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Shale Gas Halted in U.K. by Six-Month Permit Wait: Energy

In Texas it takes seven days to get permission to use hydraulic fracturing to drill for oil and gas. In the U.K. the wait is six months. That difference helps explain why David Cameron’s dream of a fracking boom in the U.K., where there may be enough shale gas to meet the country’s demand for decades, has been slow to take shape. Britain under Cameron’s Conservative-led government is more pro-shale than anywhere in the European Union bar Poland.

UK floods: in defence of the Environment Agency

The flooding crisis has shone a spotlight on much that the government would prefer to remain hidden – not least the coalition’s quiet slashing of the Environment Agency budget. Despite advice in the wake of the 2007 floods to increase expenditure on flood defences, the government relied on its traditional mistrust of the public sector and the experts within it, and used the blunt instrument of cash limits. Prime minister David Cameron said money would be “no object” to dealing with the immediate impact of the floods and has finally announced that specialist flood defence jobs will not be cut in the short term.

Auto elettriche che forniscono servizi di rete, un mercato in crescita

l termine inglese è vehicle-to-grid, in sigla V2G: auto elettriche messe a disposizione della rete come sistemi di accumulo per livellare i picchi e garantire stabilità in un sistema elettrico dominato da fonti non programmabili come sole e vento. La mobilità elettrica da sempre è considerata un ingrediente importante della smart grid, la rete elettrica intelligente necessaria alla transizione energetica. Ora questo scenario sta iniziando a concretizzarsi.

Italia leader del bio in Europa

Il mercato dell’alimentare cala, il bio sale a razzo. Secondo una ricerca elaborata da Aiab (Associazione Italiana per l’Agricoltura Biologica) sulla base di indagini della Fondazione Italiana per la Ricerca in Agricoltura Biologica e Biodinamica e su rilevazioni Ismea Gfk-Eurisko, in Italia nel primo semestre 2013 c’è stata una diminuzione del 3,7% dei consumi alimentari convenzionali, ma la crescita del biologico ha sfiorato il 9%. I record ormai consolidati del settore (50 mila operatori, 1,2 milioni di ettari coltivati, 3 miliardi di euro di giro d’affari), si stanno inoltre trasformando in una forte spinta per l’export: l’Italia ha conquistato la leadership in Europa per le esportazioni di prodotti biologici (valgono oltre un miliardo di euro).

Liquid-Cooled Computers, to Trim the Power Bill

Dropping a home computer into a vat of liquid would wreck it. Yet some operators of supercomputers are submerging their machines in liquids, without causing any apparent damage, to keep them from overheating. Advocates say so-called immersion or submersion cooling could solve one of the biggest challenges of the digital economy: reducing the air-conditioning bills and environmental strains of the power-hungry servers and supercomputers that crunch ever-rising mountains of data.

Obama, Hollande call for “ambitious” global climate change deal

The presidents of the United States and France have called for a global pact to fight climate change in a joint op-ed published on Monday, the first day of a visit to Washington by French leader Francois Hollande. He and Barack Obama urged more clean energy partnerships to create jobs, as well as support for developing countries as they shift to low-carbon energy. “As we work toward next year’s climate conference in Paris, we continue to urge all nations to join us in pursuit of an ambitious and inclusive global agreement that reduces greenhouse gas emissions through concrete actions,” read the op-ed published in the Washington Post and Le Monde newspapers.