pic: maguxmaguIts Mother's Day on Sunday and in typical fashion (leaving things for the last minute) I've, uh, not decided (okay, yet taken the time to carefully consider) what I should be getting that special someone for Mother's Day. Now the easy thing to do would be to pop off to the nearest mall and just buy whatever products are screaming loudest from the shelves that are flaunting Mother's Day specials. But that does not cut it in our household.

It's tough enough being a guy and having to buy that thoughtful, caring gift (why didn't she like my subscription to Popular Mechanics and the socks I bought her last time). But being a greenie ups the stakes even further. I have an ethical shopping filter that kicks in everytime I step in to a shop or haul out my wallet.

Is this good for the planet? is added to the list of considerations when deciding what to buy. A shopping mantra for the enlightened age.

Leaving things till the last minute kind of rules out online shopping. Your gift is in the post is not

The 4th annual Green Building Conference and Expo kicks off tomorrow at Gallagher Estate, Midrand, Joburg. If you'd like a complimentary ticket to the expo worth R50 drop us an email at .

If you're a professional in the building sector or just interested in green building this is definitely one to check out. Take a look at the Green Building Exhibition website for more information and see the list of exhibitors over here.

Rain water tanks and harvesting systems, eco-friendly flooring, fittings and furnishings made from recycled polystyrene, energy saving solutions, led lighting, green roofing, bamboo products and thermal insulation are some of the products you can check out.

Ferrari Hybrid HY-KERS 599No, Ferrari are not just painting their cars green in a bid to tap into a presumably growing market of sports car enthusiasts with a conscience. They seem serious about producing a fuel electric hybrid performance car. Marketing genius or missing the point? Or perhaps future European vehicle emission legislation is providing the nudge...

The experimental ('vettura laboratorio') Ferrari HY-KERS 599 debuted at the Geneva Motor Show last week and the electric motor adds to the performance by boosting the output by 100bhp. Handling is apparently also improved as the positioning and weight of the motor reduces the centre of gravity.

The hybrid is based on the 599 GTB Fiorano, with the electric motor assisting the 6.0-litre V12 petrol engine providing instantaneous torque. Goodness knows what the 0-100 km/h figures will clock in at.

Lithium ion batteries will be

Joule at Geneva: SA Car FanOptimal Energy's Joule is on display at the 80th International Motor Show in Geneva and she's looking prettier than ever.

When last seen at the Paris Motor Show, the Joule was a static display model and she has now evolved into a pre-production prototype courtesy of Zagato's Total Design Centre.

The Optimal Energy-Zagato-Helfet team has made a number of changes to Joule and the car shown in Geneva is somewhat different, especially at the rear, from the version that was unveiled in Paris two years ago.

This car was hand-built in Port Elizabeth by Hi-Tech Automotive who are building a marketing and test fleet of approximately 100 vehicles, some of which

If you're in Cape Town and interested in all things green and organic, then I can guess where you'll be heading this weekend. Now, as a reader of urban sprout, you'll get to visit for free - click here for your complementary ticket that allows you access to both the Natural & Organic Products Exhibition and Womens Show.

This year's show at the CTICC (Fri 19 - Sun 21 Feb) promises to be bustling, judging by the turnout at the Joburg show last year and the growth in consumer interest, so get there early!

Cape Town's Natural & Organic usually draws more visitors with 15 000 attending in October 2008, but this was eclipsed in Joburg last June when 26 000 people visited the show. This was a 370% increase over the last Joburg show and at a time of recession!

Clearly the organic & green movement is shifting

When I first saw this little AA battery with a USB connection for recharging I thought it looked like a nifty gimmick, but what would I use it for? It's turned out to be quite handy as we've got a couple of battery operated kids toys and old torches lying around the house.

The usb battery is a rechargeable battery but instead of using a separate charging device to recharge it, the battery comes with a built-in male usb connection which can plug in to your laptop or pc's powered usb port. Like most other AA size rechargeable batteries it is a Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) cell, but it includes a cap which pops off to reveal the usb connection.

The usb connector is found on the negetive terminal side of the battery, covered by a cap which slides off easily but is attached with a little elastic band so can't get lost - clever idea.

As roughly a fifth of the battery's size

China to build 100 Clean Energy projects in Africa in three years. At a two-day China-Africa summit in Egypt Chinese premier Wen Jiabao pledged 10bn in low interest loans to African nations over the next three years. He also said China would build 100 energy projects that cover solar power, biogas and small hydro plants over the same period as part of an effort to help the continent deal with climate change. Business Day

Egypt gearing up for 250MW Wind Farm. The Egyptian Electrictity and Energy Ministry said on a statement on its website that 34 companies had submitted bids for the project on the Red Sea coast. The project developer will design, finance, construct, own and operate the power plant for 20 to 25 years and sell the power on to the Egyption Electricity Transmission Company. Egypt plans to generate 12% of its power from wind and 20% from renewables overall by 2020. Times Live

I've met a few organic farmers before and always enjoy finding out the fascinating stories behind where my food comes from. But for the last eight weeks I've been mostly dependent on one particular farmer for my vegetable sustenance. That farmer is Erick Zenzele and this is the story of how Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has made a difference to both of us.

The short version of the story is that I got to eat organic, fresh produce that was grown about 45 minutes drive from where I live, was good value for money and the supply chain was really short: farmer -> delivery man -> me. Good for freshness and a lower carbon footprint.

Erick benefitted by knowing that he has

An unlikely headline, but at least partly true. Sasol will have a 45% interest in the South African solar panel manufacturing venture to (at last!) come out of Professor Vivian Alberts' years of thin film technology research.

The other players in the public-private partnership are the state-owned Central Energy Fund (45%), Photovoltaic Intellectual Property (3.9% - the University of Johannesburg's payback) and the National Empowerment Fund (6.1%)

Vivian Alberts, the developer of the technology at the University of Johannesburg, has been criticised in the past about selling his technology to a German consortium. But he's actually been very clever, he's allowed a foreign company to deal with all the teething problems whilst he's retained the intellectual capital (the technology was licensed, not sold). And now that the time is right, South Africa gets a chance to develop its own photovoltaics industry.

Lots of energy news in the headlines recently, so here goes...

New refit tariffs announced. Biomass, biogas and additional solar power technologies were added to the list of renewable energy sources that qualify for feed-in tariffs to be paid by Eskom to independent power producers.

SA's National Energy Regulator (Nersa) announced the second phase of Refit (renewable energy feed-in tariffs) on Friday, amounting to:
R3.13 a kilowatt-hour for concentrating solar power trough without storage;
R3.94 for grid-connected solar photovoltaic systems producing more than 1 megawatt;
R1.18 for solid biomass;
96c for biogas;
and R2.31 for concentrating solar power with six hours of storage.

These tariffs are in addition to those announced in March:
R1.25 a kilowatt-hour for wind power;
94c for small hydropower; and
90c for landfill gas

Business Report

J-Bay to get wind power. Jeffreys Bay is about to become the site of SA's latest wind farm, with the construction due to start in 2011. A R2,3 billion 125 MegaWatt installation is planned as a joint venture between Irish company Mainstream Renewable Power and Cape Town-based Genesis Eco-Energy. The first phase of 16 MW will be built on the Sunnyside dairy farm on the Outskirts of the town, an area where the "wind regime" is good and close to an existing 132 kV power line.

“The wind farm will help stabilise the energy supply to the area and assist the local economy in developing a greater degree of energy security,” says Mainstream's Davin Chown. Engineering News

Heads in the sand. Governments ignore the oil supply crunch and