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CERN has been able to take the first measurements of collisions between particles with the highest energy ever generated and performed at the new Large Hadron Collider (LHC) accelerator and recorded with the CMS Experiment, which involved a key component (the barrel pixel detector) contributed by the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI in collaboration with Swiss Universities.

Ensus has just announced the first tanker of its sustainably produced bioethanol has been despatched from Europe’s largest new £250m wheat biorefinery on Teesside, which recently started production, and been sold to Shell as part of a long term deal, and helping Britain cut carbon emissions from road transport to meet its renewable fuel obligations from UK sources The plant will also produce 350,000 tonnes a year of high protein animal feed, which will replace imports. But a quick analysis of the 28 organisations that will contribute and research Designing Next Generation Bio-Refinery, shows who intends long term to rank high in this market, who will observe and who will stay out.

Research has identified of a plant protein responsible for optimising light absorption during the photosynthetic process, adapting the photosynthetic apparatus to changes in environmental light conditions. It could have an important impact not only on improved plant productivity but on solar radiation absorption technologies.

Edinburgh-based Aquamarine Power which has raised $60m in several tranches for its wave energy power plants.and its joint venture with utility partners such as Scottish & Southern Energy will create pull-through sales for the Oyster, opening the door to an estimated $190bn global market has been exhibiting in California.

A new Joint Research Centre lead-authored report on transmission network planning highlights that a radical change in coordinated network planning and operation is needed to accommodate market liberalisation and the increasing integration of renewable power sources. The key issues to obtain a reliable and effective European grid are integrated strategic planning and cross-border coordination as underlined by the European Union's Strategic Energy Technology Plan Information System (SETIS) led by the (JRC).

Two solar research projects in which Edinburgh and Strathclyde University have parts will have a cast of 46 players in both UK and India covering excitonic cells and PV stability. It is against a background where IBM opts for 'earth abundance,' Mitsubishi pushes polysilicon solar as well as a new battery for the thriving Japanese solar batteries business.

Hightech but eco building technology slowly attracting interest in Scotland is the potential of the J.Pod and Energyflo. The j.Pod is a Scottish-Japanese innovation, conceived and designed by Scottish architect, John Barr and developed in Kyoto University with Japanese construction companies and universities. The Energyflo technology, developed by a research team at Aberdeen University, creates "breathing buildings" through insulation cells which trap and recirculates warm or cool air within a building and trialled in Scotland and Dubai.

Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) and Hewlett-Packard (HP) are to collaborate on developing a next-generation wireless sensing system to acquire extremely high-resolution seismic data on land to find and measure underground reservoirs of oil and gas. The oil and gas industry require high-quality seismic data to accurately assess exploration prospects for commercial viability and to effectively monitor producing reservoirs.

Scottish wave energy company, AWS Ocean Energy, originally headquarters in Alness, Ross-shire, has now moved to Inverness, and secured a £2m investment from Scottish Enterprise’s Scottish Co-investment Fund and the Shell Technology Ventures Fund 1 B.V. (“STVF1”), an affiliate of Royal Dutch Shell.

Edinburgh, Dundee, Rosyth, Grangemouth and Aberdeen are potentially to opt for biomass power stations. The first of the four cities for biomass power stations planned by Forth Energy is proposed for Leith docks, Edinburgh, at an overall investment of £1.7bn. In a separate development Aberdeen City Council is to be asked to approve plans to heat that city's David Welch Winter Gardens with a biomass plant. The Gardens are currently heated by both oil and gas boilers at a cost of about £130,000 a year.

Five out of eleven locations in the Highlands and Islands have been identified for their potential to be significant manufacturing sites serving Scotland's burgeoning offshore tide and wind energy industry, as have a swathe of central belt locations. But it highlights that the Scottish southern lands appear to be out in the cold from any renewables calculations.

One of Scotland's most innovative energy developers is asking the public to suggest a name for a multi-million pound device that generates electricity from the sea. Orkney-based Scotrenewables, is pioneering the development of technology which harnesses energy from tidal currents. The seas around the Pentland Firth and Orkney Islands are recognised as some of Europe's best locations for wave and tidal power developments.

Scottish government reports that Scotland's hydro power potential is nearly double the amount previously estimated, with small hydro playing a key role in hydro development and job creation. But a major bottleneck is in the amount of skill available in Scotland and the rest of the UK to achieve worthwhile targets.

Power consumption has long been the Achilles’ heel of sensor-based computing. Smart dust, observed Joshua Smith, a principal engineer at Intel Labs in Seattle, proved impossible because the clever sensors needed batteries. Instead of dust, he said, the sensor nodules would be the size of grapefruits. But it appears the smart nuclear battery is under development at Missouri
University.

The Sustainable Glasgow report drawn up by the University of Strathclyde, supported by a consortium which includes Glasgow City Council, Scottish Power, Scottish and Southern Energy, Scottish Enterprise, Source One Veolia, Blitzer Clancy and Co, the NHS, Scottish Public Transport, Scottish Water and Scotland Gas Networks could turn Glasgow into one of the greenest cities in Europe. It set out a raft of ambitious proposals to cut city carbon emissions by 30% over the next ten years. It also require an estimated £1.5bn investment from the private sector.

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