Thanks to GreenUnivers, a great French blog on green business, I came across the latest report from the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21). It presents various figures worth mentioning. Between 2004 and 2008, solar PV capacity increased sixfold to more than 16 GW, wind power capacity increased 250 percent to 121 […]
A global renewable energies boom Read More »
Last week two different news about how the two countries responsible for more than 40 percent of the global greenhouse gases emissions could sign an agreement in November and work together on greentech. To the New York Times a deal on climate change could be signed in November when President Obama will visit China. No
The USA and China cooperate on climate change Read More »
I finished reading this weekend a book I strongly recommend to anyone interested by sustainable development and energy as it is packed with figures and findings that are due to start discussions among CleanTechies. One of the main findings of this book is that electrifying our cars and installing heat pumps in our buildings would
Book Review: Sustainable energy – without the hot air Read More »
I like creative ideas and I love everything related to space. Needless to say I am also a strong supporter of solar energies. Yet, I find that investing 14,7 billion euros in space-based solar is preposterous. All this money will be invested to see if it is feasible to have one GW of power by
Japan to invest $21 billion in space-based solar Read More »
Even if this not new as I wrote about this very issue as early as June 2008, the additional research bring us more data on how renewables – and especially biofuels – need much more land to generate energy than traditional solutions. As you can see with the graph biofuels are by far the least
Energy sprawl is another reason to mix sources Read More »
In these times of heat waves – it was 37°C here in France yesterday – we all know that solar energy can heat places but it seems the sun could also cool them down thanks to air conditioning. Even if this is not entirely new as I read about such technologies as early as 2005
Why solar air conditioning is a fantastic idea Read More »
EurObserv’ER published its eighth report on the state of renewable energies in Europe. Both in French and English, it demonstrates the sector is vibrant and is just taking off. As there are too many renewable energy solutions to be handled in a single article, I will only present you here the findings of the report
Renewable energies are progressing in Europe Read More »
For the seventh part of this series – and after having tackled heating, electricity, water, transport, food and waste – I guess it is time for us to see how solar energies can benefit our lives. I mention solar energies as there are three possibilities : passive solar applications, which are the most basic, solar
Towards sustainability: going solar Read More »
The fact has been known for years: harvesting the energy provided by the sun to a tiny fraction of the Earth could supply all the energy Humankind needs without greenhouse gases emissions or pollution due to operation. This week many blogs and websites published articles on Desertec, a foundation that would like to install many
Is Desertec a sound idea ? Read More »
Recently two Latin America countries unveiled large renewable energies plans. If those projects were to become reality, they would bring several gigawatts of clean energy to the continent. Argentina is very ambitious as it plans to build a wind farm that will amount for 600 to 900 MW as well as an impressive solar park that
Renewables due to boom in South America Read More »
