An Indian private power company has secured an investment worth $30 million (£19.25m) for the development of wind and hydropower projects in the country.

The agreement between the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and NSL Renewable Power Private Ltd (NRPPL) will support projects that will generate 530GWh of electricity and cut carbon emissions by 400,000 tons every year.

The renewable firm will use the cash to partially finance the construction of the 100MW Tidong hydropower project in Himachal Pradesh and the 75MA Chilarewadi wind project in Maharashtra.

Lakshmi Venkatachalam, ADB’s Vice President for Private Sector and Co-financing Operations said: “India will increasingly need renewable energy to drive its development and the private sector will play a central role in developing the renewable energy sector to help the country achieve green growth.”

The investment is expected to help the Hyderabad-based renewable firm reach its 1,000MW target of operational renewable energy by 2017.

The agreement is ADB’s first equity investment in a private sector renewable firm in India and was signed yesterday in the run up to ABD’s 46th annual meeting in Delhi.

An increasing number of people – 82% – in the UK support the use of renewable energy sources to provide the country’s electricity needs.

According to new data complied by the Government, around three quarters said they support wave, tidal and offshore wind, 85% solar and around two thirds for onshore wind (68%) and biomass (64%). It also revealed support for some low carbon energy sources such as shale gas is at an all time high and concern about rising energy bills also reached the “highest level”, with six in 10 people worried about it.

The fifth Public Attitudes Tracking survey of more than 2,000 people carried out by DECC, which has been running since March last year, suggested there is increased concern about climate change (66%) and security of energy supply. More than three quarters of people are worried about the UK becoming too dependent on energy from other countries and 75% are concerned the UK is not investing fast enough in alternative sources of energy.

The survey also showed 42% of people are interested in joining a collective switching scheme and 16% switched suppliers in the last year.

Energy Secretary Ed Davey said: “The findings from today’s survey show that energy and climate change issues are at the forefront of people’s minds. It comes as no surprise that energy bills are a concern but the increase in collective switching awareness, as more and more people club together to increase their energy buying power, is encouraging.”

Support for nuclear energy in the UK rose to 40% although overall views are split, with 23% opposed and 35% neither supporting nor opposing its use, 81% agreed the UK needs a mix of energy sources to ensure a reliable supply of electricity. Although concern about energy bills are high and 80% said they think about saving energy, the level of “energy wasting behaviours” remained high overall, the report claims.

US researchers have developed a new “long-life” battery they claim could help solar and wind power become major suppliers to the electricity grid.

Wind and solar currently provide intermittent power and the electricity grid cannot tolerate large and sudden power fluctuations, according to the researchers at the US Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University.

They have designed a new type of “flow” battery, which they claim could smooth those fluctuations and also has the potential for large-scale production.

Yi Cui, a Stanford Associate Professor of materials Science and Engineering said: “For solar and wind power to be used in a significant way, we need a battery made of economical materials that are easy to scale and still efficient. We believe our new battery may be the best yet designed to regulate the natural fluctuations of these alternative energies.

“In initial lab tests, the new battery also retained excellent energy-storage performance through more than 2,000 charges and discharges, equivalent to more than 5.5 years of daily cycles.”

The researchers created a miniature system using chemicals lithium-polysulphide for the solution which produced electricity to light an LED (pictured).

Oil and gas production fell in the UK by 10.3% last year while renewable output surged up, reveal new annual statistics from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

Total production in 2012 dropped to 122.9 million tonnes of oil equivalent, a “significant” fall which DECC puts down to fields undergoing maintenance. Likewise coal and other solid fuels production fell last year, by 2.3% from 2011.

The end of the year saw a particular drop, with oil production in the fourth quarter of 2012 was a fifth (19.8%) lower than the same period the year before, while gas fell by a similar margin (19.7%) between the winters of 2011 and 2012.

Overall though primary electricity output rose in 2012, up 4.1% higher than in 2011 with small contribution from nuclear and a much larger boost from renewable power.

Nuclear electricity went up by 2.1% while output from wind and natural flow hydro rose by 21% to a record high level.

As for the end of the year, the last three months’ primary electricity output was up 12% on 2011 with a 13.9% rise from nuclear and another record output for the quarter coming from wind and natural flow hydro’s rise of 2.3%.

Here’s what struck me recently. New York City could be powered totally by renewable sources within the next two decades.

That would be possible by installing 4,020 onshore and 12,700 offshore wind turbines, 387 solar plants and 828 utility-scale PV generators as well as wave, tidal and hydroelectric power installations – and a few other alternative power sources, of course.

I thought to myself – Is that overly ambitious? Or is an energy world away from dirtier fossil fuels possible? Could the world rely solely on renewable or alternative energy to meet all its needs?

We’ve had numerous breakthroughs recently in terms of clean ‘green’ energy. Solar power broke the 100GW threshold last year, the US wind sector saw a record breaking year and the world’s largest offshore wind farm also started generating electricity in the UK. Hundreds and thousands of pounds spent across the world in energy efficiency and renewable technologies – all showing a move away from coal and gas-fired power plants.

But what struck me again was the warning that the world’s energy right now is as dirty as it was 20 years ago.

Now how is that possible? With all the efforts being made by Governments and businesses around the world in low carbon technologies, we still seem to be lagging behind somehow.

Why is that? Just when we thought we were moving towards a turning point…

Perhaps, there’s been more talking that actually taking action. Or maybe in the midst of all the debate, people aren’t taking it seriously. I guess its fair to say that sometimes people just want to get their views heard in the spotlight and don’t make much of an effort to actively do something and do it quickly.

Even though getting rid of fossil or coal fuelled power plants and replacing them with ‘green’ energy is not something that can be done overnight – it’s got to be a wake up call when we’re told that we’re breathing in the same dirty air from two decades ago.

But sometimes I just wonder, is the move from the “black” energy economy to a totally “clean green” world really possible?

The world has made almost no progress towards cutting carbon from its energy supplies in the last 20 years and the development of clean energy is progressing too slowly to tackle climate change.

That’s the warning from the International Energy Agency (IEA), which today suggested that despite investing trillions of dollars in renewable projects, the world’s energy is “as dirty as 20 years ago”.

Its new report ‘Tracking Clean Energy Progress’ showed the Energy Sector Carbon Intensity Index (ESCII) – which shows how much carbon dioxide is emitted on average to provide a given unit of energy – stood at 2.39 tonnes of carbon per tonne of oil equivalent (tCO2/toe) in 1990 and had barely moved by 2010, at 2.37 tCO2/toe. The findings show the urgent need for governments to cut emissions and limit global temperature to 2°C.

Maria van der Hoeven, IEA’s Executive Director said: “The drive to clean up the world’s energy system has stalled… As world temperatures creep higher due to ever-increasing emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide – two thirds of which come from the energy sector – the overall lack of progress should serve as a wake-up call.

“We cannot afford another 20 years of listlessness. We need a rapid expansion in low-carbon energy technologies if we are to avoid a potentially catastrophic warming of the planet but we must also accelerate the shift away from dirtier fossil fuels.”

The IEA suggested $5 trillion of investment would be needed worldwide by 2020 to switch to a clean energy system and government policies need to be strengthened for more energy efficiency and clean technology uptake.

There was better news on the energy sources themselves, as the report showed positive developments in solar and wind technologies, which grew by 42% and 19% last year compared to 2011.

The German Government will provide India a loan worth €1 billion (£860m) to help the country develop its renewable energy plans.

Reports claim the two nations signed a joint declaration during inter-governmental talks in Berlin. The loan is expected to help India develop grid integration technology of renewable energy and speed up the construction of power lines.

India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel were present as the agreement was signed.

The Indian Government wants to increase its renewable energy generation capacity as many parts of the country still have no access to electricity and a major two-day blackout last year affected 600 million people.

A statement from India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy said it plans to add 30GW of capacity as part of its five-year plan, of which 25GW is expected to come from wind and solar energy.

US President Barack Obama has proposed a $28.4 billion (£18.5bn) budget for the US Department of Energy (DoE) for the fiscal year 2014.

The figure is an 8% rise from 2012, which includes increased funding for the DoE’s clean energy projects by more than 40% above the 2012 level.

Mr Obama also set two new goals – to cut US net oil imports in half by 2020 and double energy productivity in the nation by 2030, reports claim.

Detailing the President’s proposals, US Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman emphasised Mr Obama’s continued commitment to an “all-of-the-above” energy strategy.

Mr Poneman said: “The United States faces one of the greatest challenges ahead, the opportunity to lead the global clean energy race. We must continue to out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the rest of the world to meet this challenge. This budget reflects strong commitments to fiscal responsibility and shared sacrifice, while embracing the President’s all-of-the-above energy strategy which expands both oil and gas production and investments in new clean energy technologies, while advancing our national security.”

The budget includes $615 million (£400m) to increase use and cut costs of clean power from solar, wind, geothermal and water, $575 million (£374m) for cutting-edge vehicle technologies research and $147 million (£95.6m) for research and development of smart grids.

Kenya’s state owned utility firm has announced plans to invest KES560 million (£4.3m) for off-grid renewable energy projects in the country.

Kenya Power will develop solar and wind projects in the country’s North Eastern and Rift Valley provinces in areas that rely on diesel to generate electricity that are not connected to the national grid. The renewable energy projects are expected to cut diesel fuel consumption and help save KES50 million (£0.4m) every year.

Henry Gichungi, Deputy Manager in charge of Off Grid stations said the company has so far commissioned eight solar and wind projects with a total installed capacity of 1MW. He said plans are underway to increase renewable energy capacity in off-grid areas by 2.3MW.

Mr Gichungi added: “Kenya’s geographical location astride the equator gives it a unique advantage for a solar energy market. The country receives good solar insolation all year round coupled with moderate to high temperatures which makes it a conducive market for solar.”

The projects are part of the Government’s strategy to increase access to electricity in all parts of the country.

Ikea Group plans to double its investment in renewable energy to $4 billion (£2.5bn) by the end of the decade.

The Swedish furniture retailer says its part of the firm’s plans to cut costs and a larger ambition of becoming energy independent by 2020.

The news follows its previous announcement of spending $1.8 billion (£1.14bn) in solar and wind power to produce at least 70% of its energy by renewable sources by 2015.

In an interview in Sweden, Mikael Ohlsson, CEO and President of the company said: “I foresee we’ll continue to increase our investments in renewable energy. Looking at how quickly we’re expanding and our value chain, we will most likely have to double the investments once more after 2015.”

Ikea is believed to have invested in 126 wind turbines in northern Europe to cover 34% of its energy consumption and owns 250,000 solar panels, mainly in the US.