Alternative energy

Turning urine into electricity

I recently wrote a post on how we could turn urine and feces into energy thanks to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I also wrote about some similar efforts that are being done in Singapore. Now, according to Grist and Ecogeek, four African teenage girls created a generator that runs on pee, turning one …

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Germany breaks another solar PV record

The sunny – and hot, and dry – weather witnessed by Europe lately has one good point : Germany broke all records of solar photovoltaic generation with as much as 22 GWh. As Cleantechies reported : ” that amount of electricity fed into the national grid on Saturday (May 26) met around 50 percent of …

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A new efficiency record for solar panels

To EcoGeek : ” Semprius, a startup company manufacturing tiny concentrated solar cells that forgo any cooling systems has achieved a truly amazing leap in solar cell efficiency. “ This is truly exciting as ” The company was able to hit 33.9 percent efficiency with their solar panel, the first time a commercially-viable solar technology …

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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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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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Marine energy could add up to 240 GW by 2050

Here is my latest post on CleanTechies, this time on wave and tidal energies : “According to a new study by the Carbon Trust up to 240 GW of capacity of marine energy could be installed worldwide by 2050.“ ” Out of these, 75 percent could be coming from wave, and the remainder by tidal …

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Hydrogen: A dream or delusion?

This is the title of an interesting article at GreenTech Media. Here are some essential quotes of it : ” Hydrogen. In green technology circles, just mentioning the word is enough to start an argument. “ ” Hydrogen could become a ubiquitous source of electricity and heat, say advocates. Plus, it’s somewhat prevalent. Hydrogen remains …

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Iceland may help power Europe with geothermal

Despite its recent economic harshness, Iceland is rich as it is located on one of the world’s best geothermal hot spots. The potential is so large they are thinking about exporting electricity to neighboring European nations. As Ecogeek noted: “Iceland’s biggest utility, Landsvirkjun, has announced a plan to build the world’s longest undersea cable at …

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The huge benefits of decentralizing utilities

One of the most striking facts I learned from reading Crossing the Energy Divide is that decentralizing electric utilities would enable saving up to five trillion dollars. Here is a quote from the book (page 94) : ” WADE found that the world’s energy industries have a choice of spending 10.8 trillion in new central …

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