Viewpoints

A few years ago the clean energy industry seemed to be entering a golden age of limitless growth and infinite potential, the arrival of a new Aquarian age of progressive environmental business. The arrival of the global financial crisis, coinciding with the failed Copenhagen climate talks, put an end to all that, writes Michael Liebreich, Chief Executive, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, on the company's website.

Noting what's not said is often as revealing as what is being said. And such were two examples from South Korea this week. Its press was surprisingly quiet on the conclusion of the five-day East Asian Seas Congress 2012 that's just ended in Changwon, in the south of the country. It was almost as quiet as the South Korean government on leaked news that an internal report scrapped its plan to resume "scientific" whaling, apparently because of fierce international pressure. The man at the ministry just wouldn't say.

As if China's solar panel makers weren't suffering enough as their industry goes through its worst-ever downturn, things could soon get much worse as Western governments prepare to roll out punitive tariffs to protest unfair subsidies from Beijing.

A belief that 'small' hydropower systems are a source of clean energy with little or no environmental problems is driving the growing interest in mini, micro, and pico hydro systems that generate from less than 5 kilowatts up to 10 megawatts of energy.