Finally, Nissan claims its place in the hybrid technology spotlight. A new Infiniti hybrid vehicle will try to win back the advantage of its competitors. The self-charging car is yet to come. But until then, Nissan will try to gain on its competitors by making a hybrid version of one of its Infiniti models (it's speculated that it will be the Infiniti M Sport Sedan). With the Infiniti hybrid, Nissan is making a late entry on the luxury hybrid car market with Lexus as one of its main competitors. The new hybrid is going to hit the U.S. market in 2010 according to Josh Clifton at Infiniti Product PR Group. That will make it the first hybrid in the Nissan family with self-developed hybrid technology. "The Infiniti Essence concept provides a glimpse into what type of hybrid engine we are looking to develop for a future Infiniti product" said Clifton. In earlier statements Nissan has been skeptical of hybrid solutions, claiming all-electric vehicles are the best solution.That has put Nissan behind competitors like Toyota and Honda in developing hybrid technology. In fact, Nissan buys its hybrid technology for the Altima model from Toyota according to the  AP. But last year Nissan revealed its new plan for both all-electric and hybrid models based on its own technology, going into the market in the next four years. The hybrid technology from Nissan that is going into the new Infiniti hybrid is a rear-wheel drive and parallel-powertrain system where the engine is used to power the motor as well as regenerate the lithium-ion batteries. Both engine and batteries power the motor for acceleration and energy from braking goes into battery power. The lithium-ion batteries are sourced from the Nissan-NEC joint-venture, the Automotive Energy Supply Corporation (AESC).

Iceland is often on people’s minds when discussing geothermal energy. The country certainly has been tapping this resource for about a century. But the United States remains the largest geothermal energy producer in the world, having 2.2 gigawatts of production capacity, said Mark Taylor, a market research analyst at New Energy Finance.

Production tax credit has greatly boosted the industry’s expansion in the country. Investments in geothermal grew 97 percent from 2002 to 2008. Investments went up 38 percent to reach about $2.44 billion in 2008 from 2007. Most of the geothermal resources in the United States are located on public land, which is just being opened up for exploration after years of being unavailable to private developers.

Taylor said he’s seeing more private equity firms becoming first-time investors in this field.

Taylor, speaking at the Geothermal Innovation and Investment conference in San Francisco this week, said the Philippines comes next with almost 2 gigawatts. The Philippines could take over the lead in the next two years, Taylor said. The sizes of the projects in this Asian country tend to be larger -- it has 15 projects in operation now compared with 68 in the United States.

Italy, Mexico and Indonesia round off the top five countries. Overall, geothermal energy developments are taking place in 23 countries, which collectively operate about 10 gigawatts of production capacity.