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 …
Desertec abandons Sahara solar energy export dream Read More »
Inspiring : that’s the adjective that comes to mind as I have just finished reading Cradle to Cradle, by William McDonough and Michael Braungart. I had heard about that book for quite some time and I understand now why. The book was written in 2002 –with a 2008 reedition – and is replete with enlightening …
When people talk about solar energy, most of them just think about solar photovoltaic (PV) that generates electricity from sun rays. While this is a great energy source, there is a much simpler one : solar thermal. This is why my interest was brought to an IEA report on how this heat source is growing …
I don’t publish movie reviews here anymore as I generally do that elsewhere. But tonight I watched a movie with a strong energy / environment connotation, so here is my review of Promised Land. Featuring Matt Damon in the main role, Promised Land is about a fossil fuel company trying to buy drilling rights from farmers and land …
As Cleantechnica reported, according to data collected from the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) and the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), global wind capacity may exceed 300 gigawatts this year. As Greenpeace pointed out (see left), this represents the capacity of all power plants in Mexico and South and Central Americas. In 2012, the global …
To pursue my quest for the best information about cleantech and sustainability, I have recently added one social media to my collection. I am now gathering – and sharing information – via Tumblr. This allowed me last week to find great graph on how solar costs have been decreased, cut and slashed by a factor …
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 …
Grid parity for solar PV is already here in 105 countries Read More »
A close observer of renewable energy markets I am amazed at how fast they are growing around the world. Many countries are banking on them to get out of the current triple crisis. Even if the efforts being done are lacking the necessary scale, results are very encouraging. Portugal is getting 70 percent of its …
To Cleantechnica : ” A study recently published by the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) suggests that France’s Solar PV target for 2020 should be 15 GW instead of its current 5.4 GW. “ ” According to ADEME, solar PV has the potential to reach grid parity in France in the coming few years, and therefore is …
Can France achieve 15 GW of solar PV capacity by 2020 ? Read More »
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. …
