Clean energy investment in the second quarter of 2017 reached $64.8 billion, boosted by two massive solar parks in the United Arab Emirates according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, an encouraging 21% increase on the first quarter of this year, but still down 12% compared to a year ago.
Anne-Sophie Garrigou, journalist at The Beam, met with Akinwumi Adesina. Together, they talked about the challenges of the off-grid sector in Africa and the development of renewable energy, as well as the impact of Trump’s political decision (cutting financial international aid) on the continent.
New data has confirmed the effects of a second rooftop solar boom taking place around Australia – driven by falling technology costs and increasingly volatile electricity prices – with nearly one quarter of all Australian households found to have invested in solar panels.
The South American country of Paraguay will soon take its first step towards implementation of renewable energy technologies and, in process, will join other major economies on the continent in moving towards large-scale adoption of clean energy.
July 4th is Independence Day in the United States, and as with similar holidays in countless countries around the world, it is the perfect occasion to reflect on what it means to be independent. One key aspect of independence today is intimately tied into energy. How many countries around the world have found themselves economically enslaved to the energy economics inherited from past generations?
The US is the largest consumer of oil on the planet by a long margin, consuming more oil than any other country, regardless of population. While the US is also the largest “producer” of oil, it does not produce enough oil to satiate its seemingly endless thirst for it.
Swedish power company and world-leading wind energy developer Vattenfall has announced that it is expanding its renewable energy operations, and will for the first time move into the solar PV + storage market.
Germany reached a new renewable energy record in the first half of this year, generating 35.1% of its electricity from renewable energy sources, according to the country’s trade body, the German Renewable Energy Federation.
Solar electricity production + blockchain = currency based on sunshine
If the US Government and its International Trade Commission rules in favor of a recent trade dispute filed by Chinese-backed US solar PV manufacturer Suniva, then the country’s solar industry would be immediately devastated, and could see two-thirds of expected installations over the next five years erased.
Previous surveys — including our initial EV driver survey — have found a strong link between driving electric cars and having home solar panels. Yet again, in our 2017 EV driver report, a very large portion of our respondents had home solar panels, which means that they are essentially “fueling” their electric cars with sunshine.
