France

Renewables provide 20 % of German electricity

This has made quite the headlines on environmental blogs and newspapers. As TreeHugger puts it : ” Germany now produces 20.8% of its electricity from renewable sources. That’s an increase of 15 percentage points since 2000 “ Now, let’s congratulate the main European economic powerhouse for that. The Germans truly deserve it and we got […]

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Good and bad news about nuclear

First, the good ones : To Reuters : ” Significant progress has been made in efforts to contain and stabilise the situation at Fukushima, the head of the United Nations atomic agency said on Friday.” And some bad : To the Wall Street Journal ” EDF announced that its EPR project in Flamanville, France (…)

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France issues new regulations for large solar PV installations

Here is my latest post for CleanTechies : “On Monday, the French Minister for Environment and Sustainable Development, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, presented new regulations for large solar installations.” “(…) Let us hope these new projects will be successful as the previous attempts at creating an solar photovoltaic industry in France have been a resounding failure. ”

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Lafarge pursues its sustainability commitment

According to the WWF : ” WWF and Lafarge, the world’s largest cement maker, today agreed to continue working together to further reduce the company’s greenhouse gas emissions and to help build hundreds of energy-efficient buildings.  ” ” (…) The company has been a member of WWF’s Climate Savers Programme since 2001 and has already

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France first country to ban fracking

” Last week the French government was the first to enact a law forbidding hydraulic fracturing, also known as “fracking”. This technology enables to recover shale gas via the use of massive amounts of water and chemicals.” ” The former remaining afterward polluted, hence the controversy. The law had been discussed by both the lower

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European forests are growing

According to Terra Daily : ” Europe’s forests have expanded over the past 20 years and are thus absorbing more carbon dioxide, a report published in Oslo Tuesday showed, offering some good news in the battle to limit climate change. ” ” According to the report published during a ministerial conference on the protection of

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Countries with more than 30 percent of nuclear

Further to the catastrophe in Fukushima, Japan, the Christian Science Monitor wrote an interesting article on the ten countries relying for more than 30 percent on nuclear for their electricity. As they put it : ” As dependent as Japan is on nuclear power, 12 nations are even more reliant it, according to the World

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Renault Z.E. : The best electric car ad ever

As you surely know now Renault – a French carmaker – plans to sell four different electric cars this year and next. The first model, the  Fluenze Z.E. ,  will be available in September. To this effect, the company presented today an excellent and hilarious advertisement, that will hopefully stays in everyones’ mind when it

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A dry and hot April over Europe

France and the whole European continent are currently at risk of a huge drought as little to no rain fell in April. This could have serious implications for harvests as Bloomberg notes : European wheat and rapeseed crops are “in jeopardy” after an “incredibly dry” April, agricultural weather forecaster said. (…) Wheat and rapeseed in

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Total to invest one billion euro in SunPower

To Reuters : ” French energy major Total SA’s landmark $1.37 billion (note : one billion euro) offer for a majority stake in U.S. company SunPower Corp gave fresh impetus to hopes of more deals, lifting global solar stocks. ” ” Total’s move is one of the biggest ever by an oil and gas giant

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