Since the 1970s, France’s commitment to nuclear energy has been axiomatic and based on a societal consensus that it provides energy independence as well as a source of energy which is both clean and green. The green component of the argument rests on the assertion – taught to all engineering students as gospel – that [...]
Archive for the ‘renewable energy’ Category
Documentary explodes myth of nuclear energy as clean and green
Posted in climate change, recycling, renewable energy, waste disposal on October 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
What’s left of the Grenelle?
Posted in Grenelle, biodiversity, climate change, health, policy, renewable energy, transport on December 18, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Eighteen months after the Grenelle de l’Environnement, it’s worth taking a look at what’s left of the promises made by President Sarkozy and Jean-Louis Borloo in October 2007. At the time, the meeting was welcomed as innovative and participatory because it brought NGOs into the decision-making process.
Since then those same NGOs have been criticized for [...]
Geothermal electricity project in France gets underway
Posted in renewable energy on July 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
France inaugurated an ambitious pilot project last month to produce electricity at a commercial scale using geothermal energy in Soultz-sous-Forets in Alsace.
The project – a Franco-German joint venture – is the world’s most advanced project of its type for the mass production of geothermal energy. If successful, it will be followed by an industrial prototype of 20 [...]
Summer reading list
Posted in biodiversity, climate change, food, media, renewable energy on July 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Bastille Day signals the start of summer in France, and, as if by magic, the weather has gone from grey and chilly to picture perfect for the national holiday. Here’s my list of books to read for the summer. What’s on yours?
“Une mer sans poissons” by Philippe Cury and Yves Miserey
“Resilience Thinking” by Brian Walker [...]
Thoughts on the R-word
Posted in climate change, renewable energy, water on June 19, 2008 | 3 Comments »
R is for rationing – a dirty word that everyone is avoiding, but which looms nonetheless as the unspoken sub-text of all public discourse on the current scarcity of resources – food, fossil fuels and water. It’s also referred to as demand management, if you like institutional gobbledygook.
Growing up in Hong Kong, I remember water [...]
New study shows greenhouse gas breakdown of Paris
Posted in climate change, renewable energy on June 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Apur, the City Planning Agency of Paris, has released a detailed study of greenhouse gas emissions in Paris based on different heating systems used in the residences and buildings across the French capital.
The two-year study looked at the Parisian housing stock (96,000 buildings) and established a diagnosis of energy performance and greenhouse gas emissions caused by [...]
Paris studies big geothermal heating project for Aubervilliers
Posted in renewable energy on May 16, 2008 | 1 Comment »
A feasibility study is currently underway in Paris to provide geothermal heating for 20,000 apartments and offices in the new Canal-Aubervilliers district currently under development in the northeast of Paris. The Compagnie parisienne de chauffage urbain (CPCU), which manages hundreds of public buildings, hopes to capitalize on the very hot water (70 degrees C) which lies [...]
Update on the Grenelle
Posted in Grenelle, agriculture, biodiversity, renewable energy, transport on May 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Six months after the Grenelle de l’Environnement, its conclusions have finally been translated into a legislative bill which was unveiled in parliament on April 30. The text has been welcomed by NGOs as a more or less faithful rendition of the spirit and the letter of the Grenelle but there is concern about how to [...]
Growing greenhouse tomatoes with byproducts from oil drilling
Posted in agriculture, food, recycling, renewable energy on March 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Tomato growers in a seaside town in the southwestern deparment of the Landes have signed an agreement with Canadian oil company Vermilion to mass produce tomatoes in greenhouses heated using byproducts from oil drilling at Parentis-en-Born
The deal envisages building 17 hectares of greenhouses by 2012 which will provide the capacity to produce 30 to 85 million tons [...]
