Energy

Why drilling for oil in the Arctic is downright crazy

As China and Iceland signed last week a treaty on arctic oil and as a small spill declared in Russia, I thought it was appropriate to write about a previous article from Climate Progress on the risks of such practices. As Kiley Kroh noted there: ” Analysts at one of the world’s largest insurance markets […]

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Friday video : Petroleo

I thought a short video might be interesting to end this week. It’s called Petroleo and it was done by two animation students at Gobelins, The French Ecole de l’Image. This was done during a Cartooning for Peace workshop. An idea from famous French cartoonist Plantu, Cartooning for Peace offers higher levels of visibility to

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Oil prices : from a recession to another

To the prestigious International Energy Agency :” If oil averages USD 120 per barrel in 2012, the global oil import burden  is set to reach a record high of over USD 2 trillion, or USD 5.5 billion per day “ Their press release goes on : ” The current price levels are on average higher

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United Kingdom slashed its emissions in 2011

As EcoFriend notes, thanks to a warmer climate and a massive push in low carbon energy sources, the United Kingdom slashed by SEVEN PERCENT its greenhouse gases emissions between 2011 and 2010. Cleantech boomed as the share of renewables went from 7.5 percent to 9.5 percent in a single year. Electricity production from renewable sources

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Six facts on the value of renewables

Last week Climate Progress presented a list of six facts on why renewables are absolutely great. Here it is : 1. Clean energy is competitive with other types of energy ; 2. Clean energy creates three times more jobs than fossil fuels; 3. Clean energy improves grid reliability ; 4. Clean energy investment has surpassed

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A year after Fukushima, and the future of nuclear

A year after the catastrophic events in Fukushima, Japan is planning to be nuclear free by May 5. It is I believe a good opportunity to focus on the future of the industry. Opinions diverge on this critical issue. Some believe nuclear is bound to disappear as it has a negative learning curve and that

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Offshore natural gas exploitation isn’t safe either

We have seen in 2010 with the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico that offshore oil exploitation could lead to dramatic pollutions. Now, we are learning the hard way that offshore natural gas exploitation can be foolhardy. As The Guardian noted : ” Oil giant Total has confirmed that a major gas leak on one

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Germany to invest 200 billion euros in energy

To Energy Bloom : ” Chancellor Angela Merkel is planning to spend 200 billion euros ($263 billion) developing an energy program that will create a series of offshore wind farms that will cover an area six times the size of New York City. “ ” (…) Germany has a plan to boost its renewable energy

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China could cap energy consumption by 2015

China is so profoundly harmed by pollution that it is more and more aggressively pursuing – or trying to pursuit – a cleaner development. The last example of this was exemplified earlier this month by a Reuters news article : ” China, the world’s top energy consumer, is expected to announce in the first half

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Envia, a battery breakthrough for electric vehicles

Electric vehicles suffer nowadays from two main problems : limited range and expensive price. But both problems could soon be solved if Envia Systems, a California-based company succeeded. To Climate Progress : ” Envia says its new manganese-based cathode design allows lithium cells to store almost three times the amount of energy per charge than

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