In order to help you keep up to date with this week’s events we’ve gathered together a few of the top related news stories. You can follow us on twitter too. 

•    According to a report compiled by the EU’s statistics agency Eurostat, almost a fifth (18.4%) of energy production in the EU came from renewable sources last year, putting the sector in third place behind natural gas (19.3%) and nuclear energy (28%). This is an increase by over 8% compared to 2008, while total energy production from natural gas and hard coal power plants fell by 10.1% and 9.2% respectively. It’s great the balance of energy production is moving in the right direction. Let’s hope it continues – there is still a long way to go on the journey from brown to green.

•    We are pleased to report that industry leaders are working together to deliver on complex agreements. More than 60 leading global firms finished testing two new greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting standards this week, taking industry a step closer to a universal approach for measuring and managing emissions. The 62 firms from 17 countries included household names such as 3M and IKEA. As we say at Good Energy – together we do this.

•    In a report released this week the Federation of Small Business (FSB) said that the government’s upcoming Energy Security and Green Economy bill must include measures to help small and medium-sized businesses cut carbon emissions. The study cites research from the Carbon Trust which shows that if all UK businesses and public sector organisations undertook effective efficiency measures they could save £3.6 billion a year while slashing carbon emissions by a whopping 29 million tonnes. Read more here. Another opportunity for the government to prove itself “the greenest government ever.”

•    Concerned that a “low ebb” in the UN offset market is impacting planned investment in emission reduction projects, carbon traders called on the EU this week to act imminently to inject some much needed confidence into the market. The International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) lobby group has issued an open letter to EU climate change commissioner Connie Hedegaard demanding that Brussels acts urgently to clarify how the cap-and-trade scheme will operate during the next phase of its operation. 

•    A technology developed by NASA to keep solar panels powering Mars rovers clean could be used to keep terrestrial solar panels dust free, reports the BBC. Large-scale solar installations are often in sunny, dry desert areas where winds can deposit layers of dust over the solar panels. The self-cleaning technology use only a small amount of electricity to repel dust when sensors detect that concentrations on the panel’s surface have reached a critical level. Creative innovation like this sets the standard for development in harnessing energy from renewable resources; imperative if we are to move away from the current reliance on few technologies to the stability and security of many.

•    Good Energy was pleased to hear that electrical vehicle (EV) charging company Chargemaster has won orders for 150 electric charging stations from around eight different customers within the last month, and expects to have sold in the region of 250 by the end of the year. Read more here. Confidence is certainly growing in the EV consumer market, which is great news. Electric vehicles are central to a low carbon transport future, but only if they are powered by 100% clean, green energy.