By: HAMISH MACDONELL AND STEPHEN MCGINTY

CONSTRUCTION work began on Europe's biggest wind farm yesterday, amid increasing concern that Scotland may not be able to cope with many more developments of such a size and scale.

Alistair Darling, the Trade and Industry Secretary, cut the first turf on the Whitelee wind farm at Eaglesham Moor, south of Glasgow, hailing the 140-turbine development as a "major contribution" to Britain's commitment to renewable energy.

Germany's carmakers are looking to join forces to push clean diesels in the U.S. market with the Bluetec technology developed by Mercedes-Benz (DCXGn.DE) and diesel injection system specialist Bosch (ROBG.UL).

Starting in 2008, Volkswagen (VOWG.DE), its premium unit Audi, BMW (BMWG.DE) and Mercedes aim to launch and market Bluetec in the world's largest car market, where diesel has a market share of just 5 percent versus 50 percent in western Europe.

Green Car Congress
Researchers from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico have genetically engineered the bacterium Bacillus subtilis to ferment glucose sugar directly to ethanol with a high (86%) yield. This is the first step in their quest to develop bacteria that can breakdown and ferment cellulose biomass directly to ethanol.

They found, however, that while the yield was high, the rate of production from the recombinant strains was low. Further work is necessary to increase the rate.

Green Car Congress
Hydro, the Norwegian energy company, and Norske Skog, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of newsprint and magazine paper, have agreed to carry out a joint feasibility study relating to the production of synthetic diesel from wood via gasification and Fischer-Tropsch processing.

The partners are examining the possibility of establishing such a Biomass-to-Liquids (BTL) production facility in south-east Norway. Such a plant could come on stream by 2012 at the earliest.

Erik Curren, Augusta Free Press
Have you been infected yet? I mean with ethanol mania?

It's not clear yet whether it started with Midwest corn farmers, hippie do-it-yourselfers or Brazilians who swear that ethanol will soon free them from foreign oil. But now it's spread to Washington and Wall Street, and no political persuasion appears to be immune. President Bush, Hillary Clinton, Bill Gates and the traders at Goldman Sachs have all become ethanol maniacs.

Dave Carpenter, Associated Press via Yahoo!News
...Solutions for high gasoline prices might seem painfully far off to drivers as summer travel season begins, but experts say the skyrocketing costs of oil and gas have given new momentum to the push to develop alternative fuels and alternative energy sources.

The efforts are readily apparent in the nation's heartland, where a boom in ethanol is expanding and scientists at laboratories far and wide are working to turn agricultural waste or "biomass" such as switchgrass, wheat straw, cornstalks and miscanthus into a fuel called cellulosic ethanol that could be produced commercially to reduce U.S. dependence on oil.