Solar

Fossil fuels are abundant. So what ?

Last week on Cleantechies, an article caught my attention. Titled ” What if We Never Run Out of Oil? “. The article made me think and I have to say I got quite mad at it as it is promoting fossil fiels just because they they are abundant. They might be, and they can be considered […]

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Solar electricity, A/C and water. All-in-one.

To Climate Progress, Swiss researchers working with IBM ” have built a new solar dish, called the High Concentration PhotoVoltaic Thermal system (HCPVT) that tackles the waste heat problem by using it to generate fresh water.” Yep, a solar installation that generates fresh water, thus solving two common problems faced in developing nations around the world.

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IEA : Cleantech is progressing too slowly

In another wake up call, the prestigious Paris-based International Energy Agency has called for a significant increase to clean up the global energy system as the effort ” has stalled “. As the IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven stated : “Despite much talk by world leaders, and despite a boom in renewable energy

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Selling solar power in India’s slums

I have already written a few posts on how poor populations of Asia or Africa are leapfrogging from no electricity to renewables without going through the distributed fossil fuels electricity phase. Electrical grids are expensive and so is coal. In countries with so much sun such as India, solar energies such as solar PV looks

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A renewable energy boom in Japan

In the wake of the tragic catastrophe and the nuclear incident that shook Japan in 2011, we have seen that the local government is willing to push renewable energy sources forward. Among them, solar energy and wind power. This has led to the installation of 1,12 GW of solar PV capacity in only nine months

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Graphene could bring solar PV efficiency to 60%

According to TreeHugger, graphene could offer 60% solar cell efficiency if it were to replace silicon in PV panels. As they note : ” Researchers from the Institute of Photonic Sciences in Spain have just published results from their experiments.” ” While their results so far will probably be more useful to make better image

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Global solar PV capacity reach 100 GW

According to Ecoseed (via Solar Feeds) : ” The cumulative solar photovoltaic capacity of the world crossed the 100-gigawatt milestone in 2012 (…) according to figures from the European Photovoltaic Industry Association. ” The solar association also noted that the world’s PV installations can now cut 53 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions a year. 

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Another great Obama speech on climate

Earlier this week, the newly reelected US President Barack Obama addressed the nation in the annual State of the Union address. It was the occasion for President Obama to keep his hard stance on climate on energy. His previous speech during his second inaugural address had been a new hope for climate change. I stated

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Solar is already cheaper than coal

Solar energy may already cheaper than coal, at least for New Mexico, USA. To Bloomberg : ” First Solar, the world’s largest maker of thin-film solar panels, may sell electricity at a lower rate than new coal plants earn. “ ” El Paso Electric Co. agreed to buy power from First Solar’s the 50-megawatt Macho

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