead of the day when they're no longer available.
In September last year, the UK government made a deal with major shops for the supply of traditional bulbs to be turned off. Some higher energy bulbs will be gone by January 2009, and all incandescent lights will be off by 2011.

The agreement is voluntary, but other countries have announced legal bans, including Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and the US.

The brighter bulbs are already fading from view, according to Glen Gotten of the light merchant Ryness. "100w and 150w are difficult to get hold of," he says. "The larger manufacturers have stopped making them. We still manage to get enough to supply our customers for now, but they will start drying up."

The 150w, in particular, is seriously rare. They're gone from Tesco. Morrisons have already chosen to ditch them, with 100w to follow in the autumn and 60w next year.
By Steve Tomkins

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Green target 'to hike fuel bills'

UK households could see their annual energy bill rise 20% to pay for the cost of meeting the EU's 2020 emissions target, Ernst & Young has predicted.

The accountancy firm's report estimates that the UK would have to stump up £100bn for the capital investment needed to satisfy Europe's green goals.

The EU wants European countries to cut carbon dioxide levels by 20% by 2020.

It also wants member states to raise the proportion of renewable energy they use to 20%.

The report, called Costing the Earth, says UK households could not
easily afford higher energy bills at a time of record food and fuel bills.

The potential rise in utility bills would push more consumers into fuel poverty, according to one of the report's authors.

"Customers face a triple whammy - rising fuel and oil prices, the cost of climate change mitigation, and on top, the additional investment required to become more energy efficient, for example by insulating the home," said Simon Harvey, of Ernst & Young.

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