progressX

  reprint (by W. Scharnhorst ) Renewable energy capacity has grown 120% as of 2014, a new report reveals, marking a record year for the renewable power sector with 133 GW global net additions. But Mark Kenber, CEO, The Climate Group says this growth is still not enough and must be further accelerated as we edge toward the global climate talks in Paris. The report ‘Renewable Energy Capacity Statistics 2015’, released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), provides the most comprehensive, up-to-date figures on renewable energy capacity around the world, with over 12,000 data points from more than 200 countries and territories. It presents trends in development of the renewable energy sector, noting that over 100 GW of new renewable power capacity has been added every year since 2011. Authors explain that because more than 164 countries have adopted renewables targets, the market share of renewable energy has gained considerable ground, especially with the rapid incre...

  reprint (by W. Scharnhorst ) For at least four years, Greenpeace has been raising public awareness and putting pressure on the world's largest data and cloud computing center providers to fuel their operations with clean, renewable power . In May, Greenpeace released its 2015 “Clicking Clean: A Guide to Building the Green Internet” report, in which it evaluates and ranks the likes of Akamai, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Apple, Google and Microsoft in terms of renewable energy investment, use and leadership. Greenpeace is looking to raise public pressure further with the June 10 release of its “Click Clean Scorecard.” Significantly expanding its groundbreaking research, in the supplement Greenpeace assesses and ranks 110 of the world's largest websites and their publishers on their overall and renewable energy use, reporting, disclosure and advocacy. In addition, Greenpeace launched a Google Chrome extension that for the first time enables Web users to see a Click ...

  reprint (by W. Scharnhorst ) In the face of a four-year wind growth stagnation and an energy market that has seen oil fall to its lowest price in years, with robust policy to address climate change, wind power could supply close to 20 percent of global electricity demand by 2050.   Under an advanced policy scenario — the manifestation of the iron political will required in order to address climate change — wind power could reach a total installed global capacity of 2,000 GW by 2030, supplying up to 19 percent of global electricity. This is the key conclusion of the latest Global Wind Energy Outlook (GWEO) from the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) and Greenpeace. Continue in the panel mode mobile reader mode to get more information. In presenting three scenarios for future wind power developments, the 2014 edition further concludes that by 2050, wind power could provide 25-30 percent of global electricity supply. For perspective, wind energy installations tot...

  reprint (by W. Scharnhorst ) According to the latest U.S. Energy Storage Monitor , a quarterly report from GTM Research and the Energy Storage Association (ESA), the United States deployed 5.8 megawatts of energy storage in the first quarter of the year. That's up 16 percent over the first quarter of 2014. _progress | M replaces _kt75 | mirror. try the panel and explore the completely updated download area under http://progress-m.blogspot.ch/p/downloads.html ready: 01.07.2015 close ✕ Seventy-two percent of the nation’s recently deployed capacity was in front of the meter across six storage systems . The remaining 28 percent was behind the meter at residential, commercial, education, nonprofit and military sites. Behind-the-meter storage had a record first quarter and is trending upward in terms of total share of deployments. In fact, GTM Research forecasts that U.S. behind-the-meter storage sales will surpass front-of-meter storage sales by 2018. Storage is a uniq...

  reprint (by W. Scharnhorst ) The core problem of creating sustainable cities is as well-known as it is tricky. On the one hand, everyone who's thoughtful about urban sustainability admits the environmental, economic, and social problems of sprawl and auto-dependency. On the other hand, everyone who's realistic about the situation must admit that people are crazy about their cars and pretty keen on low-density, single-family homes, too. Most of the modern attempts to reconcile this problem, at least in U.S. metropolitan areas, create more problems of their own. Smart growth initiatives to increase densification, reduce car use are often met with vehement objections — some irrational, some genuine — on the grounds of personal choice. Often these efforts are simply ignored by local government. Meanwhile, promoting livability through public transit can run into financial and political hurdles too tall to overcome. For these reasons and others, Mark Delucchi and Kenneth S. Kuran...