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 !
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.
Here are some more interesting findings on how we could consume much less energy. To the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), the United States could consume 60 percent less energy by 2050.
The advocated measures would also create two million jobs and save $400 billion (315 billion euros) per year, or the equivalent of $2600 (2000 euros) per household annually.
Evidence keeps on piling : energy efficiency is the best way to solve our triple crisis. To read out more, I strongly invite you to read the article on Climate Progress as well as the report on the ACEEE website.
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…
Alanis Morissette once sang it : life can be ironic sometimes. This was especially the case when a few months ago a study paid by the highly polluting conglomerate of the Koch brothers showed that yes, climate change is real.
Now a poll in the United States is showing that more and more Americans are believing in climate change, and this despite the huge campaigns of disinformation. This must be due to the weirding climate…
Now let’s give the USA a couple of years more and just like every other country, they will start fighting climate change on a federal level… Will it be soon enough ? ( I doubt it since we should act NOW)
Incandescent light bulbs are a relic of the past, a vastly inefficient past. Modern alternatives like CFLs and LEDs consume five to ten times less energy. For these reasons, the European Union or Australia have already phased them out.
More countries will be doing the same, namingly the United States and China. The latter will start banning 100-watt bulbs in October 2012. Last year over a billion of these bulbs were sold in the People’s Republic.
To Grist : ” The ban will save China 48 billion kilowatt hours of power per year. Which, if I’m doing my math right, is the equivalent of almost 100 nuclear reactors or large coal-fired power plants. “
You would think that the inventor of the iPod would rest and enjoy the money he made afterwards. Well, he isn’t and this is great news for all of us as Tony Fadell invented a smart thermostat, the Nest Learning Thermostat.
Knowing that we adjust thermostats up to 1,500 per year and that over 10 million thermostats are sold each year in the U.S. alone, he started a new company which is now selling these great, design appliances.
Cleantechies notes that these thermostats sell for $249 and save up to $173 per year. It thus have a return on investment of less than a year and a half ! Continue »
I reported at the very beginning of this year that 2011 could be the year of energy efficiency. It seems to be the case as I have been witnessing an increasing interest for conservation and efficiency.
These are good news as efficiency is the panacea to our energy and climate problems as “73% of global energy use could be saved through energy efficiency improvements.”
As I browsed the selection of my September tweets, I found several articles on how efficiency is getting more and more popular. Continue »
This is not surprising as I was blogging about it two months ago. To TreeHugger : ” After several months of reporting near-record or record monthly levels of Arctic sea ice melting, German researchers now report that a new yearly record low has been set.”
” The area covered by Arctic sea ice has declined to its lowest point since satellite measurements began in 1972. ” It’s also probably lower than at any time in the past 8,000 years, the researchers say. ”
” (…) One day before the German measurement was made, the US National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that the average ice extent for August was 28% below the average for 1979-2000 “
To ABC News : ” It’s time to clean up Irene. The hurricane’s destructive path through 10 East Coast states left an estimated $7 billion to $13 billion of damage in its wake — without even accounting for economic losses.”
Estimates could climb to $20 billion (14 billion euros) if economic lost were taken into account… And this was by all standards a small hurricane. It wasn’t even one, but just a tropical storm when it reached most of the United States.
Climate change is making these phenomena worse. (cf. below) What are we waiting for slashing our emissions and thus, the risk of increased hurricanes and floods ? Continue »
Yes you read that right : the United States Army will spend $7.1 billion (around five billion euros) on renewable energy sources during the next ten years. The goal is to have 25 percent of renewables in their energy mix by 2025.
As GreenTech Media notes : ” Secretary of the Army John McHugh today announced the creation of the Energy Initiatives Office, which will help the massive government agency centrally plan and deploy renewable energy projects. “
Meanwhile, Republican candidates – like Perry and Bachmann – to the elections next year are getting more and more virulent against the protection of the environment and cleantech.
