The winning projects of a global competition for innovative carbon-free and resilient urban projects were announced in Oslo and sent to us by C40 CITIES. Have a look.
Carbon dioxide emissions stemming from fossil fuel use in the European Union rose by around 1.8% in 2017 as compared to 2016, according to the most recent estimates from Eurostat. Despite fossil fuel derived carbon dioxide emissions as a whole rising in the European Union during 2017, the split across countries was by no means
The Spanish authorities are mulling a new 3 gigawatt (3,000 megawatt) renewable energy auction in the country, according to recent reports. Until an actual government is formed in the country, though, nothing is certain. For those who don’t follow Spanish politics much: following the 2015 general election, there was a failure to form a government, as
The financially troubled international renewable energy pioneer Abengoa, which filed for bankruptcy protection last November, has been granted bankruptcy protection under Chapter 15. This protection has been provided, in spite of the objections of a group of insurance companies claiming the Spanish renewables company’s talks to restructure billions in debt was unfair to US creditors.
Originally published on Sustainnovate. The Spanish utility company Endesa purchased 410 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of solar electricity during a recent solar energy auction for Portugal and Spain, according to recent reports. The solar auction in question ended with a price of €39.6/MWh/megawatt-hour ($43.82). The aforementioned 410 GWh of solar electricity equates to roughly 681 megawatts (MW)
Originally published on CleanTechnica Spain’s solar association Union Espanola Fotovoltaica (UNEF) reports a majority of members in the Spanish parliament have signed an agreement removing a controversial Royal Decree against self-consumption of solar energy, also known as the ‘sun tax.’ The agreement has been made within 100 days of a new government being formed. Although
Among various solar energy technologies, one is referred to as concentrated solar power, or concentrating solar power. The acronym CSP applies to either. Worldwide CSP systems generate solar power by using mirrors or lenses to concentrate a large area of sunlight, or solar thermal energy, onto a small area. The concentrated heat is used to eventually spin a
In a great show of unified civil disapproval of Spain’s recently proposed “solar tax” law, over 188,000 citizens have signed an online petition against it in less than one week. Penalizing grid-connected solar installations of up to 15kW using battery storage systems, Spain’s new solar tax would be from €8.9 (US$10) per kilowatt for residential
Storing solar energy in a battery in Spain is more criminal than spilling radioactive waste. That’s the implied message written between the lines of a recently drafted law poised for fast-track approval by the government of Spain. Proposed fines for residential and SME use of solar energy self-consumption will be as high as €60 million
This year, we have seen the largest-ever outpouring of reporting and planning for inevitable climate change in the Anthropocene. One of the latest studies, REthinking Energy, draws on worldwide research and financial analysis to form some conclusions about changing our mix of energy, one of the major drivers of the phenomenon, as earth’s population continues to
Originally published on Solar Love. Generally speaking, I don’t think solar-powered cars are very practical. They are fun and do highlight how far we’ve come. They may help to advance certain electric car technologies and designs. However, except for certain niche situations (like a hospital car for rural Zimbabwe), they have serious limitations. For one,
Originally published on Solar Love. We’re in the midst of a massive cleantech revolution. Solar power is beginning to disrupt the hell out of the power industry. Electric vehicles are on the verge of putting gasmobiles to sleep. Wind power is already one of the cheapest options for new electricity generation in the world — if not the cheapest. The movement
We’re trying to get more solar energy stories going here on Planetsave. To catch readers up, I’m doing a short series on the top 50 solar energy stories of 2013 so far. Learning from the Top 33 EV Stories article I recently published, I’m splitting this one into 5 posts. Otherwise, the page would take forever to load.
In the great quest to uncover the secrets to the origin of life on Earth — a discipline referred to as biogenesis theory — there remains a profound (unanswered) question: how do “living” molecules arise from non-living ones? For, to answer such a question means making a distinction between different states of molecular organization.
Howard Steven Friedman is a statistician and health economist for the United Nations and an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. He also has a new book out called The Measure of a Nation: How to Regain America’s Competitive Edge and Boost Our Global Standing, which is sure to provoke
Using solar energy has numerous advantages, and that’s why many countries have decided to use more renewable energy rather than rely on other forms of energy that are running out. Not only is solar energy much cheaper but it’s not as harmful to the environment since it doesn’t produce pollution like other forms of
Some top green news from around from the past day or so: Global Warming Heartland associate taught ‘biased’ climate course at Ottawa university An associate of the Heartland Institute, the thinktank devoted to discrediting climate change, taught a course at a top Canadian university that contained more than 140 false, biased and misleading claims about
Ah, to Cooperate or Defect? It’s known as ‘The Prisoner’s Dilemma’ and is a type of cooperation-strategy game well-known amongst Game Theorists and Computational Scientists. In the game, players mutually benefit from cooperating (“collaborating”) with each other (they each earn modest financial reward). But greater benefit can be gained, by one player, by ‘defecting’ from
Forest fires are becoming larger and are happening more frequently as a direct result of rural depopulation, rather than being a direct result of climate change. The research – conducted by scientists from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) in Spain, and published in the journal Climate Change – looked at over a 130 years
Captured on the 8th of September by the European Space Agency’s Envisat Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) are the Canary Islands, at the bottom of this image, off the west coast of Africa.
Soooo ridiculous. Will Potter, THE expert on animal and environmental activists being inappropriately treated as terrorists had a breaking story yesterday on 12 animal rights and environmental activists who have been arrested in Spain and labelled “eco-terrorists.” It seems to have gone viral (gotten extremely popular), and for good reason.
Delonix regia is an awesome tree that look like it’s burning. In Spanish it’s called “Flamboyán” — that seems to really fit it. Flamboyan is a breathtaking tree worth looking at for hours! There’s nothing what will explain the beauty of that tree to you — just look at it!
This post is part of our participation in Blog Action Day 2010, which is on the topic of Water. As R. Buckminster Fuller reminded us, we are all traveling aboard “spaceship Earth”…all 6+ billion of us. What makes our spaceship so unique (as far as we know), and vital, is the presence of a great deal
The romantic imagery painted of Spanish bullfighting in Ernest Hemingway’s famous book The Sun Also Rises might soon be the stuff of history. Spain is edging ever closer to banning the sport. [social_buttons]Thanks to a petition with 180,000 signatures, the regional government of Spain’s northeastern Catalonia area will soon debate banning the sport tied so
Spanish animal rights group EquAnimal takes the prize for the most epic protest for the International Day of Action Against the Canadian Seal Hunt with about 100 activists stripping nude for the cause. The sprawling mass of nude painted-red bodies seemed to cause quite a stir in Madrid yesterday. While the effectiveness of nude
Sixty Greenpeace activists in Spain covered the controversial Hotel Algarrobico with 190,000 square-feet of green fabric in an attempt to “rub out” the partially-built structure. [social_buttons] Greenpeace has won multiple court victories against the developer of the hotel, leaving it unofficially condemned since 2006. It was originally targeted because of its protected location along the
