Costa Rica has made the public commitment to become the first carbon neutral country in the world by the year 2021. The current Costa Rican president has also made a promise to deliver between five and seven percent GDP growth to future generations by going forward in the pursuit of a high technology (more…)

Qatar, even though the largest global producer of gas, understands and values the importance of clean technologies, including renewable energy and energy efficiency. The Middle Eastern country has been taking many necessary strides to become a major cleantech player, including increasing its cleantech research, development, and projects, and hosting (more…)

Cleantech has always been a big part of the structure in Iceland. Currently, more than 80% of the primary energy in Iceland comes from renewable energy sources. The goal of Iceland is to become not only carbon-free, but oil-free by the year 2050. Because of Iceland’s isolation from the rest of the European continent, it has had to (more…)

After a crippling energy crisis in 2004, a result of a natural gas shortage created by a demand for the dwindling, high-priced supply, Argentina has increased their effort to diversify energy sources, and create more sources of renewable energy. Through much research and development, as well as attracting investments, Argentina is starting to build up its cleantech sector, (more…)

From 2005 to 2010, Portugal was able to raise the amount of renewable energy in the country up to 45 percent. Portugal has always been very adamant about the inclusion of using renewable energy sources. The first part of the plan was introducing natural gas to replace coal and oil and energy market liberalization to the private market. Now, Portugal is solely (more…)

Chicago, the economic capital of Illinois, has constantly been responding to the increasing need for new sources of clean energy. Chicago currently has more than two megawatts of solar generating capacity. Chicago has had many other accomplishments since 2008. They have been able to buy more than 20 percent of (more…)

Ohio, in 2008, created their own renewable portfolio standard that necessitated 25 percent of the overall energy in Ohio is created out of advanced energy sources by the year 2025. According to the portfolio, more than half of the energy created, must come from in-state sources. The impact of this standard and the venture into clean (more…)

International cooperation in clean tech innovation and diffusion is increasingly common. One of the trends in this regard is a country’s trade officials organizing an international tour of home grown clean tech companies, in many cases to the U.S., to promote their wares and explore business opportunities. (more…)

Over the past 25 years, the State of New York has been a national leader in many cleantech initiatives, including its state-wide programs to promote renewable and sustainable energies, reductions in carbon emissions, and recycling programs, just to name a few. Specifically, the State of New York has created administrative agencies (more…)

In 2001, Japan noted that most of their energy came from fossil fuels, including over 50 percent from oil, over 16 percent from coal, and more than 13 percent from natural gas. Because of these numbers, Japan released the “Revised Long-Term Energy Supply and Demand Outlook” which emphasized the efficient use of (more…)