Houses and building energy efficiency is a hot topic for me since I wrote my Master’s thesis on it back to 2006. Then I discovered that France had no less than 20 million buildings to insulate ( not bad for a country with 65 million inhabitants ) Now according to the Guardian, the UK Green […]
An innovative idea to push for building retrofits. Read More »
My time out for the past two weeks in southern France was the occasion for me to think a bit about energy and environmental issues as I was experiencing stuff I have been writing about on this blog. Exemplifying with day-to-day and real-life examples is a fantastic opportunity to see how stuff just works. From
Random vacation thoughts Read More »
According to a study carried out in the United States by the local Department of Energy (DOE), the 49 million LED light bulbs already installed helped save a massive $675 million (over 500 million euros) in a single year. But wait, there is more as if all light bulbs in the United States were replaced
LED lights save a lot of money, could save even much more Read More »
As Japan is working on exploiting one day methane hydrates, I thought it would be appropriate for me to present you an article on this dirty and unconventional fossil fuel which is also referred to as burning ice. As I noted in a draft a while back : « Science without conscience is but ruin
Methane hydrates : a pandora’s box ? Read More »
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
My review of Promised Land Read More »
Yesterday Alice Stollmeyer asked on Twitter “ What should the European Commission do to improve air quality ? ” as she is participating today to a EU chat session dedicated to green topics. My answer was quite simple: Ban new coal projects and phase out the existing capacity. Replace by efficiency and renewables. This would
Could the European Union ban coal ? When ? Read More »
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 »
Ever since I started to delve into energy and environmental issues, I have been advocating energy efficiency. It is the cheapest solution, and also the best one. This is why I have called it the panacea to all our energy and climate problems. It seems I wasn’t the only one to call for more efficiency
Efficiency gains momentum, decrease emissions Read More »
President Obama is willing to save his country a lot of money : $40 billion, or around 30 billion euros, annually. These huge sums of money equal to reducing energy use in commercial buildings 20 percent by 2020. As Elisa Wood wrote on Cleantechies : ” To achieve the goal, the Obama administration in 2011
United States on an energy conservation quest Read More »
Years ago I was often reading The Oil Drum, a great website dedicated to oil and other energy issues. Years later, the website still provides great content and I am glad to have read one of their latest posts : Our Energy Predicament in Charts. This post is an excellent introduction to energy issues for
A primer on our current energy predicament Read More »
