Cleanleap

Report: Solar power will soon be the cheapest form of electricity in many parts of the world.

A new report from a respected German energy think tank highlights the rapid drop in the price of solar energy. Agora Energiewende's comprehensive report uses current and past statistics about the reduction in the production price for solar PV panels to project into the future. Their forecast indicates that solar PV-based energy will be the cheapest source of power within the decade and down to an amazing US 2c/kWh by 2050, much cheaper than gas-fired power plants at US 9c/kWh or any other form of fossil fuel including coal.

Free energy efficiency resources for food manufacturers

The empower program was developed to assist small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), with less than 200 employees, to improve energy efficiency. The program was developed with assistance from the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) and the Australian Government Department of Industry and Science.

Whilst this program was designed with the Australian market in mind, the resources are freely available, and can be applied to other smaller food and grocery manufacturing businesses around the world to save energy.

Northern Pakistan making a Cleanleap with off-grid solar

The provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan has an ambitious solar energy plan to electrify over 5,800 homes in 200 different villages. The plan is part of a government-backed project called the Green Growth Initiative, founded by Pakistani cricket star Imran Khan. In a country like Pakistan that faces blackouts lasting 4 hours a day in rural areas that are connected to the grid, the answer seems obvious– the traditional centralised energy system is failing rural communities, can off-grid be any worse?

Extracting energy from air - is this the future of fuel?

Researchers in the UK and US are working on new techniques to create fuels like methanol, diesel and even petrol from the atmosphere around us - the key component being used is CO2. Bloomberg has a light overview video of the work being done by a UK company called Air Fuel Synthesis (AFS). The process involves pulling in air and extracting the CO2 component (.04% of our atmosphere and rising).

Packaging solutions to minimise food waste in Africa

The amount of food we waste is a growing issue worldwide, especially with population growth and the shrinking availability of water and arable land. One way to combat food waste is the use of effective packaging. What type of packaging that is needed varies where the food is wasted along the supply chain, and this depends on what market the food is grown in. The Save Food Initiative produced two reports, Global Food Losses and Food Waste, and Appropriate packaging solutions for developing countries.

8 out of 10 youths in Africa see climate change as dangerous

Youths are likely to act more about climate change in future as revealed in a recent survey by GC Consulting. Commissioned after the Marrakech COP 22, the survey revealed that many of them are willing to take action especially in the areas of recycling. Youths also recognize the important role governments, private sector, and international communities have to play in averting climate change effects.

The Legacy Of Nitrogen

In late 2004, Kisumu bay, Lake Victoria, was covered in a blue-green hue. The algal bloom - a proliferation of cyanobacteria – demarcated an area of low oxygen and eventually decomposing algae, causing fish to suffocate or flee and contaminating the drinking water- a dead zone. Adapt-N, a software programme developed by researchers at Cornell University seeks to solve this problem.

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