Tag Archives: global
The Future of the Global Renewables Industry
How much renewable energy will the world consume in the coming decades? That depends on who you ask. If you’re an oil company with a stake in the continued use of fossil fuels, you’ll probably downplay the penetration of renewables. If you’re an international organization with a conservative reputation, you’ll probably see moderate growth. And [...]
Snowstorm Nemo and Climate Change
Those living in the Northeast of the United States are well aware that Snowstorm Nemo (What’s with all these silly names?!) is looming and after the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, everyone is scrambling to make sure they are prepared for the worst. Extreme weather always opens the door for a candid conversation on whether our weather [...]
Global Cleantech Venture Capital Investment Drops 33%
Yesterday I spent an hour taking in a terrific webinar from the Cleantech Group, conducted by what I’m sure must have been one of its most senior consultants, Sheeraz Haji, who ably walked us through some of the 2012 numbers associated with global cleantech venture investment. As it happens, these figures were down about 33% [...]
Interview: Rick Rule Discusses U.S Energy Independence
The Energy Report: Earlier this week, the International Energy Agency forecast the U.S. would become the world’s largest oil producer and an exporter of natural gas by 2020, and would attain energy self-sufficiency by 2035. Do you agree, and what would that mean? Rick Rule: We stand a very good chance of accomplishing the first [...]
Panasonic’s “Eco Ideas” Factory Opens in Vietnam
Panasonic has opened its fifth “eco ideas” factory in the Asia Pacific region – the company’s latest initiative to showcase best practices in sustainable manufacturing. The new Panasonic Vietnam Group facility, located at the Thang Long Industrial Park, sets benchmarks – or eco ideas – for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reductions, waste management and recycling, [...]
Electric Cars vs. Fuel Cell Cars
While some car manufacturers are placing their bets on electric cars, Toyota has decided to continue its focus on hybrids, and will introduce 21 updated or full model change hybrids in the next three years. It expects to sell a million hybrids each year through 2015. This year, the Prius family became the third top sellling cars in [...]
In Focus: Dupont’s Solar Quality Standards
Solar installations were removed from twenty-four San Diego Unified School District campuses after corrosion was discovered that threatened the possibility of electrical issues that could lead to fires. The 4.3-megawatt installation was built in 2005-06 by Solar Integrated Technologies (SIT). SIT was acquired by Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) (PINK:ENERQ) in 2009. ECD’s Uni-Solar manufactured the [...]
In Focus: Off-Grid Renewable Energy
At the beginning of August 2012, the world’s biggest power outage hit India leaving 600 million people without electricity. India’s burgeoning electrical grid failed to meet the extreme demands of its growing economy. They simply did not have enough capacity to meet the high demand of electricity in cities. The power outage threw the urban [...]
In Focus: Global Energy Consumption
I vaguely recall reading on the train one day that global energy consumption has shot up by a big percentage in the last few years. The enormous figures were hard to take in if I am being honest but it certainly seemed as though we were burning our way through a huge and ever increasing [...]