2020

European Union could agree to 45 percent cuts by 2030

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For my last 2013 post for Cleantechies, I wrote about how the European Union is working on its climate change projects for 2030. It is considering 35 to 45 percent greenhouse gases emissions reduction compared to 1990 levels. As I am stating there, this would be a bit unambitious as the European Union has already … Read more

European Union already close to its 2020 climate goals

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Here is another post on Cleantechies, this time focusing again on how the European Union is succeeding in cutting its greenhouse gases emissions, and this without even trying that hard. Here is the introduction : ” According to the European Environment Agency, the European Union is already close to its 2020 climate objectives as it … Read more

14 carbon bombs to defuse before 2020

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Greenpeace point of no returnGreenpeace has released an interesting report on fourteen projects that could increase greenhouse gases emissions by 20 percent by 2020. This would lead to an increase of temperatures by five or six degrees Celcius.

The largest threats are China and Australia as they plan to increase their coal productions. This is particularly ironic as Climate Progress report that these two countries are particularly hit hard by climate change and air pollution.

I hope we will be able to defuse all of these 14 bombs before they blow us all up. In today’s article we will have a look at them and how we can defuse them.

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Morocco wants 42 percent renewables by 2020

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If you think that solar energy is just fad dedicated to rich nations, read on : Morocco  has a ” goal of increasing installed renewable energy capacity to 42 per cent by 2020 and becoming a renewable energy industry leader. “ The African Development Bank Group has been demonstrating its support to scaling up renewable … Read more

Annual investements in cleantech reach a trillion

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MoneyIf you believe that cleantech is just a fad, you should read this : ” Private investors are putting almost $1 trillion annually into green businesses and technologies, bringing the total invested worldwide since 2007 to $3.6 trillion ”

‘ (…) Ethical Markets expects the $1 trillion annual pace of investments to continue into 2020. Germany, Japan and the US lead in private green investments and China, Brazil and India lead among emerging nations. ”

Given the current general lack of commitment towards mitigating the brunt of climate change one can be sure that these investments will only increase as temperatures increase.

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Cleantech to take trilllions away from Dirty tech

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Do you know why Big Oil and other fossil fuels conglomerates are pushing so hard against energy efficiency and renewables ? Because it could take away  four trillion of dollars from them in the next eight years ! This is one of  the many findings of the latest International Energy Agency (IEA) report. Cleantechnica plans … Read more

100% renewables in Denmark by 2050

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You must have read or heard about it by now : Denmark is willing to be powered by a hundred percent renewable energies by 2050. The government have set an interim goal of 35 percent by 2020. Additionally, the country is willing to cut by 34 percent its emissions by 2020 compared to 1990. This … Read more

A year after Fukushima, and the future of nuclear

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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 it is increasingly expensive compared to renewables. It is true the latter are becoming cheaper and cheaper.

However, some believe that nuclear will keep on expanding globally (1,2,3 ) as it stays one of the best solutions to provide gigawatts of electricity without greenhouse gases.

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Germany to invest 200 billion euros in energy

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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 … Read more

Wallonia to have 30 % clean electricity by 2016

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To Enerdata : ” The Government of Wallonia has set a target of 30% for green electricity production in 2016. To achieve this, the Walloon Government will ask energy suppliers to acquire an increased number of green certificates.” ” The current quota that providers must acquire is 16%. Until now, quotas were increased every year … Read more

Global clean power: A $2.3 trillion opportunity

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While browsing the people I follow on Twitter I found an interesting study from the Pew Charitable Trust noting that global clean power investments could reach $2.3 trillion by 2020. Yes, that’s 1,750 billion euros !

” the report extrapolated from 2009 clean energy investments to conclude that such financing could reach US$2.3 trillion globally if the countries in question developed policies to strongly promote solar, wind, and hydro energy. “

This paper focuses on the G20 members, which account for 85 percent of the world GDP and two thirds of the global population.

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10 GW of solar PV capacity installed in 2010

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This year will remain as an important milestone in the history of solar power. Indeed to GreenTech Media : ” In 2010, we will cross the threshold of 10 gigawatts of photovoltaic solar installed globally in a single year.”

This is indeed amazing as in 2000 only 170 megawatts were installed. This is 58 times more, which means a 51 percent increase per annum. If we were to continue this trend we would install 580 GW in the year 2020…

Such a thing is unlikely to occur. Specialists believe however that we could install up to 100 GW of capacity in 2020. This is still a note-worthy figure and a bright prospect.

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