Welcome ! As a young French Marketing professional with a Master's in International Management I have been selecting since January 2007 the latest headlines and best researches on sustainable development, climate change, cleantech and the world energy sector. Sounds great ? Don't hesitate to subscribe now !
The Guardian Sustainable Business blog published last week an interesting post on the ten most promising future cleantechs. I have to admit I am not sure all of them really are as I spotted at least one odd out.
Indeed, even if algae, zinc air batteries, organic solar cells or marine energy and most other elements like smart lightning and pyrolysis oil seem promising, I have a huge doubt concerning carbon capture and storage.
Anyway, even if there is or are one or two items of the list that won’t really hold their promises, I have learned about ones that I didn’t knew about.
We have heard that before : ” Wind power is far too unreliable ” or ” Nuclear power isn’t a safe solution “. Yet the reality is most of the times far from these myths. Popular Mechanics published a long article debunking energy myths.
I wrote about some of them such as clean coal that won’t clean up our air or biofuels that won’t cure our addiction to oil or don’t even represent an alternative to oil. Some others, like algae are quite new topics here.
After debunking all these myths, this long article ends with a true fact that I have been hammering here since the beginning of this blog : ” Energy saved, it turns out, is the cheapest new source. “
Even if I knew thanks to Thomas Friedman and his book Hot, Flat and Crowded that the US Army is willing to outgreen its opponents, I found more information in an article from the New York Times.
The US Army is willing to cut its energy and water to decrease the risks inherent to their transport. This means saving lives, natural resources and money. And this even without mentioning climate change mitigation.
Here are a few ideas it is putting in place: energy saving by insulating tents, low carbon energy from waste, recycling water and alternatives fuel made of algae for jets. Continue »
I came across interesting articles on what could be the fuels for our cars and planes in the future. This is for the moment just research, but there is no doubt that with peak oil approaching, alternatives are being sought.
Even if most if not all cars nowadays run on gas, they could well soon use urine (via hydrogen engines) or carbon dioxide in the future. Similarly, planes could be powered by algae.
Even if these new energy sources aren’t due to be used any time soon, it is good to know that low carbon and renewable alternatives could be used for all our transportation needs one day.
I have never been a great fan of traditional biofuels (nor the World Bank and the OECD) as their yield is quite small and as they require a lot of by-products (pesticides…).
However, some alguae like Ulva lactuca (sea lettuce, pictured left) have a much superior yield than cereals and aren’t as much eaten as their terrestrial cousins.
Le Figaro Magazine and Notre-Planète.info explored this alternative that might really help us in replacing oil when it will be too expansive, and this in a sustainable way.
