Energy

From wind turbines in Germany to solar panels in Spain, regions across the EU are using natural resources to become specialists in their own type of sustainable energy, bringing much-needed investment for businesses and citizens.

Researchers are working on ways to make silicon-free solar cells that are more energy-efficient.

Ministers representing many of the world's main economic powers met on 6 September 2013 to show their support for one of the world’s most ambitious scientific experiments – a nuclear fusion reactor that will operate at temperatures ten times hotter than the core of the sun.

Sustainable buildings should be different depending on where they are in Europe - that's according to the developers of one of the world's greenest office buildings.

Magnets and nano-sized magnetic particles could help to change the way plastics are sorted for recycling, saving billions of euros in raw material imports, and providing new tools to erode Europe’s mountains of discarded plastic.

The people of Alginet, a small town in eastern Spain, are paying less for their electricity. Households reduced their electricity bills by an average of 12 % over 2012, while large, commercial consumers saved 58 %.

Europe’s skies will be cleaner and quieter thanks to a proposed partnership between the EU and industry. During the partnership, technologies will be developed to help cut noise and carbon dioxide emissions from planes by up to 30 %.

Europe’s agricultural by-products could be increasingly used to give people greener everyday commodities, such as oil-free vehicle fuel and bio-plastics, thanks to a planned multi-billion-euro partnership between the EU and industry.

Among the vineyards and wheat fields of north-eastern France, a revolution in chemical manufacturing is quietly gathering momentum. Here, biomass is turned into valuable components and energy.