Energy

Nicaragua develops its renewable energy potential

According to El Pais, Nicaragua and its six million inhabitants could get 90 % of its electricity from renewables by 2020. To date, the country is already getting 58 percent of its electricity from clean sources. Enjoying huge amounts of sun and wind it could also benefit from large reserves of geothermal energy. Indeed, if […]

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The value of a well insulated home

While browsing Cleantechnica I found the answer of a key question I have been having ever since writing my Master’s thesis. French houses are leaky ” thermal collanders “ as 20 million accommodations have to be weatherized. Potential savings could be the equivalent of 200 TWh of electricity per annum, knowing that the total electricity

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Ford to boost start-stop systems

According to TreeHugger, ” a Ford representative is saying that they are “going to be aggressive rolling [stop-start] out”. As we have seen previously, such innovation enable cars to stop automatically their engines when not moving. Such a simple system could cut the oil consumption by ten percent for urban driving while only costing around

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Could Australia axe its carbon tax ?

For the past weeks I have collected quite an impressive amount of articles on Australia, as its recent elections have brought to power a Conservative Prime Minister, Tony Abbott. A climate denier backed by fossil fuels interests, Mr Abbott is willing to axe the country’s carbon tax. As the Guardian reported, this would cost the

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Poland could halve coal consumption by 2030

Here comes another article for Cleantechies, this time focusing on a problem plaguing many nations, coal. This fossil fuels does indeed provides a large part of the electricity there. Here is the introduction : ” Poland – as many East European nations – relies very heavily on coal as 90 percent of its electricity comes

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IEA World Energy Outlook 2013

The World Energy Outlook from the International Energy Agency is a key publication when it comes to energy and climate issues as it presents key indicators, facts and trends from renowned experts. This year the IEA outlined the importance of ending fossil fuels subsidies – which amounted to $544 billion / 400€ billion last year,

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Buenos Aires switches to LED lights, saves money

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

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More and more French households burn wood for heating

What do you get when energy efficiency meets a local renewable energy source ? You get great news from my home country. My latest Cleantechies article is focusing on how firewood is gaining traction in France in an interesting way. ” According to a recent study from the French ADEME, wood burning is more and

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Energy efficiency delivers a lot, could do more

You know it if you have been reading this blog for some time : I am quite passionate about energy efficiency and its huge potential. Now here come two major reports that will hopefully transform you in energy efficiency enthusiasts. The International Energy Agency ( IEA ), the OECD energy office, have published recently a

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United States emissions decreased by 3.8 percent in 2012

According to new data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA, how confusing…), the national energy-related carbon dioxide emissions declined by 3.8 percent last year, thus reaching their levels of 1994 while the economy grew. Many factors contributed to this drop in emissions. Among them are a warmer winter, a more efficient economy (notably new

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