United Nations (UN) has declared unanimously the decade 2014-2024 as the Decade for the Sustainable Energy for All, underlying the importance of the renewable energy for a sustainable development of all the people of the world. This resolution reaffirms the…
A Smart Grid is an efficient way of managing the electricity. The term appeared first in 1998 but started to be more commonly used in 2003. A Smart Grid uses information and communications technologies applied to the electrical grid to collect data…
The idea of using the energy of the tides is not new. Tidal mills were built in France, Spain and Portugal as early as the twelfth century. A mill powered partially by tidal energy was built at Port-Royal, Nova Scotia,…
The SUPERBUILDINGS project, co-founded by the EU, is a research project formed by a large european consortium aiming to develop a set of indicators and a benchmarking process in order to standardise assessments of building performance in terms of sustainability. The project…
Güssing is a village with 4.000 inhabitants, located in the border with Hungary, in the poorest region of Austria. In 1995 the mayor decided to reduce the costs and he developed a plan, together with his colleague, an engineer specialised in…
Marine current power is a form of marine energy that can be obtained from very different origins such as wind, tides, difference in density, salinity gradients (osmotic power) or temperature (OTEC). Independently of the origin of the currents, they all…
A report from IRENA (International Renewable Energy Agency) confirms that renewable energy has become increasingly competitive in the last years, especially during the last two years, with a continuous costs decreasing, increased worldwide deployment and rapid technological advances. The report is called “Renewable Power…
IRENA (International Renewable Energy Agency) research shows that reaching the United Nations goal of providing sustainable energy for all by 2030 would create up to 4 million direct jobs in the off-grid electricity sector alone. Decentralised renewable and sustainable energy solutions would create…
The marine power or marine energy is the exploitation, use or application of the energy carried by waters (oceans, seas, rivers, tides, marine currents, salinity, etc.). Sometimes is also named ocean energy or ocean power. This energy is transformed into…
The Aalto University of Finland is coordinating a project to minimise the degradation of the solar panels through European Research Council funding with 850.000€ (1.17M$) the SOLARX project (Riddle of light-induced degradation in silicon photovoltaics). The sun provides enough energy…