Energy

Whatever concerns energy and the ways to produce it goes here

France first country to ban fracking

” Last week the French government was the first to enact a law forbidding hydraulic fracturing, also known as “fracking”. This technology enables to recover shale gas via the use of massive amounts of water and chemicals.” ” The former remaining afterward polluted, hence the controversy. The law had been discussed by both the lower …

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Is liquefied coal really what we need ?

An article from Cleantechies pointed out that according to a new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) liquefied coal may become an economically viable fuel option by 2015. Further to this, I left a comment : ” Just as we are thinking about solving the climate/energy equation by ditching coal, some are willing …

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Is this the beginning of the end for biofuels ?

To TreeHugger : “A measure that would remove roughly $6 billion in annual ethanol subsidies just passed the U.S. Senate, signaling, among other things, a shift in public attitude towards the once-heralded alternative fuel. ” It wasn’t so long ago that corn ethanol was considered a plausible replacement for oil – but that was before …

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A million solar homes… in Bangladesh

At first I couldn’t possibly believe it, it had to be a sinister joke : there would be a million solar homes in Bangladesh…  I was wondering : How could such a poor country such as Bangladesh could afford to have a million houses with solar panels ? Indeed, the country has a GDP per …

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More efficiency, wind power and nuclear for China

As the world’s first energy consumer and greenhouse gases emitter, the People’s Republic of China is under closed scrutiny from energy analysts. Last week, not one or two but three different news caught my attention on this country. The climate situation there is dreadful as according to CNN massive floods forced 1.6 million people to …

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Countries with more than 30 percent of nuclear

Further to the catastrophe in Fukushima, Japan, the Christian Science Monitor wrote an interesting article on the ten countries relying for more than 30 percent on nuclear for their electricity. As they put it : ” As dependent as Japan is on nuclear power, 12 nations are even more reliant it, according to the World …

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No (good) news from the Bonn Climate Talks

Here we go again… New climate talks, same disappointment. Preliminary talks took place in Bonn, Germany, to discuss the future of the Kyoto Protocol, which will end next year. To the Guardian, the negotiations aren’t progressing : Even if they are making progress on ” technical issues “, countries are ” still nowhere near agreement …

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The huge global potential of geothermal

Here is another renewable energy we little hear about… According to a new publication from the IEA, geothermal could provide about 3.5% of annual global electricity production, 3.9% of energy for heat by 2050. As the press release notes : ” there is potential to achieve at least a tenfold increase in the global production …

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Brazil and South Korea are increasing their efforts

To CleanTechnica : ” A new national 10-year plan from Brazil shows that the country will triple its use of renewable energy by 2020 and that a lot of that energy will be wind energy. ” ” Going from 9 GW of wind, biomass and small hydropower in 2010, the country intends to hit 27 …

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Solar PV gets even more efficient and cheaper

To GreenTech Media : ” SunPower just announced their newest solar panels with total area efficiencies of more than 20 percent. The 96-cell solar panels use SunPower’s 22.4 percent efficient cells .” To Ecogeek : ” Researchers at Empa (the Swiss national research laboratory) have achieved a new record in thin-film solar cell efficiency. (…) …

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