When Garrett Hardin wrote his famous essay The Tragedy of the Commons in 1968, he used the example of herdsman grazing their animals in a common pasture to exemplify the “tragedy” that results when multiple actors, acting independently and “rationally” (in the economic self-interest sense), will deplete a shared finite resource, even when it is in no one’s long-term
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Renewable Energy
Recently I had the chance to tour the Island of Alcatraz, once the site of one of America’s most famous prisons. The prison was closed in 1963 due to the high cost of maintenance in such a remote location, but it remains a top tourist destination.
My justification for this junket was an invitation from
ACORE, which stands for the American Council on Renewable Energy, was established in 2001 and is a non-profit organization in the United States that remains solely focused on increasing the speed of adoption for renewable energy technologies into the American mainstream society. ACORE, which is based in Washington DC, offers a platform for a large variety
With passage of California’s 33% renewable energy law (RPS) in 2011, the state’s publicly owned utilities were obligated to meet the same renewable requirements at the major investor-owned utilities (PG&E, SCE and SDG&E) for the first time. That’s no small step forward for renewables in the state! Together the state’s 10 largest publicly owned utilities deliver
I had the pleasure to interview the president of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) for my next book project (“Renewable Energy – Following the Money”) recently. Dennis McGinn (pictured here, second from left) is a retired rear admiral from the US Navy, and an incredibly articulate spokesperson for our industry. Though I found our talk quite interesting
An airport may not seem like the most obvious platform to deploy sweeping smart energy upgrades. Globally, airports represent only a fraction of the building infrastructure worldwide – accounting for around 1 percent of commercial square footage globally, according to Pike Research’s Global Building Stock Database report.
Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) and Lockheed Martin have announced they will team to develop a 19-megawatt (MW) wave energy project off the coast of Victoria, Australia. When complete, the project will be one of the largest wave energy generation projects in the world.
Ecofys is Dutch renewable energy and climate policy consultancy that has developed a Wave Rotor tidal energy device.
IHC Merwede, a Dutch company that focuses on design and construction solutions for the maritime sector, recently acquired the Wave Rotor technology.
The Wave Rotor technology enables IHC Merwede to
Malaysia is a country located in Southeast Asia and shares land borders with Brunei, Thailand, and Indonesia, as well as maritime borders with the Philippines, Vietnam, and Singapore. It is located in the tropics region and is considered a “megadiverse country” because of the large number of endemic fauna and flora. Because of its heavy biodiversity along with a
Given the big failure of the Rio+20 conference, it is clear that a top down approach by national governments around the world alone won’t cut our emissions enough to avoid a rise of temperatures below 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels.
Based on this, our civilization has to find a solution,
The vast majority of our scientists tell us that climate change is already manifest, evidenced by the startling increase in extreme weather events, the melting of the glaciers, the measurable rises in the sea levels, etc.
The pH of the oceans is falling, potable water is becoming scarcer, food shortages are becoming
According to the European statistical office Eurostat, the share of renewable energy sources in the gross final energy consumption in the 27 countries of the EuroPean Union has increased to 12.4 percent in 2010, compared to 11.7 percent in 2009.
Even if the European Union is due to have 20 percent of its total energy consumption coming from renewable energies by 2020, there are many dissimilarities among countries and their respective goals.
Indeed, while countries like Sweden, Latvia or Finland have 47.9%, 32.6% and 32.2% of their total energy consumption coming from renewables (respectively), other countries like the Netherlands, the United Kingdom or Luxembourg see their share of renewables below four percent (with 3.8 %, 3.2 % and 2.8 % respectively).
It is interesting to note that between 2006 and 2010 all countries have seen their share of solar, wind, and so on increase.
The largest increases were recorded in Estonia (from 16.1% to 24.3%), Romania (from 17.1% to 23.4%), Denmark (from 16.5% to 22.2%), Sweden (from 42.7% to 47.9%) and Spain (from 9.0% to 13.8%).
Earlier this month I was stating here that some EU countries could pay back their debts with renewables. Such a simple plan could literally add gigawatts of capacity to the grids of Greece, Spain, Ireland and Portugal.
The other benefit of this would that the European Union could achieve its not-so-ambitious goals more easily. Indeed, a continuation of this slow trend wouldn’t allow the EU to reach a share of a fifth of renewables by 2020…
Deutsche Bank, which translates to German Bank, is an international banking and financial services company. Headquarters are located in Frankfurt, Germany and the bank has a very large presence throughout Europe, North America, South America, Asia Pacific, as well as a number of emerging markets, in a number of major financial centers, including New York, Paris,
California took a major step toward solar access for all yesterday when the Community Shared Solar Bill passed the critical Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee with an 10-2 vote. SB 843 now advances to the Assembly Appropriations Committee. Help it across the finish line by sending an email of support to your Assembly Member!