What has happened?

Solar panels are one of the least cost-effective ways of combating climate change and will take 100 years to pay back their installation costs, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) warned yesterday.

Scientists have devised a cheap and simple method of turning water into rocket fuel using solar power in a development that could generate a new source of green energy for the home and workplace.

It's got intelligent lighting, low-energy air-con and London's biggest living roof. But this is no eco charity HQ

A new type of solar panel that allows light to pass through it like a pane of glass has been invented by scientists who said that it is 10 times more powerful than conventional methods of producing energy from sunlight.

Looking for a better way to charge her iPod on the go, Adrienne So had an idea – could she invent a bionic bra to harness the energy of her bouncing breasts?

A Japanese adventurer has completed a three-month journey from Hawaii to Japan in a boat powered by the energy of ocean waves. The 4,800-mile voyage, which began in Honolulu in March, ended as Kenichi Horie's three-ton yacht docked in Wakayama in western Japan late Friday night.

Before you buy a second home overseas, look at the eco-friendly options

The university town of Marburg is where the Brothers Grimm collected many of their fairy tales, and the cobbled streets and medieval buildings look like they could have come straight out of one of their illustrated children's books.

Who wins the prize for environmental correctness – the California couple who planted eight redwoods in their Silicon Valley backyard over the past 12 years, or their neighbours, who drive an electric car and boast solar energy-generating panels on their roof?

A growing number of politicians are embracing the eco-home movement, using their houses to bolster their green credentials.

Many estate agents are still not up to speed on eco-homes. Donnachadh McCarthy puts two new websites to the test

Never mind solar panels and protesters – one new low-carbon development is designed above all to build a sense of community. Donnachadh McCarthy finds peace and love

Labour MPs deride David Cameron's rooftop wind turbine as petty tokenism, but what of their own leader's attempts to curry favour with the green lobby? In an interview with The Times last week, Gordon Brown began flashing his environmental credentials by bragging about the solar panels at his home in Fife.