2) Patents - Find out whether you are on to something new

European Patents
Search the European patent office's register of patents at
http://gb.espacenet.com/search97cgi/s97_cgi.exe?Action=FormGen&Template=gb/EN/home.hts
 
US Patents
Search US patent applications and patents granted at
http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html
 
To view the diagrams from the patents you'll need a special image-file view such as TIFF Viewer available from http://www.alternatiff.com/ (registration required).

3) Energy related research -what and where 

UKERC Energy Research Atlas
The UK Energy Research Centre has created three tools to assist policy makers and researchers to review the current status of UK Energy Research and Development, and identify the key research challenges. More at http://ukerc.rl.ac.uk/ERA001.html

EPSRC Research
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) fund the majority of energy related research in the UK. You can search current  projects as far back as 1994 using your own search terms.
http://gow.epsrc.ac.uk/GrantsPortfolio.aspx
 
EPSRC Alerts
If you want to stay up to date with new initiatives from EPSRC you can register for their alerting system at
http://fd.epsrc.ac.uk/EmailAlert/
 
USA Research
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) is a section of the US Department of Energy, with major projects and investments. Find out more about these and register for their newsletter at
http://www.eere.energy.gov/ 

WorldWide Science Portal
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the British Library, along with eight other participating countries, today opened an online global gateway to science information from 15 national portals. The gateway, WorldWideScience.org (worldwidescience.org), gives citizens, researchers and anyone interested in science the capability to search science portals not easily accessible through popular search technology.
http://worldwidescience.org/index.html

4) Research and Development - who is looking to bring new ideas towards the marketplace

Energy Technologies Institute
A £1bn initiative funded by the public sector and major businesses to focus on research and development of energy technologies.
http://www.energytechnologies.co.uk 

BERR Collaborative R&D Projects
The DTI technology programme has supported a range of projects to date which you can view at:
http://www.technologyprogramme.org.uk/site/publicRpts/default.cfm?subcat=publicRpt1 
  
BERR Report and Studies
You can search several hundred DTI publications related to energy at
http://www.ecdti.co.uk/cgibin/priamlnk.cgi?MP=GINT00&WHAT=Category&SUB=19&CNO=1
 
Innovation Relay Centre South East
IRCSE offers a European-wide alert service covering new technologies and businesses looking partners of licensing opportunities to name a few. Find out more at:
http://www.seeirc.org/
 
You can also search all the European offers and requests at:
http://irc.cordis.europa.eu/showroom/search.cfm
 
European Framework Project and Partners
Search across all EU Framework activities for projects, partners or technology, using your own keywords, at:
http://cordis.europa.eu/search/index.cfm?dbname=proj

5) UK Government - debates and alerts direct from Government

UK Parliament Committees and Publications
Papers and proceedings of UK Parliament Committees, including questions, evidence and debates, can be view and searched from
http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees.cfm
 
Government News Network
Get alerts regarding newsworthy developments from across Government Departments from the Government News Network (GNN) http://www.gnn.gov.uk/
 
Register for GNN alerts at http://www.gnn.gov.uk/webuser/register.asp

6) Tender Opportunities

TED
TED is the Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) and covers public sector procurements. You can search this database of European-wide tenders and notices at
http://ted.europa.eu/