Solar

Another solar efficiency record : 43.5 %

As Treehugger reported last week, the Japanese company Sharp has broken another record : 43.5 percent of efficiency, to be compared with their previous record, 36.9% efficiency which had been reached in November 2011. Typical solar panels in the market today still have around 15 or 20 percent of efficiciency. But research is breaking records […]

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Germany breaks another solar PV record

The sunny – and hot, and dry – weather witnessed by Europe lately has one good point : Germany broke all records of solar photovoltaic generation with as much as 22 GWh. As Cleantechies reported : ” that amount of electricity fed into the national grid on Saturday (May 26) met around 50 percent of

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Apple’s data centers to go 100% renewables

After Microsoft’s pledge to go carbon neutral earlier this month, it was logical to see other IT giants follow suit. The first to clean up and go low carbon is Apple. As Robert McMillan reports in Grist : ” The computer company says that by early next year, the energy used to power its worldwide data centers

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Saudi Arabia to invest massively in cleantech

Yes, you read that right : the oil superpower is willing to tap into its significant solar potential by installing no less than 41 gigawatts of solar capacity by 2032. The project is estimated to cost $109 billion (84 billion euros). Out of the 41 GW of capacity, 16 will be brought by solar photovoltaic

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French solar PV capacity hits 3,000 MW

” According to the French utility EDF, the French solar PV capacity reached in March 3,000 MW, with over 2672 MW in mainland France and 339 MW in Corsica and overseas.” ” According to the data : the total capacity grew by 15 percent this semester in metropolitan France. An additional 1,581 MW are already

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Worth an article – My April 2012 tweets

I have been committed since January 2007 to bring you each month a selection of the latest headlines and best researches on sustainable development, climate change and the world energy sector. However, I don’t blog as much as I would like to and generally write around 25 posts per month. But many more news are

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Japan set ambitious 2050 goals, feed-in tariffs

Japan seems to become pretty serious about climate change as it will soon make official a law mandating for 80 percent cuts of greenhouse gases emissions  by 2050 (compared to 1990, just in line with IPCC recommendations) Not totally unrelated to these most commendable goals, the country enacted generous feed-in tariffs for solar, wind and

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United Kingdom slashed its emissions in 2011

As EcoFriend notes, thanks to a warmer climate and a massive push in low carbon energy sources, the United Kingdom slashed by SEVEN PERCENT its greenhouse gases emissions between 2011 and 2010. Cleantech boomed as the share of renewables went from 7.5 percent to 9.5 percent in a single year. Electricity production from renewable sources

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Six facts on the value of renewables

Last week Climate Progress presented a list of six facts on why renewables are absolutely great. Here it is : 1. Clean energy is competitive with other types of energy ; 2. Clean energy creates three times more jobs than fossil fuels; 3. Clean energy improves grid reliability ; 4. Clean energy investment has surpassed

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