Achieving nearly zero energy consuming cities: this is the goal of three large scale district renovation projects. They are currently being tested in Valladolid, Spain, Genoa, Italy and Kartal - Istanbul, Turkey.

Carlos Bárcena, head of R&D Projects at the Spanish construction Company  DRAGADOS .

Within the European Research Project Fiblys, they have therefore redesigned their microscope to a fully functional nano-laboratory.

In the European funded project FIBLYS (or FIB anaLYSis) three industry and four research partners from Czech Republic, France, Germany and Switzerland have created a multi-nano tool named FIBLYS .

Photovoltaic cells have been known for a long time. In semiconductors such as silicon crystals sunlight creates an electric current, which can directly be fed into the power grid.

Within the EU-funded research project N2P (Nano To Production) researchers work on nanostructured surfaces of solar cells.

The sun has enough power to supply the whole earth with energy. But as long as renewable energy is more expensive than energy produced by coal or nuclear plants, solar energy won’t be first choice.

A researcher who is using nanotechnology on the active layer of organic solar cells is Dr.

Some laboratories have achieved impressive efficiencies under concentrated sunlight. SunPower Corp. is much closer to the market. The California-based company recently produced a record-setting 24.

Competitive solar cells rely on climate, efficiency, material and production costs. The fluctuation of electricity prices from different sources and political climates both play a big part as well.

90% of the world’s population lives less than 2,700 km from a desert. If less than 1% of the world’s deserts were used to concentrate solar power, enough electricity could be produced to supply the entire planet.

One good way of helping the environment is to put what we call ‘solar panels’ onto the roofs of buildings. When the sun is shining these panels trap the rays and turn it into electricity and heat.

Locals often refer to Alkmaar as “a small Amsterdam” , with a slower pace of life and a “human-size” atmosphere.

The city has a climate that is good for agriculture : one fifth of Turkey's fruit and vegetable exports and more than 30% of its greenhouse areas come from just this one region.

Each year over 3.5 million tourists from all over the world visit Pompeii to admire the ruins left by the eruption of the Vesuvius that, in 79 AD, engulfed it together with the nearby city of Herculaneum.

As Turkey continues its economic development, the number of buildings is set to rise. This places an enormous burden on power supply systems and has already led to power outages and energy price increases.

Solar parks proliferate in Europe and boost development of renewables, but the issue of land use is often raised. A new trend is to produce energy and cultivate crops at the same time , in other words use agrivoltaic systems.

Can “cryptocurrencies” encourage green-tech? Nowadays virtual means of payment are in use as an alternative to our existing currencies.

Over the last few decades the energy landscape has been changing drastically in Europe. An increasing amount of electricity is now generated from renewable sources, such as solar and wind energy.

Despite increasing talk about renewable energy, many people remain far removed from what’s going on. To tackle this, various projects have been developed over the years helping users to better understand and use green energy sources.