Energy

Whatever concerns energy and the ways to produce it goes here

January 2009 solar news

Solar photovoltaïc (also known as PV or solar cells) is the subject of numerous researches around the world. Indeed, Earth receives so much energy from its star that the potential is simply tremendous. Accounting for less than a percent of our energy consumption, scientists around the world want to make solar an affordable energy source …

January 2009 solar news Read More »

The underestimated potential of solar thermal

Solar PV seems to be everywhere in the environmental news as many companies around the world are working in this segment. Meanwhile, little is written on the amazing potential of solar thermal. This may change soon. A US company specialized in solar thermal claims that Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) could bring 90 percent of the …

The underestimated potential of solar thermal Read More »

The huge potential of energy efficiency

I am a huge advocate of energy efficiency since my Master’s thesis on the French residential sector and even believe this is the panacea to all our energy and climate problems. So when two recent studies brought further data, I thought it would be nice to share them with you. One comes from the Earth …

The huge potential of energy efficiency Read More »

2008 in a nutshell

With some late I would like to propose you today a selection of my favorite articles published here in 2008. Since I wrote almost 250, selecting less than 50 of them was very hard. Last year was literally packed with stunning scientific discoveries and great initiatives – both global and local – to increase the …

2008 in a nutshell Read More »

Could fusion be a solution to our problems ?

Even if energy efficiency is today’s best solution to all our climate change and energy scarcity problems  (see why), I was thinking that I never wrote here about fusion, the future of nuclear energy. Due to be environmentally friendly and even safer than current nuclear with fission, fusion will provides us tremendous amounts of energy …

Could fusion be a solution to our problems ? Read More »

Why passive houses need to become widespread

Even if I learned more than two years ago about the theory on passive housing for my Master’s Thesis at the Audencia Nantes Management School, the reality is little known to me. Even if I knew such houses don’t need any heater it seemed too vague a notion. But an interesting article from the New …

Why passive houses need to become widespread Read More »

Overestimated global coal reserves

According to recent studies global coal reserves may be much smaller than previously thought. Indeed, estimates are now of 662 billion tons instead of 850 billion tons. That’s 23 percent smaller. So, what occurred with estimates of remaining oil is also true here : countries overestimated their coal reserves and peak coal is nearer than …

Overestimated global coal reserves Read More »

EDF buys half of Constellation nuclear activities

The French national utility Electricité de France – EDF –  just bought half of nuclear activities of US based utility Constellation for 4.5 billion US Dollars (3.3 billion euros). This occurs only a few months after the acquisition of British Energy by EDF, which is willing to become a major global player in nuclear energy, …

EDF buys half of Constellation nuclear activities Read More »

A brilliant solution for abandoned coal mines

What if old coal mines could provide us with clean and renewable energy ? No, I am not giving credence to clean coal, I am writing about a great idea a Dutch village had. Heerlen inhabitants thought about repurposing their old coal mine – flooded with hot water – and thought about tapping all this …

A brilliant solution for abandoned coal mines Read More »

Help in finding new solar technologies

If you let your computer idle while you are away or asleep, you might consider to allow Harvard and IBM to use it to do calculations for the Clean Energy Project, which is part of the World Community Grid. Due to find new ways to create more efficient solar photovoltaïc panels and later of batteries, …

Help in finding new solar technologies Read More »

%d bloggers like this: