Tag: technology

Short Takes

Important Comment On May 15th, at an event on Energy Efficient Buildings and Districts: Research to Accelerate Innovation at the European Economic and Social Committee, Ms. Silvia-Adriana, MEP and former rapporteur for the recast of the buildings directive said:  “Energy efficiency is important for each household and not just for the European Union.  We need … Continue reading Short Takes →

Air conditioning in India

An interesting article published by the Times of India says that India has become more active in establishing minimum energy performance standards and appliance labelling.  This article states that 12% of products labelled for energy efficiency fail the tests.  How that compares to Europe or the US, I cannot say.  Interestingly, the article notes that … Continue reading Air conditioning in India →

Planning to bike around Paris on your holiday?

Amazing what you learn.  Velib’, is the world’s biggest bike sharing programme in the world (according to their website) with over 25,000 bicycles available.  Velib’ is great for tourists to manoeuvre around the City of Light.  Interestingly, EiD has just learned that there is now an iPhone app that allows you to find where the … Continue reading Planning to bike around Paris on your holiday? →

More from the Clean Energy Ministerial

The Clean Energy Ministerial also had more to say on carbon capture and storage. At the 2011 CEM meeting in Abu Dhabi, the CEM Carbon Capture, Use and Storage Action Group (CCUS AG) presented seven recommendations on concrete, near-term actions to accelerate global carbon capture and storage deployment. This week, at the 2012 CEM meeting … Continue reading More from the Clean Energy Ministerial →

From the Clean Energy Ministerial

The third Clean Energy Ministerial of 23 leading countries was held in London late April.  Leaders from the 23-government Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) and the UN Secretary-General’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative (SE4All) have given their backing to a renewed push to increase energy efficiency worldwide. Meeting at the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM3) taking place … Continue reading From the Clean Energy Ministerial →

Energy efficiency: Siemens launches a centre of excellence in France

Siemens recently announced the planned launch on May 1 of a centre of excellence for energy efficiency in France.  It will be a combination dedicated website and call centre, with the aim of helping manufacturers in their efforts to improve their energy efficiency.  While customers have the product catalogue on energy efficient products, the company … Continue reading Energy efficiency: Siemens launches a centre of excellence in France →

Good news . . . No news . . .

On March 10th, the Commission published a new regulation on ecodesign requirements for air conditioners and comfort fans (Commission Regulation (EU) No. 206/2012)  that significantly raises the minimum energy performance standards of air conditioners.  But one would never know it. The news has gone virtually unreported.  There is one good report, though, on the Coolproducts … Continue reading Good news . . . No news . . . →

Does building turbines use more energy than they produce?

This is an excellent article from February 29th in the Guardian by Leo Hickman on life cycle analysis of wind turbines. The average windfarm produces 20-25 times more energy during its operational life than was used to construct and install its turbines Critics of wind energy often claim that the energy used to construct a … Continue reading Does building turbines use more energy than they produce? →

Renewables news

The European Wind Energy Association has just published 2011 data on wind energy.  Wind power capacity of 9616 MW was installed in the EU in 2011, at a value of €12.6 billion.  This was down only slightly from 2010, when 9648 MW was installed.  Wind power represented 21.4 % of total power capacity installations in … Continue reading Renewables news →