There is mounting evidence than West-facing solar panels produce more electricity during peak demand, and thus solve solar’s main problem.
Tapping solar vast potential is one of our best bets to become carbon neutral by 2040. As prices keep on dropping, one of the remaining problems is the look of the panels themselves.
The future will be solar powered. We have seen it time and again. But for those fearing a world full of black or blue solar panels, have no fear. If I had reported about colored solar panels in 2010, here is something new…
Fluorescent tubes are everywhere : in offices and homes and of course, in supermarkets and factories. This ubiquitous lights are used in a staggering amount of 12 billion sockets to Philips.
The company has developed an alternative based on LED technology : the InstantFit LED lamp. Up to 40 percent more efficient than traditional T8 fluorescent tubes, it could quickly replace old models.
As TreeHugger reports, switching all these lights could lead to switching off the equivalent 210 medium sized power plants.
The capital city of Argentina, Buenos Aires, have switched its 125,000 streetlights to LED. This will cut energy consumption by half and will last five times longer. With 13 million inhabitants, it is the second largest city in South America.
To TreeHugger : ” That’s just one city. It’s estimated that if cities around the world made a switch to LED tech like Buenos Aires, savings would add up to €130 billion ($180 billion) in reduced energy costs each year. “
” It would also prevent 670 million tons of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere each year. Not bad for streetlamps! ” This just shows that energy efficiency works.
If my Friday post got you down, this might cheer you up a little bit. After the study quoted three weeks ago, another one states that we could actually limit rising temperatures to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. But we have to act FAST.
This one was carried out by the Climate Action Network and Climate Analytics and shows that global emissions levels have to peak in 2020 if we want our beautiful planet to cool from the middle of the century. Now that’s good news !
One of the leading scientists quoted in RTCC stated that we need new technologies, a derivative of carbon capture and storage.
While I am not advocating nuclear as much as I was doing a few years ago – the incident in Fukushima have shown how the technology can be dangerous – I am still believing that it is better than coal. (Sidenote : anything IS better than coal…)
According to a study quoted by Cleantechies, ” The use of nuclear power from 1971 to 2009 prevented more than 1.8 million premature deaths related to air pollution and 64 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions. “
Of course, there are huge safety concerns over nuclear and having it based on plutonium over thorium wasn’t the best idea Humankind had, but who knows what will happen.
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. Icing on the cake, it could also be used for air conditioning.
If all this wasn’t enough, IBM believes this could be cheaper than comparable solar systems, less than $10 cent per kilowatt hour. Talk about genius !
I recently wrote a post on how we could turn urine and feces into energy thanks to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I also wrote about some similar efforts that are being done in Singapore.
Now, according to Grist and Ecogeek, four African teenage girls created a generator that runs on pee, turning one liter of the liquid into no less than six hours of electricity.
Albeit we don’t know exactly how much electricity was created – and how much it required to be created – this is still something noteworthy.
To Treehugger : “ The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and their industry partner Solar Junction, have just set the bar even higher in the race for ultra-high-effiency PV cells by achieving another world record of 44% efficiency. “ But wait, there is more as to another article solar PV panels could soon be 50 … Read more
