[social_buttons] The newest eurostat report on energy production and usage in Europe shows that renewable energy production increased 8.3% and coal consumption dropped 16.3% last year. In total, renewable energy accounted for 18.4% of energy production and coal accounted for 9.6%. As I reported earlier this year, the European Union … [continued]
You have to get up pretty early in the morning to beat dawn’s early light in Finland’s summer. About 1.30 AM during the week I was there. But all winter the only light you see is electric. Perhaps that is why the green tech sector in Finland is so focused … [continued]
It’s official. The EU trading system got carbon emissions down. It’s one thing when renewable energy writers on blogs like this say cap and trade has transformed Europe. [social_buttons] We regularly cover the huge wind and solar industries created there – the results of Europe’s early adoption of the Kyoto … [continued]
his month Europe’s first electricity super-grid dedicated to renewable energy will become a political reality, as part of Europe’s plan to meet its target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 20% below 1990 levels by 2020.
Moving on from the problems encountered in the Northern California wave energy tests off Mendocino and Humboldt Counties; PG&E has just filed a new preliminary permit application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for another three-year study of a potential wave power site.
This time the proposed site is off the coast of Santa Barbara County at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Like every Federal Agency, the Air Force is now under Executive Order to cut transport carbon emissions 30% and to power buildings with renewable energy, possibly making this location more amenable to tests of a renewable energy source that has that potential.
The simplest ideas are best at harnessing underwater wave energy. You don’t want lots of parts in the harsh marine environment (for machine parts) under the ocean. Here’s an idea from a diver from Finland who was almost hit in the head by a shipwreck door that inspired this invention: … [continued]
Somewhere in the U.S. there is a justice of the peace who still refuses to perform inter-racial marriages, but Principle Power, Inc. has no such backward looking qualms when it comes marrying two different forms of sustainable energy. Last week the company won a $750,000 development grant from the U.S. … [continued]
Solar Energy. Wind Energy. Now, Wave Energy. Reminds me of Captain Planet. A Finnish company, AW-Energy, recently signed a $4.4 million (€3 million) contract with the European Union (EU) to implement WaveRoller (wave energy) technology in Portuguese waters. This looks interesting. The location for the project is near a town … [continued]
The Seattle-based company Hydrovolts, Inc. has discovered an economical way to tap waterways for hydroelectricity. Rather than damming mighty rivers or installing turbines in unpredictable oceans, Hydrovolts has aimed its sights on a much smaller target: placid canals and other managed-flow water courses. Even at low flows, a predictable and … [continued]
[social_buttons] Is the world ready for another ambitious ocean power program? Blue Energy Canada Inc. and World Energy Research are moving quickly in that direction. After signing a memorandum of understanding last month, the two companies just announced a formal agreement to build a 200 megawatt, half-billion dollar commercial tidal … [continued]
