Countries in the European Union in 2020 produced more energy using renewable sources than using traditional fossil fuels, according to an annual report from Ember and Agora Energiewende. These two organizations started tracking the EU power sector in 2015, finding year-on-year gains from the start: renewables accounted for 38% of electricity delivered in 2020, while […]
The industrial production of materials such as cement and steel is a significant contributor to carbon dioxide emissions, or so claims the International Energy Agency. Cement, for example, accounts for 7% of such emissions globally. Reducing the sector’s emissions would go a long way towards fighting climate change. Industries can avoid such emissions Heliogen is […]
One goal, two pioneers, three remarkable world tours between them: the first in a balloon, the second in Solar Impulse, the renowned solar-powered aircraft, and the third, less widely known, in a solar boat called PlanetSolar. Less famous than Bertrand Piccard who accomplished the first two global tours, Swiss solar navigator and aviator Raphaël Domjan nevertheless has […]
Most people have heard of Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg and their solar-powered airplane, Solar Impulse 2. They flew 40,000 km (around 24,850 miles) around the world to promote clean technologies. But another explorer is on a mission to sail from the Pacific to the Atlantic in a solar-powered electric boat. Her name is Anne […]
Did you know it’s possible to grow plants in sand and gravel with nutrients but without soil? It’s called hydroponics, and it is one of the many important projects happening in Azraq refugee camp, located in Jordan on hot desert terrain, where over 53,000 displaced people of the Syrian civil war are sheltered. With funding from the World Food Programme, the […]
“It’s a new era. It’s not science fiction. It’s today,” Bertrand Piccard told CNN from California after his successful trip from Hawaii in Solar Impulse, the solar plane. “It exists and clean technologies can do the impossible.” Travelling at about the same speed as a car, the Hawaii-California leg in the aircraft took just over 62 […]
Solar Impulse has taken off again. After 10 months on the ground in Hawaii due to battery problems, the solar plane took off on April 21st to resume its long journey over the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco. It has two new batteries and a new cooling system. The flight will take three days and nights. The plane […]
He’s an “Inspioneer”. “A what?” you ask. A pioneer who inspires. That’s what Bertrand Piccard is. His Solar Impulse, a long-range experimental solar-powered aircraft project, is meant to inspire us, to show us impossible things can be done with clean technologies. Bertrand Piccard likes to affirm: “Change is possible right now. We can halve the world’s […]
Solar cookers aren’t new. But according to National Geographic, these devices, which use only the energy of direct sunlight to heat, cook or pasteurize food or drink, are making “a big difference in impoverished communities”. In the developing world they are a lifesaver. Solar cooking uses no electricity, gas, charcoal or wood. Only the sunshine […]
Solar Impulse, the Swiss solar-powered aircraft, has set a new record. Pilot André Borschberg achieved the longest non-stop solo flight of 5 days and nights as part of Solar Impulse’s enterprising journey around the world. The plane took off from Nagoya, Japan, and landed in Kalaeloa, Hawaii, earlier this month. Without one drop of fuel! The […]
