Europe

Prosperity without growth

Further to the discussion I had with Kiashu in the previous post, I thought a recent post from the Oil Drum would be appropriate to continue our discussion on why it seems we have to consume always more and if there are alternatives. A British organization wonders in it’s latest report if we can achieve …

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Solar PV to provide 300 MW to France by 2011

Last week Jean-Louis Borloo, the French energy and environment Minister, launched a plan that will quadruple the amount of electricity provided by solar photovoltaïc in order to reach 300 MW by 2011. This is great news as investing 1.5 billion euros ($2 billion) in solar PV is the right move for France to enable local …

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European energy official: oil may have peaked

Thanks to the Oil Drum, I read about an interesting fact. Andris Piebalgs, the European Energy Commissioner published this month an interesting post on his blog stating that oil production may have already peaked. This is no big surprise as we have already seen that to the Oil Drum, global production peaked in 2008. Additionally, …

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Spain is going green

By reading the French daily Le Monde, I came across an interesting interview [Fr] of the Spanish Prime Minister, M. Zapatero. There he stated that one of the solutions to get his country out of economic trouble is green growth. Several other countries including the United States, China and South Korea already did so and …

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Solutions to cut US dependance on foreign oil

I came across interesting data last week : Americans consume more than two times more oil per capita than Europeans. As we will see, this can be explained by three factors. Bringing oil consumption per capita to European levels would enable the USA to be independent from foreign oil, save a lot of money, create …

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More energy efficiency in the European Union

I have been an advocate of energy efficiency for years and believe it is the best solution to solve the energy and climate equation. So when the European Union plans to ban importing energy inefficient goods I can only applaud the initiative. This is done to enable the 27 countries and their 500 million inhabitants …

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Is cleantech the new arms race ?

During  the Cold War, the United States and the USSR were fighting to have the largest amounts of weapons. It seems the arms race of the 21st century is more pacific as it concerns renewable energies. The United States of America, China and the European Union are stepping up to become the first country or …

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Can we cut by 40% our GHG emissions by 2020 ?

When the IPCC published its various reports in 2007 it concluded that to avoid dramatic climate changes, cutting by as far as 40 percent greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions could be necessary. This contrast heavily with the targets the United States and the European Union set as they are closer to 20 than to 40 percent. …

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More and more support for nuclear

Times they are a-changin’ sung Bob Dylan. This is true as after years of despisal more and more people – even environmentalists  previously against such solutions – support nuclear as a way to avoid dramatic climate change. This became apparent as Sweden stated it won’t stop as planned its nuclear plants next year and will …

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