Last April in Hawthorne (California), founder of Tesla Motors Elon Musk, the current leader in the electric vehicles sector, made an entrance in a spectacular fashion during his brand new home batteries’ debut conference. Tesla wants to revolutionize the energy sector but can it really be done? A cheering and overall overexcited crowd greets Elon Musk as he enters the stage. With a curt nod
If you live in Abu Dhabi, Muscat or Ahmedabad, you might have seen a weird bird flying above you. Wider than a Boeing 747 but weighing only 1% of its weight, Solar Impulse is a 4-engine solar-powered plane on its way to fly around the globe. It has absolutely no other fuel than solar energy. Flying only thanks to solar energy would have seemed impossible
Good news! The International Energy Agency (IEA) just released a note stating that carbon dioxide emissions related to energy did not increase in 2014. There is usually a strong correlation between global economic growth and carbon emissions: as the economy is growing, people are using more energy to fuel this growth and more people get access to energy in emerging countries. Even when the
The transmission system operators’ challenge The 20th March solar eclipse and its consequences on the European electric grids are on every lips. Indeed, the share of renewable energies has much progressed since the last similar phenomenon which took place in the summer of 1999. Back then, the solar installations were not so much widespread, and the energy production associated with them was too insignificant
According to a KPMG report entitled “The changing landscape of disruptive technologies” published last month, Cloud computing is considered as the most important disruptor of the three years to come. While their use increase, cloud technologies remain vitally important to further technology progress and remain a source of enabling innovation. The 768 technology industry leaders who have participated in the survey come from a very
You probably know the well-respected Paris-based International Energy Agency for its optimistic views on the future of non-renewable energy sources, mainly oil and coal. But it seems like time has come for a change. On the first page of its September 2014 Technology Road Map for Solar Photovoltaic Energy report, Maria van der Hoeven, executive director of the IEA admits it: “Much has happened
Solar energy is the most abundant energy resource on the planet: the solar energy that strikes the Earth’s surface in one hour is approximately the same as the amount consumed by all human activities in one year. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), today, photovoltaic (PV) energy provides 0.1% of the total worldwide electricity production. In the IEA Solar PV Roadmap vision, PV
How do we recognize a real innovation? The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) tried to answer this difficult question with the publication of a recent article in its Technology Review: “The ten breakthrough technologies of 2014”. More than allowing a dramatic change in our day-to-day habits, the 10 laureates have another common point: thanks to them, some of the most difficult scientific problems will
