Author Archives: Chris Milton


About Chris Milton

Chris is a seasoned sustainability journalist focusing on business, finance and clean technology. His writing's been carried by a number of highly respected publishers, including The Guardian, The Washington Post and Scientific American. You can follow him on twitter as @britesprite, where he's one of Mashable's top green tweeters and Fast Company's CSR thought leaders. Alternatively you can follow him to the shops... but that would be boring.

India Announces Its First Solar City (In Order To Protect Taj Mahal)

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taj mahal in india's first solar city

The Indian city of Agra, former capital of the Indian subcontinent and home of the Taj Mahal, is to become the country’s first solar city. The Indian government’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has approved plans to build 2,000 kWp of capacity in the city, around 10% of it’s current consumption, which will come from a variety of sources. These include over 1.5 million gallons of heated water per day, 6400 solar street lights, … Read More

“Crazy” Legal Action Threatens Green Deal Scheme

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Green Deal housing scheme

The UK’s groundbreaking £600 million Green Deal scheme is under threat after the European Union confirmed it would mount a legal action against it. However, the decision to challenge the Green Deal scheme in the courts has been branded as “crazy,” with politicians and business leaders from across the EU condemning the decision. At the heart of the dispute is the UK’s long-standing commitment to charging a reduced rate of sales tax on energy-efficient materials … Read More

PV Grid Integration Database Exposes Implementation Shortfalls

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Residential Commercial PV Grid Integration

A major update to the PV grid integration database has taken place, shedding light on the relative ability of differing European countries to integrate PV into their electricity distribution grids. The database allows installers and developers to drill down into the obstacles which impede different countries’ progress in delivering PV grid integration, such as legal and administrative requirements. For example, it can take four times as long to get residential and commercial systems online in … Read More

The Hotel Which Floats On Sand

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lotus hotel in the sand

Hidden away in the Gobi Desert is “the bay of sand”, Xiangshawan.  It’s a popular tourist destination for China’s newly rich adrenaline junkies, with huge dunes making it is a perfect playground for driving Jeeps and quad bikes at reckless speeds. However it’s also 500 miles from Beijing and has relentlessly shifting sands. To make life even more challenging the average temperature shifts from 85°F in the summer to 2°F in the winter (sand dunes in the … Read More

Hydrogen Fuel Network In London Expands

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Hydrogen refuelling network in London

A fully integrated hydrogen fuel network in London has moved a step closer with the announcement of new fuel stations and the roll-out of the 700 bar delivery system required by manufacturers to existing stations. … Read More

Phenomenal Eco-Island Designed As Home To 300,000 People

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Eco island HavvAda

  It’s one of the world’s greatest dreams, which must have entered the mind of any child old enough to wield a bucket and spade. Just what would you do with two billion tons of sand and a free hand? Renowned New York designer Dror Benshetrit knows what he’d do. He’d build HavvAda, one of the most forward thinking eco-islands in the world, which challenges many of the established principles of high-density living and brings … Read More

(Updated, Live Blogging) BP Admits Criminal Liability Over Deepwater Horizon, To Pay $4.5 Billion; 2 BP Employees Face Manslaughter Charges

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800px-Deepwater_Horizon_offshore_drilling_unit_on_fire_2010 trim

  Update 4:22pm EST: The two highest-ranking Deepwater Horizon BP supervisors at the time of the disaster have now been charged with 23 criminal counts including manslaughter. “The company said it would plead guilty to 11 felony counts related to the workers’ deaths, a felony related to obstruction of Congress and two misdemeanors.” (Reuters) Update 4:20pm EST: Reuters reports: “U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called the deal a ‘critical step forward’ but was adamant that … Read More

Nuclear Waste Storage Facilities “Intolerable”

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Sellafield site including nuclear waste facilities

  Nuclear waste stored in run-down facilities poses an “intolerable risk;” long-term planning has faced “historic neglect” and decommissioning costs have spiralled out of control. That’s the damning conclusion of a report by the National Audit Office into the Sellafield nuclear power station, the largest and oldest in the UK. Nearly 20 million gallons of nuclear waste are stored on the site in ponds and silos for the 50-year period needed for nuclear waste to cool down. … Read More

Onshore Wind Farms: A Theoretical, Middle Class, Left Wing Article Of Faith

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Scout Moor Lancashire Wind Turbine tweak

  Controversy has erupted in the UK after one the Government’s energy secretaries slammed onshore wind farms as “a bourgeois Left article of faith based on some academic perspective.” He went on to say the countryside was “peppered” with wind farms and that “enough is enough.” John Hayes made the comments to two conservative newspapers moments after addressing the Renewables UK 2013 Conference, during which he praised the country’s mix of renewable energy and said … Read More