Europe

United Kingdom to build two EPR nuclear reactors

Would you buy two examples of a very expensive and complex product that nobody has ever seen functioning ? The most likely answer is ” No “. Yet that’s exactly what the United Kingdom did buy buying Monday two EPR reactors. The European Pressurized Reactor  is an evolution of third generation nuclear reactors. It was […]

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France simply won’t give into fracking

For my second post on Cleantechies in less than a week, I bring good news from my home country, France, as it is stepping away from polluting, nefarious and dangerous fossil fuels : shale oil and gas retrieved via fracking. ” I reported previously here on Cleantechies that in 2011 France was the first country

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European Union already close to its 2020 climate goals

Here is another post on Cleantechies, this time focusing again on how the European Union is succeeding in cutting its greenhouse gases emissions, and this without even trying that hard. Here is the introduction : ” According to the European Environment Agency, the European Union is already close to its 2020 climate objectives as it

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France unveils new efforts to renovate buildings

It had been a long while since my last post on Cleantechies, as I didn’t post during summer. But I am back with a post on a topic close to my heart as my Master’s thesis was on it. The French residential sector could benefit immensely from energy efficiency efforts and it seems the current

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Tapping into local renewables : the Côte d’Opale

A couple of weeks ago I went to Boulogne sur Mer and visited the marvellous Côte d’Opale. I had two great summer days between Boulogne and Calais and strongly recommend this little trip if you are looking for enchanting places. A thing that struck me there is the quantity of wind there is almost all

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Desertec abandons Sahara solar energy export dream

The Desertec Industrial Initiative (DII) have been been the subject of many articles here. The huge project was due to generate large amounts of renewable energy from solar and wind farms in Northern Africa and bring it to Europe. Criticism had been important as the feasability of generating up to 100 gigawatts of electricity in

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French people and business leaders support energy transition

Here is another guest post I wrote for Cleantechies. This time we are delving into the energy transition from dirty fossil fuels to clean energy sources like renewables and how it is supported in France. According to a Harris poll carried out for the European Climate Foundation and the French Economic, Social Affairs and Environment

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European emissions decreased by 2.1 percent in 2012

After a quite long hiatus, here is a new article I wrote for Cleantechies. In this one we see how the European Union has almost reached its emissions goals for 2020 and what should be done now. Here is the introduction : ” According to the latest statistics from Eurostat, greenhouse gases emissions in the

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Grid parity for solar PV is already here in 105 countries

I have already noted quite a few times in the past month that grid parity is slowly but surely approaching. What if it were already the case ? To the Applied Materials blog and REneweconomy it is already here in over a hundred countries. Yes, solar photovoltaic installed on rooftops is now cheaper than electricity

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Dangerous pesticides to be banned in Europe

This made the headlines earlier this month as this is great news for bees and our civilization as Albert Einstein stated that “ If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth, man would only have four years left to live. “ The European commission seems to have understood that as it will ban

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