According to a recent study carried out by Euroheat & Power (EHP), the international association of district heating and cooling, the value of energy wasted each year in the European Union amounts to a whopping 1.000 euros per citizen. This amounts to up to 500 billion euros per year, or 638 billion USD.
According to the French utility EDF, the French solar PV capacity reached in March 3,000 MW, with over 2,672 MW in mainland France and 339 MW in Corsica and overseas.
According to the data: the total capacity grew by 15 percent this semester in metropolitan France. An additional 1,581 MW are already installed but are waiting to be plugged to the grids.
Not all of this massive capacity may be linked to the grids as most of them have to be connected prior to June to benefit from the local feed-in tariffs. The industry is facing a darker future.
France has seen in recent years a spectacular rise of solar photovoltaic as the capacity grew from 40 MW in 2006 to 81 MW in 2008. Things accelerated afterwards as by the end of 2010 it reached 850 MW.
2011 was an impressive year for solar PV as Enerplan – the local French solar industrial organization – notes in its report. Local capacity in march 2011 was of 1,336 MW, in June it was of 1676 MW, in September 2232 MW.
At the end of the year it had reached 2643 MW. You read that right: the French solar capacity doubled in nine months.
In 2010 I noted in a previous article here that the 5,400 MW objective originally planned for 2020 could be reached in 2013. Given the impressive increase, this well could be the case. However the future for the industry is not that bright:
In 2011, half of the 25,000 jobs that had been created in this industry had been destroyed. The investment bubble created by the high feed in tariffs has boomed and busted as there have been several cuts in FIT since 2010.
What will François Hollande, the new President elected earlier this month, will do about it ? Will the industry be given a sustainable roadmap for the next five years?
We have seen time and again that the European Union should push for a more aggressive policy on climate and energy. It is highly feasible and we have seen that the current Danish presidency would be the perfect moment to do so.
Cities are facing many problems, including the lack of parking spaces and air pollution. Regular electric vehicles would solve the air pollution issue, but not the parking one.
This is probably why the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) worked on a folding electric car codenamed CityCar. The result is Hiriko (“urban” in Basque language), a folding electric car that will soon be built by a consortium of Spanish and Basque companies.
The vehicle was presented officially to the press and general public by the European Commission’s President, José Manuel Durao Barroso, which touted it as an answer to the crisis.
A two-seater, the car has a 120 kilometers (75 miles) autonomy and can go to up to 50 kmph (31 mph), which is the maximum speed in many, if not most European cities. The limited range, speed and space make it an urban city vehicle only.
The Hiriko is powered by four individual in-wheel electric motors that enable the car to spin in a 360 or park easily. Both driver and passenger enter and exit the vehicle by the front.
The folding capacities and the tiny size ( just 2.5 meters (8 feet) long unfolded, under 2 meters folded ) of the car enable to park three of them once they are folded in a regular parking space.
Driving might differ from your daily experience as the official website notes that:
” HIRIKO will be driven by means of a haptic steering wheel, without a steering bar, and it will be electronically managed. The joystick will be an option offered to those customers who demand it.”
Folding the car can be done by activating a command on the in-built screen of the steering wheel.
The cities of Berlin, Madrid, Malmö, Hong Kong, Quito and San Francisco will soon test these vehicles. The Huffington Post reports that talks are under way with Paris, London, Boston, Dubai and Brussels.
If all these tests are positive, you may see these cars in your city sometime in the not too distant future.
The European Environment Agency published a report on the cost and toll of air pollution due to industrial facilities to the European Union last November.
The costs are staggering as the 10,000 facilities induced up to 102 and 169 billion euros in 2009 alone.
However, only a small number of these plants are responsible for the vast majority of this pollution. The EEA notes:
Fifty per cent of the total damage cost occurs as a result of emissions from just 191 or 2 % of the approximately 10 000 facilities that reported data for releases to air.
Three quarters of the total damage costs are caused by the emissions of 622 facilities — 6 % of the total number.
This proves that solving the problem of industrial air pollution could be relatively easy.
The energy sector is the most polluting one as it is responsible for 66 to 112 billion euros of damages. Excluding carbon dioxide, the pollution still costs the 27 country members up to 26 to 71 billion euros.
Other sectors like production processes and manufacturing combustion are responsible for much less pollution, and thus much less induced: 23 to 28 billion euros and 8 to 21 billion euros respectively.
Meanwhile, the report notes that carbon dioxide contributes the most to the overall damage costs with approximately 63 billion euros in 2009. But this is not enough:
Air pollutants, which contribute to acid rain and can cause respiratory problems – sulphur dioxide (SO2), ammonia (NH3), particulate matter (PM10) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) – were found to cause €38-105 billion of damage a year.
The bottom line: the European Union needs to change the way it is producing electricity and to improve its few remaining plants to get much cleaner air.
One of my very first posts in 2010 was about what I called the triple crisis. As I noted back then “our economies are crumbling, our climate is warming and our energy supplies are getting scarcer.”
You would think that after two years, we would have started to do something about them. Well,
The more I delve into energy and climate issues, the more this seems completely evident: we should prefer energy efficiency and sobriety over renewables.
Making efficiency a priority – whereas renewables are the priority nowadays – will without a doubt benefit the consumer, the society as a whole and our
While I was visiting my family in the Region of Lorraine – North Eastern France – I came across two distinct news illustrating the possible future of the region, and in a way, of the whole country.
The first one is about dirty polluting fossil energy as to Elixir Petroleum, an Australian company, there would be massive quantities of shale oil and gas in Lorraine’s soil. To the volumetric estimates, there would be no less than 164.7 billion barrels of shale oil and 649.7 trillion cubic feet of shale gas. Large amounts of more traditional oil and gas has been found as well.
This announcement took place as France has been the first country to ban fracking. As the local newspapers note, this announcement is little credible and is merely done to keep the exploration permits as the law is changing.
The enormous quantities found reminded me that US geologist recently estimated there is FIVE times less shale oil and gas in the American soil as it was previously stated by companies. I have no doubt that the situation in Lorraine will be the same if not worse.
I agree that local populations could benefit from jobs as the worst economic crises of our time is striking. But the countryside and its various cultures and fruits is a wonder we have to keep. Whoever ate mirabelles knows what I am referring to.
Now let’s have a look at something that is already taking place, and which holds a better future: cleantech!
A former military air base near Toul (in the Département of Moselle) will be cleaned up and 400 hectares of solar panels will be installed. The total capacity will be of 143 MW, enough for 62,000 people.
This project is a direct consequence of the new legal background enacted by the French government earlier this summer. See my post for more : France Issues New Regulations for Large Solar PV Installations
A few green jobs will also be created: 150 for the construction and an additional 15 to maintain the plant.
The plant will bring 1.3 million euros per year in revenue to the Région, the Département and the three cities where the air force base is located.
EDF Energies Nouvelles (EDF EN), a subsidiary of the national utilities Electricité De France may work with First Solar, which could provide the solar panels for the plant.
The company plans to invest no less than 434 million euros in the next ten years for this plant alone.
Trees will be planted in the remaining parts of the old air base and a little museum dedicated to renewable energies will be created as local authorities are willing to transform this as a touristic attraction.
France is moving forward on cleantech. Of course, there has been setbacks, but we can globally be satisfied. Let us hope it will continue doing so whoever will be elected as President in the Presidential elections next year.
Photo: Julien Hillairet, Flickr
According to a new study by the Carbon Trust up to 240 GW of capacity of marine energy could be installed worldwide by 2050. Out of these, 75 percent could be coming from wave, and the remainder by tidal energy.
The total market for both wave and tidal energies
We all know it: energy – and resource efficiency is the panacea to all our energy and environmental woes. As I finished reading an excellent book on the very matter, I am sharing with you today the main findings.
Factor Five is the sequel of the 1997-book Factor
On Monday, the French Minister for Environment and Sustainable Development, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet (known here by her initials, NKM), presented new regulations for large solar installations. (above 100 kWp, or more than a thousand square meters).
According to the Minister quoted by the French daily Le Figaro, previous dispositions and feed-in tariffs were targeting volume and prices.
Still to NKM, the goal of these new regulations is not to run after Germany or China ( the two main producers of solar PV panels to date) but to prepare the next wave. This will be done by developing innovating technologies with bigger yields.
The main idea is to spur investments to create genuine Made-in-France panels and technologies.
To do so, from now on, large installations will be subject to calls for tenders.
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Between 1,000 and 2,500 square meters, conditions will be simplified and the main criteria will be price. The applicant proposing the cheapest electricity will be chosen by Electricité de France.
A first lot for 120 MWp should be published on August 1, after a positive opinion from the French energy regulator CRE.
Six additional lots for 30 MWp will be published each quarter. These volumes will last for two years and a half, in order to give visibility to investors (this was a major issue with previous attempts at creating a solar PV market in France)
It is worth noting that the first candidates will be selected before the presidential elections which will take place in May 2012.
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Larger installations (more than 2,500 square meters) will be chosen via price (accounting for 40 percent of the mark) but also industrial project as well as their contribution to Research and Development. Projects on industrial wastelands and old quarries will be favored over of agricultural lands.
(I personally believe we should put solar PV panels and installations on large factories and shopping centers. There is a lot of space there…)
Another novelty will be the need for improved recycling at the end of the life cycle of the projects.
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Let us hope these new projects will be successful as the previous attempts at creating an solar photovoltaic industry in France have been a resounding failure. Indeed, feed-in tariffs have been at some point very high, thus creating “a speculative bubble” as the Prime Minister once noted.
This situation however enabled the country to reach 973 MWp of capacity at the end of 2010, well before the 2012 deadline given by the Grenelle de l’Environnement laws.
PV professionals are skeptical. Indeed feed-in tarrifs and regulations have been changing roughly every six months since 2008. This situation led installing companies and consulting offices within the industry to close their doors.
In any case, we shall see whether these most ambitious objectives will be reached and whether sustainable jobs in the sector will be created. So stay tuned !
Photo credit : Flickr, knowprose
Last week the French government was the first to enact a law forbidding hydraulic fracturing, also known as “fracking”.
This technology enables to recover shale gas via the use of massive amounts of water and chemicals. The former remaining afterward polluted, hence the controversy.
The law had been discussed by both the lower and upper chambers since March before being finally enacted on June 30th by the Senate with 176 votes in favor and 151 against.
It is noteworthy that the senators who voted against the law believed it wasn’t going far enough. Indeed, as Scientific American notes, the vote doesn’t not ban other methods to recover shale gas.
As you can surely imagine, large energy companies like the French oil giant Total are “deploring” this. Indeed, as the website Natural Gas for Europe notes :
” French shale oil and gas fields are potentially some of the most promising in Europe but remain “largely” unknown due to a lack of exploration, and the potential commercial viability of the fields is also unknown because of a lack of tests. “
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Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, New Jersey took a similar decision. The vote there was massively against as the Senate voted 33 against and only one for.
This occurs as the State of New York in the United States is preparing to lift a moratorium on the same method.
To conclude, I would like to give my personal opinion as I believe all countries should follow the lead.
Indeed, finding more oil and gas is only pursuing the headlong rush, and postponing the inevitable. We need to get out of oil, gas and coal, not finding more sources. Fossil fuels are already massively polluting, finding new ways to extract them will be even more polluting. It is high time we work on energy efficiency and low carbon energy sources…
Image credit : Flickr, animoore
You may surely know it by now : Germany decided to phase out completely all its nuclear power plants by 2022. This is done for political reasons as the local Greens are gaining power.
Some people are cheering as they believe this is great news for the environment. I, however, believe this is utterly wrong for the reasons I will outline in today’s article.
Today’s major environmental problem is climate change (or global weirding if you prefer).
You might believe that given the importance of the Greens in Deutschland, electricity emits little carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases per kWh. This clearly isn’t the case as I have previously wrote about it in a previous article for my own blog.
According to the book Sustainable Energy – without hot air, a French kWh is responsible for around 80 grams of CO2 equivalent ; A US one, 613 grams and a German one, 601 grams.
As you can see, German electricity is around eight times dirtier than the French one. The reasons for such a fact is simple : one country chose nuclear over coal. (to be honest and fair, France didn’t have coal anymore, as contrary to Germany…)
I am not saying that Germany should push for more nuclear. This isn’t my argument…
The Germans are, to my humble point of view, taking the problem by the wrong end: They shouldn’t be thinking about phasing out nuclear as soon as possible, but to phase out coal, which still accounts for 40 percent of local electricity production.
Renewables are witnessing an exponential growth there, and these are great news. But replacing nuclear by solar and wind won’t cut emissions. On the other hand, replacing coal by those same energy sources would literally benefit everybody.
It is widely admitted that coal is by very far the dirtiest energy source. Indeed, The Economist dubbed it as early as 2002 ” the Environmental Enemy Number One “.
Nuclear might be a problem as safety rules and regulations aren’t as tight and as enforced as they should be. Its waste might still be a problem for a few decades (endeavors towards recycling it are progressing), but coal is a much bigger problem.
Did you know that it takes a ton of coal to produce as much electricity as a gram of Uranium ?
Germany is a model for all governments for their support to renewable energy sources. But what always puzzled me is their hate of nuclear.
Sure, it isn’t exactly the perfect solution as the recent catastrophe of Fukushima in Japan have shown. But as I stated on my blog: “ Nuclear isn’t the solution, but there is no solution without nuclear.”
As you might have understood, and to infer this post, I don’t see any antagonism between renewables and nuclear. As a matter of fact, I see an important complementarity between the two.
I look forward to reading your opinion.
Some interesting news recently went unnoticed. Indeed, last month, Russia unveiled a massive energy efficiency plan as the country wastes as much energy as the French economy consumes.
Soviet-era buildings and factories completely lack energy efficiency as they were built as cheaply as possible to answer the demands of the government at that time.
But this might soon change. The Moscow Times