Integration of PV into the economy
Integration of PV into the economy will become the main task in the years to come. Sustainability in the production chain is becoming more important all the time. The advantage of solar energy used to be that it was renewable: without use of fossil fuels. But now, PV should develop into a fully sustainable energy
Ambitions for solar energy
In the past few decades, solar energy (PV) has grown a lot; the number of applications has much increased and production has become much more large-scale. Costs have taken a dive, and dramatically so. The ambitions for solar energy are sky-high. Says Wim Sinke: ‘In the 40 years that I work in the solar field,
Interlocked banks, natural constructions
Floating islands as the lungs of a lake. Made from mycelium, sawdust and turfs made from reed. And island strong enough to carry a person and yet flexible enough to move with the waves. Erik Hobijn designed them and now these interlocked banks are being developed. ‘Floating land made of mycelium’. Ecomimicry Earlier, we wrote
Green roofs
The Earth heats up; and in this process, towns are among the areas most hit. Buildings and streets tend to store incoming radiation. Towns urgently need to be turned greener, if only with the goal to keep them liveable. Green roofs are important agents in that process. They can lower ambient temperatures by 2oC, inside
Carbon Take Back Obligation: make sure fossil fuels producers take responsibility for cleaning up CO2
This summer, the world has been shocked by disasters, probably caused by climate change. When will the global community take upon it in earnest the task of reducing greenhouse gas emissions? To this end, Dutch researchers have proposed a new instrument: the Carbon Take Back Obligation (CTBO). This will make fossil fuel producers co-responsible for
Sustainable materials policy? Try bans and taxes
Lux Research, an international research policy company based in Boston, published a report on sustainable materials policy. What are the most effective policy instruments in this area? Sustainab-ility is growing in importance Lux’s new report, ‘Predicting Policy for Sustainable Materials’, develops a qualitative framework to assess policies; concentrating on impact and probability of adoption. Lux starts
Ecomimicry: enriching urban landscapes
Why are the ‘green’ areas in our cities often so uniform? Why are they ‘blandscaped’, to create virtually uniform green spaces that are devoid of local character or distinctiveness? Just attractive to look and easy to manage, but devoid of valuable biodiversity? We could do otherwise, by ecomimicry. Urban monocultures In The Conversation this week,
Meat alternatives on the rise
Around the world, meat consumption is on the rise. People eat more meat as they become more affluent. But meat alternatives are becoming popular. They are fashionable; and their environmental footprint is much lower than that of meat. Moreover, their quality is becoming better. Will they contribute to reaching the goals of climate policy? We
