Even if Japan has a sensible energy policy with energy efficiency and low carbon solutions, some of its companies have original ideas. Indeed after space-based solar, some are studying installing panels on the moon. The Shimizu Corporation is willing to put a 11,000 kilometers (6,800 miles) belt of solar panels to form the Luna Ring. …
We all know it : coal is by far the most greenhouse gases emitting energy source. It is also a major air pollutant. For these two reasons it is the environmental enemy #1. (cf The Economist’s cover, back to 2002) However, many countries like China, India, Germany or the United States are still relying importantly …
It is no news for you if you subscribed to this website : solar thermal alone could provide up to a quarter of global electricity by 2050. The use of molten salt could enable our civilization to store solar electricity for up to seven hours. Morocco is ideally located to harvest all this energy as …
I really believe coal should go away as it is the most greenhouse gases emitting and most polluting energy source. I am really glad France decided to step away from it and chose nuclear instead. The Huffington Post published last week an article on how coal-fired plants are causing cancer cases to people and even …
The city of Barcelona and Spanish utility Endesa have been installing smart LED lightning systems that automatically switch themselves off when no one is around. This enables the city to cut by 30 percent its electricity consumption. I really would like this idea to spread across Europe and even the entire world. Indeed, how many …
These are good news, to the European Commission : “The EU will surpass its target to consume 20 percent of its energy from renewable energy by 2020, according to national forecasts submitted to the European Commission.” Out of the 27 members, 12 may exceed their national targets domestically. But this isn’t the only good news …
There is something I totally overlooked while writing earlier this week my article on how Europe goes forward on energy. Indeed, last month Italy announced its intention to build nuclear reactors this decade. Italian electricity is both heavily reliant on foreign fossil sources (70 percent) and on imports (ten percent comes from France’s own reactors). Building …
Things are slowly but irresistibly changing in the United States. Wind power added ten gigawatts of capacity to the grids last year alone and coal is less and less used to generate electricity. Meanwhile, a nuclear renaissance may be under way in America as last month President Obama announced a $8.3 billion (6 billion euros) …
I believe fossil fuels will be replaced sooner or later by electricity. This might prove to be a good thing as heat pumps and electric vehicles are two excellent energy efficient solutions. Thus, electric consumption is rising and is due to keep rising in the next decades. Having low carbon sources to generate electricity is very …
20 percent of America’s – and perhaps the world’s – electricity could soon come from wind and solar. Our societies thus need reliable, cheap and sustainable energy storage solutions. Concentrated solar could benefit from molten salts, yet wind energy doesn’t have yet its own solution. German and Swiss utilities are working on Compressed Air Energy Storage …
