The lithium-ion batteries may face problems as they tend to overheat and catch fire, the Wall Street Journal reported last week.

Toyota plans to use a more advanced version of nickel metal hydride batteries for the Prius, the report said. Toyota still plans to equip later versions of the Prius with lithium-ion batteries after testing the model with them.

UNDER THE LAND
THE EU will help pay for the region's first land-based project to capture carbon dioxide, as governments and companies seek ways to curb emissions from power production. The 30m project is planned for a German salt cavern 1,800 deep, the EU said in a statement. The EU will pay 8.7m of the cost.

Germany is the biggest energy consumer in the EU. RWE, the country's second-largest utility, is the region's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide may be piped into underground stores starting about 2020 to help reduce climate change.

UNDER THE SEA
JP KENNY, a subsea engineering unit of John Wood Group, was appointed to advise on building a power cable that may link Ireland's grid to Britain's by 2012.

JP Kenny will conduct a route assessment for the planned 500MW cable and supervise a survey of the seabed for Eirgrid, the engineering company said.

"The interconnector will bring long-term benefits to the Irish consumer, including enhanced security of supply, facilitating competition and enabling the integration of Ireland into a wider regional electricity market, '' the company said.

Imera Power, a closely-held company, has a rival plan to build two subsea cables between the British and Irish grids by 2009.

GREEN COMPUTING
ENERGY efficiency is fast becoming a top priority for technology firms. Industry giants including Microsoft, Intel, Google, Dell, HP, IBM and Lenovo last week announced an initiative backed by environmental groups to set targets for energy-efficient computers and power management settings.

The Climate Savers Computing Initiative(www. climatesaverscom puting. org) plans to set a target of 90% efficiency for computing power to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 54million tonnes a year, saving some 4bn in energy costs. It would be the equivalent of taking 11 million cars off the road or shutting down 20 coal-fired power plants. Most laptop users are conscious of power-saving settings, but rarely bother with saving power on our desktop PCs.

UK NETWORK UPGRADE
THE UK must have networks in place to carry electricity generated by wind farms and tidal energy stations to customers if it's to meet targets for renewableenergy sourcing, the country's energy regulator said.

"My greatest concern is about networks, about delivering the power, " Alistair Buchanan, chief executive of the Office of Gas & Electricity Markets, said, citing plans to build wind farms on Scottish islands cut off from the transmission grid.

Power companies are obliged to have 15.4% of the energy they supply from renewable sources by 2016. The UK government plans to expand financial incentives to increase investment in wind farms, energy crops and wave, tidal and other new technologies.

The proposals are designed to help Britain cut CO2 emissions by a quarter by 2020, while replacing power plants nearing the end of their useful lives. Britain currently produces about 5% of its power from renewables.

The Office of Gas & Electricity Markets said it wants to hear from companies interested in building links to carry power generated by wind farms and other renewable energy sources.