There are so many news I’d like to write about that I believe that for today, I’ll propose you some thoughts based on all of them. Please let me know if you like that idea.
Renewable
Wind power to bounce back in 2014
According to Treehugger : ” At the end of 2013, the wind farms installed in more than 85 countries had a combined capacity of 318,000 megawatts, which would be enough to meet the residential electricity needs of the European Union.” ” New data from the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) show that wind developers built … Read more
Australian emissions decreased in 2013
According to Enerdata, Australian greenhouse gases emissions decreased by 0.8% last year. While this seems tiny and not really reason to rejoice, there is some data worth mentioning as emissions from the power sector fell by 5%. Last year alone, there was a 4.1% decrease in power generation from black coal, -6.9% from brown coal … Read more
China to declare war on smog
Not so long ago, a much larger proportion of Chinese citizens was poor. From 1981 to 2008, the poverty rate was slashed from 85 percent to 13 percent. But this was rapid economic development has had a toll on the environment.
Nowadays, the air quality in the capital city of Beijing is “somewhat similar to a nuclear winter” as a Chinese crop scientist quoted in Treehugger remarked. But this might change soon as the local government is well aware of this situation.
Indeed, we have seen extensively how China is moving massively on energy efficiency, renewables such as solar and wind and on closing dirty and inefficient coal-fired plants.
Wind energy was top energy source in Spain in 2013
Many European nations have seen a boom in their renewable energy sources in the past few years. Among them is Spain. Here is the introduction to an article on that topic I wrote for Cleantechies : ” 2013 was an excellent year for wind energy in Spain as this renewable energy source became the first … Read more
2014 : reasons to hope
As we are kicking off the new year I believe it would be interesting to offer my readers reasons to hope. Indeed, if climate change and other environmental issues are getting each month more pressing, we are witnessing at least five trends.
From renewable energy sources to the carbon tax, from coal funding to greenhouse gases emissions, I believe we are on the right track. Whether we are at the right speed however remains to be seen.
It is up to us all to make sure the right trends keep on increasing and that the negative ones just go in the opposite direction. Let’s make it happen in 2014.
China coal consumption could peak soon
The People’s Republic of China is in the middle of a very serious situation as it is struggling with horrendous air pollution which in the Northern provinces cut life expectancy by over five years.
To avoid this from worsening even more, the local government has been investing heavily in the past and will invest more in the future in low carbon alternatives : negawatts ( energy efficiency ) and renewables.
Those very same renewables are getting cheaper and cheaper – reaching grid parity – while coal is only getting more and more expensive.
Global capacity doubled : a solar boom
To Greentech Media : ” two-thirds of all solar PV capacity in place worldwide has been installed since January 2011. Let’s put that into perspective. It took nearly four decades to install 50 gigawatts of PV capacity worldwide.”
” But in the last 2 1/2 years, the industry jumped from 50 gigawatts of PV capacity to just over 100 gigawatts. At the same time, global module prices have fallen 62 percent since January 2011. “
” Even more amazingly, the solar industry is on track to install another 100 gigawatts worldwide by 2015 — nearly doubling solar capacity in the next 2 1/2 years. “
A primer on our current energy predicament
Years ago I was often reading The Oil Drum, a great website dedicated to oil and other energy issues. Years later, the website still provides great content and I am glad to have read one of their latest posts : Our Energy Predicament in Charts.
This post is an excellent introduction to energy issues for people who are not familiar with them and don’t grasp their importance in our lives. Cheap energy from coal and oil have enabled our civilization to become what it is nowadays.
As cheap oil reserves dwindle and as coal is just way too polluting to be used indefinitely. Low carbon, non polluting and cheap alternatives are being sought.
700 million people in a huge blackout in India
The increasing number of air conditioning appliances – and overall electricity demand – in India had presumably a huge consequence as yesterday, 600 million people went without electricity for several hours.
As the New York Times noted : ” The world’s largest blackout ever crippled roughly half of India for a second consecutive day on Tuesday, sending officials scrambling for an explanation. “
” The power failure spread across 22 of the country’s 28 states, an area whose population is nearly 700 million, almost 10 percent of the world’s population.“
Share of renewables keep increasing in Europe
Here is another post I wrote for Cleantechies. This one is on how renewable energy sources like solar, wind and so on are progressing accross the European Union. I hope you will like it. Here is the beginning : ” According to Eurostat, the share of renewable energy sources in the gross final energy consumption in … Read more