Energy

Whatever concerns energy and the ways to produce it goes here

Worldwide, 66 billion USD invested in renewables

I continue my series on the various investments realized in renewables as the Worldwatch Institute released a report giving some data on this topic. According to this NGO, global investments in these various energy sources might reach 66 billion USD in 2007, a sharp increase over 2005 and 2006. The State of the World 2008 […]

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A real boom for solar PV in the United States

Investment within Venture Capital in solar photovoltaïc in the United States reached one billion Dollars in 2007. This almost represents a ten-fold increase compared to 2005. Greentech Media proposes for $600 a full report on the importance this energy source has in venture capital (VC) today and will have in 2009. The least I can

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Using wind energy for cargo shipping

This is the great – and yet very simple – idea developed by a German company, SkySails. The container ship pictured on the left uses one of the oldest inventions: a simple kite. According to SkySails, this enables to decrease by 10 to 35 percent the energy consumption of these boats, which are largely used

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Norway to become climate neutral by 2050

We stay in the arctic region as today’s article is on Norway which expressed its willingness to become totally climate neutral by 2050. Being climate neutral means that one country – or one person – does not emit any greenhouse gases or when it does, offset its emissions. In this article I will have a

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There is no perfect energy generating solution

When I was writing in October my article on the clean alternatives to coal, I was planning to add at the bottom a page summing up the pros and cons of each solution. I never did so but still found this document interesting as it sums up quite well the situation at hand. Each and

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UK government approved the building of nuclear plants

According to several sources, including the Financial Times and the International Herald Tribune, the British government approved the building of new nuclear plants. This occurs as nuclear energy is becoming more and more interesting as it is the second lowest greenhouse gases energy solution behind hydro. This might be for this country the beginning of

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Oil prices reach 100 USD a barrel

2008 will see many new records for oil prices as already yesterday the price did hit $100 per barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). This represents both a record price and a psychological barrier as never before did the prices hit these levels. During the two oil shocks, the record was of $90.46.

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US federal government begins to tackle energy efficiency

In the past week two events showed that the USA begin to tackle climate change in a serious way. This is really good news. To do so, the US federal government enacted two laws that will increase the energy efficiency of vehicles and light bulbs and lead to huge savings of greenhouse gases emissions. Both

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Difference between behavioral change and efficiency

In my article on the clean alternatives to coal I was mentioning that the first thing to implement before any other was behavioral changes and energy efficiency. Indeed, I believe we need both as they are complementary and very different. Indeed one has a sociological approach when the other refers to pure economics. Energy efficiency

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Algae, the best solution to make biofuels

I have never been a great fan of traditional biofuels (nor the World Bank and the OECD) as their yield is quite small and as they require a lot of by-products (pesticides…). However, some alguae like Ulva lactuca (sea lettuce, pictured left) have a much superior yield than cereals and aren’t as much eaten as

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