Energy

Whatever concerns energy and the ways to produce it goes here

Italy to build nuclear power plants

Italy has been since the Chernobyl catastrophe a huge opponent of nuclear. However, the newly elected government is planning to get back to using this energy source. This happens as the country depends on 60 percent on natural gas for its electricity, which is a huge problem as prices are soaring. This happens as some […]

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Oil prices above $130

As I am speaking, the crude oil prices at the New York Mercantile exchange are above $130. This occurs only 15 days after oil prices reached $120. This is a strong acceleration in the oil prices increase as previously it took around two months for oil prices to increase by ten dollars. The cause for

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Oil prices reached $120

Yesterday, the price of sweet light crude rose for the first time in History over the $120 limit at the New York Mercantile Exchange. As it was the case previously, this is due to the weakness of the US Dollar and to supply concerns of OPEC members (this time, it is Iran and Nigeria). Oil

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Huge European investments in renewables

According to Greentech Media, European utilities are “major movers in the renewable energy space“. They also are becoming global leaders compared to their US competitors. So far, more than 86 Gigawatts of renewable electricity capacity have been installed and an additional 100 GW are to be implemented by the eight “green giants”. This concerns companies

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Oil prices may reach $200 before year-end

The president of the OPEC stated earlier this week that oil prices might keep on climbing steadily and reach 200 USD per barrel before year end. This might seem far-fetched, but since the beginning of the year, oil prices rose by nearly 20 percent and there is no sign that the situation will reverse. Meanwhile,

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Coal strikes back… in Europe ?

I knew that Germany had plans to build coal fired plants. Little did I know that according to this great article from the IHT other European countries like Italy are willing to do so. In 1958, I wouldn’t be surprised or anything, but in 2008, with the growing fears of a full scale global warming,

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Aerogel, the future of insulating materials

By reading Ecogeek I get to know aerogel, a material that insulates 37 times more than fiberglass. The latter is largely used to insulate houses nowadays. Aerogel is the lightest solid known, extremely resistant, great for soundproofing, and yes, still very expensive : 1,300 USD (approx 800 €) per pound. But a team of researchers

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WWF wants more plug-in cars

95 percent of road transportation still depends on oil, and this is major problem as oil prices keep on increasing and as peak oil nears inexorably. This is major drive to find a solution. The WWF, the renowned environmental organization, released earlier this month an interesting report on what they believe should be the future

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Renewable energies and the fears of recession

In two different articles, Les Echos [Fr] and the IHT are fearing that the current fears of recession might endanger the expansion of renewable energies. Indeed the IHT noticed a drop in stocks of these companies and Les Echos reported a fear that the French government might not respect its Grenelle’s commitments. Indeed, as the

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Importance of energy efficiency in the EU

While browsing my favorite environmental websites, I discovered a gem : the official blog of the EU Energy Commissioner, Mr. Andris Piebalgs. There I read an impressive article on the multiple benefits an increase of 20 percent of energy efficiency would bring to the EU and its 27 state members. This is perhaps the best

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