As Treehugger reported last week, the Japanese company Sharp has broken another record : 43.5 percent of efficiency, to be compared with their previous record, 36.9% efficiency which had been reached in November 2011. Typical solar panels in the market today still have around 15 or 20 percent of efficiciency. But research is breaking records …
Are we finally getting things right on climate change ? Not completely, but what happened last week may be a good omen for the Rio +20 conference. As I noted in a post published yesterday on Cleantechies : ” Further to the Camp David meeting last week, G8 leaders agreed to act on climate change …
G8 leaders agree to act on climate, air pollution Read More »
Japan seems to become pretty serious about climate change as it will soon make official a law mandating for 80 percent cuts of greenhouse gases emissions by 2050 (compared to 1990, just in line with IPCC recommendations) Not totally unrelated to these most commendable goals, the country enacted generous feed-in tariffs for solar, wind and …
A year after the catastrophic events in Fukushima, Japan is planning to be nuclear free by May 5. It is I believe a good opportunity to focus on the future of the industry. Opinions diverge on this critical issue. Some believe nuclear is bound to disappear as it has a negative learning curve and that …
A year after Fukushima, and the future of nuclear Read More »
With some delay I would like to propose you today my selection of the most important news of 2011. As I wrote close to 250 articles, selecting only 25 proved to be difficult. I have mixed topics so you will find stuff on climate change, cleantech, environmental issues and sustainable development. I have also mixed …
2011 in a nutshell : my selection of essential posts Read More »
CleanTechies gives us some data on something absolutely terrible for a global future : ” Global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) increased by 45 % between 1990 and 2010, and reached an all-time high of 33 billion tons in 2010. “ ” Increased energy efficiency, nuclear energy and the growing contribution of renewable energy are …
To Bloomberg : ” Japan approved a bill today to subsidize electricity from renewable sources, joining European nations in shifting away from nuclear power after the Fukushima reactor meltdowns in March.” ” (…) The bill allows for incentives that guarantee above-market rates for wind, solar and geothermal energy. The so-called feed- in tariff created a …
First, the good ones : To Reuters : ” Significant progress has been made in efforts to contain and stabilise the situation at Fukushima, the head of the United Nations atomic agency said on Friday.” And some bad : To the Wall Street Journal ” EDF announced that its EPR project in Flamanville, France (…) …
Further to the Fukushima catastrophe in March, Japan has been decreasing in a massive way its electricity consumption. Indeed, only 17 nuclear reactors are bringing power to the grids out of the 54 existing ones. As the New York Times notes : ” Preliminary figures indicate that regions under conservation mandates have been able to …
I seldom write about social or economic issues on this blog as I am more prone to tackle environmental ones, and this even if they are part of the sustainable development triptych. But each time I blog about social topics it seems I am watching Rom burn and collapse. My last post here was on …
Precarity is another reason for a green New Deal Read More »
