By Simon Leufstedt on March 24th, 2009
New research from the Helsinki University of Technology’s Advanced Energy Systems in Espoo, Finland, shows that with the help from global cooperation and investment renewable energy will “exceed all previous estimates.”
According to the new findings renewable energy technologies like wind and photovoltaics could supply 40% of the world’s electricity by 2050. But this could only become a reality if the renewable technology is backed up by adequate financial and political support. If not, the renewable share is likely to hover somewhere below 15 percent.
“Our findings demonstrate that with global political support and financial investment, previous notions that the potential for renewables was in some way limited to a negligible fraction of world demand were wrong,” Peter Lund from the Helsinki University of Technology’s Advanced Energy Systems said. “If we prioritize and recognize the value of renewable energy technologies, their potential to supply us with the energy we need is tremendous.”
Previous projections have put the renewable share at only 12% by 2030.
Also read: 10% of U.S. Energy Now Comes From Renewable Energy Sources
By Simon Leufstedt on August 7th, 2008
The image shows the sun shining through the clouds on the Sahara desert in Morocco. Photo by:
GETA.80.
The French President Nicolas Sarkozy earlier this summer launched, with the support of EU, a new Mediterranean union with the aim to “tackle issues such as regional unrest, immigration to pollution.”
The new international body will include 16 non-EU states from around the Mediterranean and all 27 EU member states. The union will focus on dealing with energy, security, counter-terrorism, immigration and trade. The union will include 756 million people from Western Europe to the Jordanian desert.
Some say that the Union was launched mainly because Nicolas Sarkozy wanted to “exchange” nuclear power expertise with North African gas reserves. Nicolas Sarkozy on the other hand says the union is supposed “to ensure the region’s people could love each other instead of making war.”
But some people are more positive and hope the union is the first steps towards large scale solar plants in northern Africa with focus of generating green and renewable electricity to Europe.
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By Simon Leufstedt on July 18th, 2008
Just in time for Al Gore’s major renewable energy challenge Florida’s Public Service Commission has “unanimously and enthusiastically” approved plans to build USA’s largest commercial solar-power plant (so far, we hope). Two other facilities also got the green light by the committee and are due to go online around 2009.
SunPower has been chosen to construct the three solar plants in the state of Florida. Howard Wenger, senior vice president, global business units for SunPower, said that “these agreements confirm the growing trend in the U.S. to build solar power plants at a scale rivaling those in market-leading countries such as Germany and Spain.”
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