Energy

President Obama rejects Keystone XL pipeline

If you aren’t familiar with US environmental politics, you might not have heard about Big Oil’s latest craze : building a 1.700 mile (2,736 km) long pipeline to bring tar sands oil extracted from Canada to the US Gulf coast. After many twists and turns, President Barack Obama – the green Prez that should have […]

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$260 billion were invested in Cleantech in 2011

Remember my post on how a trillion had been invested in cleantech ? Well, the trend is accelerating as $260 billion (approx. 200 billion euros) were invested in 2011 alone as Bloomberg New Energy Finance reported. So, everything wasn’t so bad last year and especially not for the United States, which reclaimed their leadership from

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Hawaii could be entirely powered by geothermal

Could Hawaii be entirely powered by geothermal, just like Iceland ? To Industry Intelligence : ” Hawaii Island has geothermal potential of 500 to 700 MW, enough to easily exceed its energy demand of 90 to 185 MW “ You think this would be a  senseless move ? Think again, to the report carried out

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China unveils huge wind energy plans

Here are some great news for climate and quite bad news for America and Europe : China unveiled last week massive wind energy plans. The People’s Republic is willing to seriously expand the renewable energy industry. Indeed from the current 40 GW of capacity, it is planning to reach ” 200 GW, 400 GW and

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The international year of sustainable energy for all

Here is why cleantech will be a buzzword all throughout 2012 : the United Nations declared this year will be the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All. As Catherine Banet notes on her blog : ” (the) aim is twofold: increase awareness and find solutions on access to energy (with the objective of universal

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Toward super efficient solar panels

I came across two news today that could revolutionize solar panels by drastically increasing their efficiency. Given the current potential of this energy source with today’s technology, tomorrow will be bright for solar ! To the MIT Technology Review :” Replacing flat panels with three dimensional structures (see left) can significantly change the economics of

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Solar to account for a third of energy by 2060

According to an International Energy Agency official, a third of ALL global energy needs could be answered by solar energies within the next five decades. (photovoltaic, concentrated and thermal) And this could be a low estimate : as Climate Progress notes : ” Solar is clearly proving itself without a price on carbon. With an

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Prefering efficiency and sobriety over renewables

Here is my latest reflection on Cleantechies : ” The more I delve into energy and climate issues, the more this seems completely evident : we should prefer energy efficiency and sobriety over renewables.“ ” Making efficiency a priority – whereas renewables are the priority nowadays – will without a doubt benefit the consumer, the

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