We have already seen that some believe that peak oil may have already occurred last year. Now some IEA officials stated unofficially that oil production forecasts are completely unrealistic. As The Guardian noted : “The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the IEA […]
More on why peak oil already occurred Read More »
After my articles on the 10 reasons to support nuclear power and the one the past and present of nuclear energy it is time to have a look at the main future technologies. David JC MacKay on his website mentions two main fission possibilities : fast breeders and thorium and fusion. We will have a
An overview of future fission nuclear technologies Read More »
One of the main hindrances of solar energy is that when there is no more sun, there is no more electricity as well. This problem is being solved with the molten salt technology which stores energy for seven hours. A Californian company is willing to build a 150 Megawatt plant – The Rice Solar Energy
Storing solar electricity with molten salt Read More »
After my article last week on the 10 reasons to support nuclear power I wanted to write about the future technologies (fast breeders, thorium and fusion) as I was ending my article on that very topic. But before doing that I would like to provide you this week some historical insight on nuclear physics and
Nuclear : Past and present Read More »
Warning: This is an old post from 2009, before the catastrophe of Fukushima, Japan and before the sharp decrease of prices for both solar and wind. I have since then changed my position on nuclear, cf Five reasons to oppose nuclear. Some points below however, remain valid.
10 reasons to support nuclear power Read More »
For my latest post for CleanTechies I propose a reflection further to an interesting op ed Thomas L. Friedman wrote on the New York Times on why America should tax more gasoline. As I noted earlier US drivers pay less than ten euro cents per liter of tax when their German, British, Italian, Turkish or
Could America tax gas more and fund cleantech? Read More »
As Eurobserv’ER published a market barometer for heat pumps I thought it might be the occasion to have a look at this most interesting and promising technology which already accounts for nearly 9 GW th of capacity in Europe. With over 100,000 systems installed every year throughout the European Union, heat pumps can both heat
Why heat pumps are a fantastic idea Read More »
Concentrating Solar Thermal is a fantastic energy source and some experts estimate that it could answer a quarter of the global electricity needs by 2050 if large plants were installed in sunny deserts. However the New York Times notes that this energy source use significant amounts of water. Since this resource is already scarce in
Concentrating solar needs huge amounts of water Read More »
Alstom and various US partners have been testing carbon capture on a small Wisconsin coal-fired plant. After a year of testing, this pilot project is a success as 90 percent of carbon dioxide was captured. The French company is willing to commercialize CCS for new and existing coal fired plants as early as 2015. But
Carbon Capture and Storage works ! Read More »
The European Union will give over the next decade up to 50 billion Euros to research on low carbon energy. Solar energies will receive 16 billion euros, wind power 6 billion, nuclear 7 and energy from waste and biomass 9 billion. This is due to enable the 27 members to compete on cleantech with the
EU to give 50 billion euros to energy research Read More »
