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. “
If traditional / first generation biofuels based on cereals are nowhere near being sustainable, the ones based on algae could be a good or even great solution in the not so far future…
Some entrepreneurs and scientists are sharing this opinion as the New Mexico Business Weekly reports than at least three different companies are working on the very topic in the United States.
Far from being just a solution to keep our car running on liquid fuels, algae could also feed livestocks and so on. Please be sure I will keep you informed on the topic.
Oh the irony ! As you know, fossil fuels are heavily subsided. I have written a few articles here on how ending those subsidies would be a major boost to renewables. Well it seems they don’t quite need it.
As Bloomberg notes : “Wind in some cases already is, or can in coming years, be fully cost-competitive with fossil fuels,” (…) “Fossil-fuel prices will continue to rise, and that increases the competitiveness of new technologies.”
” We are preparing the whole industry for getting off the subsidy-need.” So, are we just keep on giving money to dirty filthy solutions just so they can keep on polluting our air, soil and water ? Continue »
To Reuters quoting a local scientific report : ” Global warming threatens China’s march to prosperity by cutting crops, shrinking rivers and unleashing more droughts and floods. “
“China faces extremely grim ecological and environmental conditions under the impact of continued global warming and changes to China’s regional environment,”
Given how the situation is dire already, one can wonder how it could be even worse… This sure explains why the People’s Republic is acting so massively on cleantech. Continue »
I was really thinking about if I should share the latest World Bank prospects with you. To this most venerable agency, economic growth is due to be nearly flat lining globally this year.
With less money for the traditional economy, isn’t it time to embrace sustainable alternatives ? Energy efficiency and renewables are growing faster and faster. They are also creating more and more jobs around the world.
If we want to prevent massive climate change, world wars and other equally horrifying prospects, our only way out is sustainability. It’s high time our politicians hear this !
To GreenTech Media : “ Germany installed more than 2 gigawatts of solar in the month of December alone. (…) Installations for the full year will be nearly 7 gigawatts according to the German Solar Industry Association (BSW).”
The article goes further : “ According to the BSW, solar power contributes approximately three percent of the German electricity supply, with a goal of 10 percent by 2020. “
The European leader in renewables installed in a single month more solar photovoltaic capacity than the whole United States of America installed in a whole year ! Continue »
One of my very first post in 2010 was about what I was calling the triple crisis. As I noted back then ” our economies are crumbling, our climate is warming and our energy supplies are getting scarcer. “
You would think that after two years, we would have started to do something about them. Well, from what I see, we haven’t. Unemployment is still high, we are still as reliant on oil and coal and our climate is getting weirder.
This is the beginning of my latest article on Cleantechies. To read further, please go there. As always, comments and shares are more than welcome. Enjoy !
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).
