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 !
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 has passed the one-third mark. “
” Semprius’s solar cells use gallium arsenide, rather than silicon, which is able to absorb sunlight and dissipate heat far better. “
To Cleantechies : ” Renewable energy investments in India increased by more than 52 percent in 2011, the fastest growth among major global economies, according to a new report.”
“More than $10.3 billion was invested in renewable energy projects in India last year, with about $4.6 billion targeting wind energy projects and another $4.2 billion going toward solar projects. “
This could be just the beginning as the New Scientist gives many reasons why renewable energy sources – and especially solar – are due to keep growing and growing. Continue »
Could Hawaii be entirely powered by geothermal, just like Iceland ? To Industry Intelligence : ” Hawaii Island has geothermal potential of 500 to 700 MW, enough to easily exceed its energy demand of 90 to 185 MW “
You think this would be a senseless move ? Think again, to the report carried out by the local Geothermal Working Group, this would save over a billion dollar in oil annually ! Currently, geothermal accounts for 25 to 30 percent of the capacity.
Now what if even cars were powered by geothermal too ? Examples like this clearly show we got to stop our ridiculous addiction to oil and embrace renewables. All the time, everywhere…
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 1,000 GW by 2020, 2030 and 2050, respectively, making wind one of the five major sources of electricity across the country.. “ as Reuters notes.
Then this low carbon energy source would account for 17 percent of the energy demand. The cleantech arms race is on and China is determined to win.
Here is why cleantech will be a buzzword all throughout 2012 : the United Nations declared this year will be the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All. As Catherine Banet notes on her blog :
” (the) aim is twofold: increase awareness and find solutions on access to energy (with the objective of universal access by 2030) that is, in addition, affordable, clean and safe. ” Here are the main objectives for 2030 :
Ensuring universal access to modern energy services ; Doubling the rate of improvement in energy efficiency ; Doubling the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix. (via Cleantechies).
I have recently noted that cleantech is booming globally, but what does it mean for Africa ? In today’s post I will try to give a few answers to this crucial question as still 600 million Africans have no access to electricity.
To a study titled Mega Trends in Africa: A bright vision for the growing continent ” Investment in renewable power in Africa is set to grow from a total of US$3.6-billion in 2010 to $57-billion by 2020. “
I have found several other articles on cleantech in Africa in the past few weeks. Let’s review the main ones. Continue »
I have been committed since January 2007 to bring you each month a selection of the latest headlines and best researches on sustainable development, climate change and the world energy sector.
However, I don’t blog as much as I would like to and generally write around 25 posts per month. But many more news are worth reading. This is why I use Twitter to share dozens of news that are worth your time.
I believe it offers a good complement to this website. So if you are on Twitter and like this selection, don’t hesitate to start following me. Continue »
Cleantechies published last week a tremendous article on solar thermal and why it is “is about to see explosive growth”. I am not entirely surprised of that as I have been a strong advocate of this solution for more than five years.
Presenting the industry, the article goes on and gives no less than seven reasons why solar thermal could soon take off in the USA. Many of these reasons could apply elsewhere as it is more efficient and cheaper than solar PV.
Just as 2011 saw an increase of interest in energy efficiency, I hope 2012 will see an increased interest in solar thermal. Continue »
To Business Week : ” Sun-drenched Kuwait, a desert nation with no solar-power plants and electricity demand that’s growing about 8 percent a year, has set the most ambitious target for using renewable energy in the Gulf region.”
The country plans to have ten percent of renewables in its electricity mix by 2020. This exceeds by three points the goals of Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates. This is a huge goal as the local energy demand doubled in ten years.
Fully understanding that they won’t be able to rely on oil indefinitely, many Middle East countries are diversifying their economies and energy supplies.
Currently, the world is relying massively on coal to generate electricity as it is cheap, awfully cheap – if you don’t take into account the negative externalities as it is polluting our air, our soil and is one of the main factors to climate change.
But what if solar became even cheaper than coal ? What if if became the cheapest solution ? We would then have a renewable, clean and cheap alternative to produce gigawatts of electricity.
Kees van der Leun – A Dutchman who has been dedicating himself to renewables for the past 25 years – wrote on Grist an excellent post on that very topic. Continue »
