Solar dyes give a guiding light

A new way of capturing the energy from the Sun could increase the power generated by solar panels tenfold, a team of American scientists has shown.
The new technique involves coating glass with a specific mixture of transparent dyes which redirect light to photovoltaic cells in the frame.
The technology, outlined in the journal Science, could be used to convert glass buildings into vast energy plants.
The technology could be in production within three years, the team said.
"It makes sense to coat the side of [very tall] buildings with these new panes," Professor Marc Baldo, one of the researchers on the team, told BBC News. "It's not far fetched at all."

Colour trick

The most advanced attempts to generate large amounts of electricity via the Sun require the use of a solar concentrator.
These are often bulky mobile mirrors that work by tracking the progress of the Sun and concentrating its beams on the cell at its heart.
The new technology does away with the need for mirrors and mobility
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) team has found a way to coat panes of glass or plastic with a mixture of several dyes that essentially do the same job.
"What we have is a piece of glass, with a very thin layer of paint or dye on top," explained Professor Baldo.
"The light comes in and hits the dye and which absorbs it and re-emits the light, but now it's inside the glass so it bounces along there until it gets to the edge. So you only need to mount the solar cells around the edge."
But there are downsides to this technology: the cells at the centre have to be constantly cooled, and each concentrator requires a large amount of space to avoid shadowing its neighbour

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British Gas Poised to Flick Price Hike Switch

Industry analysts are predicting the next raft of price hikes will take effect at the end of this month.

Rumoured energy price increases will be kicked off by British Gas (www.britishgas.co.uk) in two weeks time according to industry insiders.

The price hikes, anticipated to be in the region of 15%, will be prompted by soaring wholesale energy prices, with gas prices having trebled over the past 12 months. The cost of gas is intrinsically linked to the price of crude oil, which leapt to a new record of nearly $146.69 a barrel yesterday.
Adding to the pressure on Britain's energy suppliers, wholesale coal prices were also driven to record levels last week.

Centrica, the owner of British Gas, finds itself especially stretched due to its reliance on paying premium prices for gas on the open market. Historically, Centrica has suffered from a shortage of its own gas and power supplies, and as result has to buy expensively from abroad.

BY Dan Drage
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'Green' car tax will hit poorest hardest

New "green" car taxes will hit hundreds of thousands of the poorest families, new figures show, as Labour backbenchers told the Government it was heading for a repeat of the 10p tax revolt.
About 400,000 of the lowest earners will pay an average of £80 a year more following changes to Vehicle Excise Duty (VED), according to calculations based on official Treasury data. Of those, 140,000 will pay at least £100 a year more in car tax and for some, bills will increase by up to £245.

This means that in total, Britain's poorest families - defined as those on an income of £15,000 or less - will pay a total of £32 million extra in VED in the next two years.

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'Hundreds wasted' on energy bills

Households are wasting hundreds of pounds a year on gas and electricity bills - despite Government efforts to cut energy consumption, the Whitehall spending watchdog has warned.

The National Audit Office (NAO) said that while the Government is currently spending £2.6 billion-a-year on energy reduction programmes, household consumption has risen by 19% between 1990 and 2004. The increase came despite a 19% increase in household energy efficiency over the same period.

While energy consumption has started to fall since 2005, the NAO estimated that households could cut average bills by at least 30% - around £280-a-year for the typical household - if they adopted all the available cost-saving measures.

It pointed to recent surveys by the Energy Saving Trust which found that 71% of households leave electronic appliances on standby, 63% forget to turn the lights off in empty rooms, and 28% leave the heating on when the house is unoccupied.

At the same time, the NAO said that as the growth in consumer electronics, the emergence of more and smaller households and the tendency of people to keep their homes warmer had all helped to offset the gains in energy efficiency.
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