Cleantech ticker: 4 June 2009

Cleantech news as it happaens — check back for regular updates:

• The National Grid Service (NGS) has undergone a period of rapid expansion this year with a total of six new resources becoming NGS members.  This means that the NGS, the UK’s primary computation and data resource for all UK academic researchers, now offers access to a far greater selection of resources than ever before allowing users to perform cutting edge research better and faster;
• Three students represented the UK at the 2009 Intel-sponsored International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Reno, Nevada. Each student was awarded a prize and won their chance to travel to the USA after attending the Big Bang: UK Young Scientists’ and Engineers’ Fair in March this year. This event brought together the British Science Association’s National CREST final and the Young Engineer for Britain final;
• New research in the department of geography at the University of Leicester aims at reducing uncertainties in the prediction of the African ecosystem. According to doctoral research by Darren Ghent, much emphasis concerning climate change has been placed on human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases, such as burning fossil fuels and deforestation. However less attention has been given to the natural flux of ecosystem carbon and how this changes from one year to the next;
• Elsevier and the network for the Promotion of Sustainability in Postgraduate Education and Research (ProSPER.Net) announced today the finalists of the first annual ProSPER.Net-Scopus Young Scientist Award;
• The Norwegian government says it will assess the impact of climate change on financial markets and has urged global investors to join forces, Reuters reports;
• Some $155 billion was invested in 2008 in clean energy companies and projects worldwide — not including large hydro, a new report says. Of this, $13.5 billion of new private investment went into companies developing and scaling-up new technologies alongside $117 billion of investment in renewable energy projects from geothermal and wind to solar and biofuels;
• A study on the impacts of supporting renewable energy sources (RES) on the EU’s economy has shown that increased support for RES will have a positive effect on the economy and will create a significant number of jobs. The study, carried out on behalf of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy and Transport, is the first to assess the economic effects of supporting RES in detail.