Here’s an article from SmartGridNews that raises an interesting and important question about the siting of renewable energy projects. Siemens is asserting that the large European governments are in the process of wasting 45 billion Euros by not properly thinking through the consequences of its siting decisions. (more…)

According to a new study, 16.7 percent of French employees were teleworking at least once a week in 2012. There has been a sharp increase since 2011, when only 12.7 percent were teleworking.

This comes only a month after Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s CEO, has asked her employees to stop telecommuting. However, as we shall see here, this (more…)

ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering project, which is currently building the world’s largest experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor at the Cadarache facility in the south of France. The European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA) has published a roadmap which (more…)

Installed solar capacity continued to grow across Europe in 2011 despite a decline in subsidies for green energy continent-wide, according to a new report.

Roughly 18.5 gigawatts of new solar photovoltaic energy capacity were installed in the European Union during 2011, about two-thirds of the world’s increase (more…)

The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) assessed the offshore wind capacity in Europe over the last six months. They found that at the end of the first half of 2012, the continent’s offshore wind capacity grew by at an astonishing rate from a year ago. A new report by the EWEA shows that there are 132 new offshore wind turbines, providing an additional (more…)

A new report predicts that 100 million new smart meters will be installed across Europe between now and the end of 2016 as nations continent-wide aim to achieve greater energy efficiency and increased reliance on renewable sources of energy.

According to GTM Research, European investment (more…)

The European Environment Agency (EEA) and Microsoft last week introduced a network of online sites that map air, water, and noise pollution levels across the continent based on government data and information uploaded by users.

The Eye on Earth network — unveiled during the (more…)

Greening the European Union has suffered a setback.

The European Biodiesel Board is reporting that the European Union biodiesel industry production forecasts are noting a 2011 decrease in output, the first since data has been gathered, down from 2010 figures of 9.57 million tons.

(more…)

It’s a commonly held perception that Europe leads the Western world with respect to energy efficiency. In many ways, it’s true. Europeans tend to live in smaller homes than Americans and are less fond of air conditioning and other energy-intensive equipment and appliances. The Passivhaus standard, which has (more…)

Europe has a challenge ahead, in terms of renewable energy targets. The UK government has signed up to a commitment which states that by 2020, 15% of energy production will come from renewable sources. Quite a target for any government to achieve, but in a climate where purse strings are being tightened, this challenge is ever more complex. However, the UK (more…)