feed in tariff
Solar energy, it seems, has become too successful for its own good. Incentives in places like the UK and Germany have encouraged so many people to put up solar panels that officials are now saying they have to cut back. In Britain, the decision prompted an outcry — and a lawsuit
wind energy
LEGO is helping a new crop of wind turbines sprout up in the North Sea off of Germany’s coast. No, not plastic building-block turbines like the ones the Danish toy company once put out in a partnership with turbine-maker Vestas. But giant, honest-to-gosh, 3.6-megawatt wind turbines from Siemens
csr
From who else? LEGO. Not only is the Denmark-based company big on wind energy, but it aims to be 100-percent powered by renewables by 2020. It’s put out annual updates on its sustainability progress since 2006, and its sustainability reports are probably the most fun, colorful and visually engaging
nuclear power
It was a different world for nuclear power stations when Oldbury came onto the scene in the UK in 1967. Back then, nuclear power, though still facing opposition from some segments of the public, did not call to mind names like “Chernobyl,” “Three Mile Island” or “Fukushima Daiichi.” On the
sustainable future
The future isn’t written in stone … or in silicon chips, for that matter. As the “butterfly effect” suggests, the smallest changes we make today could ripple outward in time to create wildly different futures for society. “Delivering Tomorrow: Logistics 2050,” a new report from Deutsche Post DHL envisions five
sustainable future
If the image accompanying this article conjures up images of “Blade Runner,” you’ve gotten the right idea. An unsustainable, hyper-consuming global society is one of five futures that could await us, based on some of today’s trade and technology trends. Deutsche Post DHL consulted experts in everything from
carbon pricing
What’s one of the single most promising strategies for reducing fossil fuel consumption, cutting greenhouse gas emissions and leveling the playing field for businesses that are actually taking steps to green their operations? A price on carbon. And what strategy has been anathema to most leaders, climate-change deniers or
energy efficiency
Why is it people continue to do so many things they know aren’t good for them: eating fast food, smoking, bungee-jumping over the Zambezi River and … wasting energy? It’s just human nature: changing habits is hard, even when the case for doing so is staring you in the
water
Just as smart electricity meters are touted as a way to better control energy consumption and waste, smart water meters promise to help cities around the world stem losses due to everything from aging, leaky pipes to outright theft. A SmartReach consortium metering trial under way in Reading and London,
It’s not completely in tinfoil hat territory to question whether there are forces out there that would like to see clean energy fail. We’ve already seen forces like these at work in the climate-change realm, where support for action has dwindled considerably since the 2009 email hacking controversy
efficient buildings
Is efficiency becoming like the weather, in that everyone talks about it but nobody does anything about it? Europe has ambitious 2020 climate and energy goals — a 20 percent reduction in primary energy use, a 20 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions and 20 percent of energy coming from renewable
transport
What transportation lessons can we learn from some of the world’s top-ranking cities? Siemens’ series of “Green City Index” reports of different regions of the globe shows efficient-transport leaders share a few key, common threads: * An emphasis on public transport, especially networks that can move high volumes of people
