Renewable Energy

Occupy sustainability: the 1% is blocking the transition to a renewable energy economy

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A sustainable world that works for the 99% is possible, if we can respond to climate change, economic injustice and resource depletion at the same time. The transition to a renewable energy economy can be a valuable frame for that discussion. Just as the financial elites brought about the economic crisis, they are blocking the renewable energy transition to reap more profit from their fossil fuel investments. Because of fuel depletion as well as climate change, further delay may prevent a successful transition. Social justice and sustainability advocates can blow the whistle on the 1% for this issue too, and collaborate to speed up the transition locally.

Commentary: Energy Differentiation

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Many people fail to properly differentiate between energy forms and related energy systems. One result is that they can be misled regarding solutions to such concerns as “the energy crisis,” “energy security,” or “dependence on foreign oil.” This not only leads to unrealistic thinking but poor public policy. Consider three major energy forms and their differentiation.

Co-operative renewable energy in the UK: a guide to this growing sector (report)

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Co-operatively-owned energy generation is a vibrant and growing sector in the UK. The first co‑operatively-owned wind turbines, Baywind in Cumbria, started turning in 1997. Since then, over 7,000 individual investors have ploughed over £16 million into community-owned renewable energy. This report summarises insights gained from visits to five co-operatively owned energy projects during the summer of 2011.

 

Solar power off the grid: Energy access for world’s poor

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More than a billion people worldwide lack access to electricity. The best way to bring it to them — while reducing greenhouse gas emissions — is to launch a global initiative to provide solar panels and other forms of distributed renewable power to poor villages and neighborhoods.

In with the new: part III of “As economic growth fails, how do we live?”

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In this third and final article in this series, we will discuss seven new ways of living which we can adopt as economic growth fails. They are not revolutionary (revolutions never achieve their utopian visions because of something called “human nature”). Rather, they may allow us to “muddle through” the best we can right now with what we already know how to do. We will do these things because they will work — and we certainly need to stop doing things that don’t work, and find new ways that will work.

As economic growth fails, how do we live? Part II: Out with the old

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We cannot “set things right” in the sense of restoring things to the way they once were, but we must begin now to adapt to the new realities if we are to reduce suffering and continue an advanced culture. Today’s article, “Out With the Old”, discusses ending seven unsustainable practices.

Energy – Dec 23

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– Former oil expert from the IEA: decline of ‘all liquids’ soon after 2015 (in French)
– Nigeria on alert as Shell announces worst oil spill in a decade
– Shelling out the Oil in Waters off Nigeria: Radar Satellite Image December 21, 2011
– Oil Workers Rise Up in Kazakhstan, Face Brutal Crackdown
– MIT: The Chinese Solar Machine