International Year of Sustainable Energy for all

Today is the first day of the World Future Energy summit, marking the start of the UN International Year of Sustainable Energy for all. The theme of the summit is innovation and issues
to be discussed by researchers, policy makers and investors will
include technology as the enabler for clean energy, how to drive growth,
finance and rural development, as well as the political and digital
infrastructures needed to support progress.

Bioenergy from biomass is also an important part of the agenda. Headlining at the summit is the announcement
from a leading NGO, Aga Khan
Planning and Building Services (AKBPS), that biomass will upstage other renewable sources
(wind and solar) in providing energy to the world’s poorest. This prediction was made by Hadi Husani, CEO of  the award winning organization, that
implements low energy technologies in Pakistan and India that focus on
energy saving, including household level biogas plants to fuel cooking
and water heating.

Biogas, formed by the breakdown of biological
material to produce methane and hydrogen, is also
widely used as a clean transportation fuel and production technology at a commercial level is
moving fast. Work published in Biotechnology for Biofuels by Pakarinen et al.
looks at the advantages of storing crops as silage to improve breakdown
and increase methane yields. The production of biogas from algae is
another attractive alternative, requiring low cost inputs of water and
sunlight, that is receiving renewed research attention (Lakaniemi et al.). In 2012 and beyond, the freely accessible research published in Biotechnology for Biofuels, can only help to achieve the grand aim of sustainable energy for all. 

Helen Whitaker

Journal Development Manager at BioMed Central
Helen is part of the Biological Sciences publishing team at BioMed Central. She obtained her PhD in molecular ecology from the University of Glasgow, UK. Her post-doctoral studies in aquaculture genetics took her from Scotland to South Africa, before joining BMC in 2008.

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