Cleantech news as it happens — check back for regular updates:

• A new report from the Geothermal Energy Association finds that the number of geothermal projects in the US (PDF) has increased by 25 percent since August of last year;
• The UK Green Building Council this week called for a new sustainable building code for all new and existing non-domestic buildings;
• Officials with the leading three green building ratings systems have agreed to work together to make their systems and tools consistent with one another;
• Honda today announced it will add a Class 8 hybrid electric truck to its truck fleet in Georgia. The auto company uses Class 8 trucks to transport parts to parts centres and dealerships;
• Declining global demand for oil is resulting in fully loaded supertankers sitting idle offshore and vast storage facilities filled to capacity, MSNBC reports;
• UPI reports that NASA and Cisco are working to develop a “Planetary Skin” platform that will gather and analyse climate data from space- , air- , land- and sea-based sensors around the globe;
• A special issue of Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining this week features a series of expert papers on “The Role of Biomass in America’s Energy Future”;
• The market for photovoltaics will shrink by 15 percent to $12 billion in 2009 because of weak global demand, according to a new report from Greentech Media and the Prometheus Institute for Sustainable Development;
• GE this week signed two service agreements worth $128 million (US) to help improve efficiency and reduce emissions at two power plants in China;
• Aperion Communities CEO David Maniatis will address the ECO:nomics Conference this week to discuss the use of an innovative tax districting system to support home weatherisation and energy conservation;
• Gigamon this week reported its Data Access Network can help CIOs reduce expenses for critical network monitoring projects;
• The Energy Pact Foundation has announced its first-ever conference on energy, environment and development, to be held 16 – 17 March in Geneva.

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