The Worldwatch Institute’s perception of degrowth

What if degrowth could be part of a broader sustainable model of development? Such an idea is taken very seriously by researchers of the Worldwatch Institute. They have indeed recently published their annual report about the State of the World and promote “selective degrowth” as a promising tool to be use by sustainable development policy in developed countries.

Directed by Robert Engelman, the Worldwatch Institute has been recognized as a scientific reference within its forty years of existence. It has indeed become a major analysis provider for development-related subject. Each year, Worldwatch release a report with the purpose of summing up the State of the World regarding the most urging global issues. Year 2012’s edition is subtitled Moving Toward a Sustainable Prosperity and introduces original thoughts on how sustainable development could be pursued in developed countries.

The report was co-directed by Erik Assadourian, one Worldwatch senior fellow. In one of the articles that composes the report, Assadourian makes an interesting point by describing the benefits economic degrowth could bring to the world and developed countries. The author here starts with a simple assessment: Humanity’s global footprint is estimated to 1,5 Earths. In order to reach a sustainable state, worldwide economy has to be reduced “by at least a third”. Considering that “one third of humanity still needs to considerably increase its consumption to achieve a decent quality of life”, Assadourian asserts that a selective degrowth – which would target “overconsumming societies” – would enhance global equity.

As for developed countries which are mainly concerned by such a policy, Assadourian claims degrowth could solve numbers of societal problem induced by the obsession of consumption. From debts to obesity, numbers of health and social issues could be solved through what Assadourian calls “the intentional contraction of overly inflated economies”. Worldwatch’s analysis about growth makes sense in many ways. It is a shame however that the Institute does not illustrate more about how degrowth could fit in developed societies.

What about work for instance in a society which is aiming to selective growth? In developed countries, work remains an essential part of societies’ foundation. It remains crucial as social cement. Assadourian mentions the reduction of the average working time as a corollary to degrowth. Such a goal could indeed be achieved through “job sharing”, “longer parental leaves and vacation times”. But are these options really sufficient to give every individual a function in a society which is aiming toward producing less? Through the scope of degrowth, sustainable development looks even more like a sociological matter.

Data centres: Major IT companies make a step towards greater transparency

Our favorite IT companies are slowly revealing information about their data centres. Facebook and Google have indeed released some pictures and information about the facilities they store their users’ data in. A couple of journalists were also allowed in for a visit. Companies seem willing to be more transparent about data centres but those facilities remain much too crucial to be completely open. Here is why.

Wired magazines’ journalists must have been delighted to visit Google’s data centres in Lenoir, North Carolina. This rural city is indeed the home of what used to be one of the most secret data centres. During the month of October 2012, Google had been willing to display a good deal of transparency and therefore organized an exceptional tour inside its facilities. Photos and interviews were released in the press for the enjoyment of the IT geek community all around the world.

It might be surprising at first to see how protective Google is of its data centres. Most of them are filled with personal information and the company is not the first one to open the way to visitors through such installations. In 2011, Facebook had already made some light about its own facilities. The giant of social networking indeed organized tours in its very first data centre set in Prineville Oregon. Such an event had two goals at that time: first to make some buzz about the launch of the Open Compute project and second to make a step toward greater transparency and weaken returning accusations of opacity. Throwing doors open on a $210 million facility is however not a common thing for the industry. The late relaxing of major IT companies’ secret policy is indeed surprising.

For a long time, data centres indeed remained top-secret and fueled the media fantasy that IT companies hid much more than servers in those data centres. Eventually, the street view visit of the Lenoir data centre shows that Google hides nothing but some of the most efficient computers in the world. However, it is not difficult to understand why the company was – and still is – reluctant to give detail about those facilities: they are the most strategic part of Google’s activity. The extreme density of its infrastructure is what allows the company to handle billions of search queries every day and to offer free storage services to millions of Gmail, YouTube and Blogger users every day!

Any intrusion, any breakdown is very likely to compromise IT companies’ abilities to offer a product of unparalleled quality. What would be the point of Google if its search engine wasn’t comprehensive and instantaneous? Who would use Facebook anymore if the network’s capacity wasn’t important enough to greet the profiles of entire circles of friends? Even though IT champions now feel secure enough to share a bit more their strategic infrastructure with their community, data centres will remain some of the best kept industrial facilities – crucial completive advantages depend on it –.

Will the future of solar industry be written in Chinese?

According to a recent report published by an American research center, the market of photovoltaic technology will be highly concentrated by year 2015. Most of its offer will besides be China-based and many of today’s competitors will somehow disappear. Such a scenario is not without recalling of what is already happening worldwide on the photovoltaic market nowadays.

In Europe as well as in the U.S., solar companies have all been put in dire straits by Chinese competitors because of the price war that has been raging on the photovoltaic market for almost ten years now. China’s conquests on this market are overwhelming and not very likely to stop. Some researchers who studied it recently indeed concluded that seven out of nine leading solar module manufacturers will be based in China by 2015.

According to GreenTechMedia Research, the inclination for concentration on the solar market is such that many of today’s actors will probably go bankrupt or be bought by 2015. Solar industry in developed country is especially threatened since GTM explains that half of those manufacturers are based in Europe, the U.S. and Canada. Facing low-priced products from China, most of those producers will disappear and give way to a highly concentrated market.

Even though China has already started to shake Northern America and Europe’s solar manufacturers, GTM point out that Chinese industry is probably not as competitive as first thought. According to the report, many companies in the solar industry in China indeed depend on government help. Beside, their production is quite low compared to other actors on the market. For GTM researchers, such companies are already dead but they don’t know it. Those “solar zombies” are thus very likely to disappear along with most of the eastern world’s solar industry.

At the moment, global demand for solar energy production is estimated to be set between 30 and 50 GW. Production capacity on the other hand is believed to have reached 100 GW according to the Financial Times. On this saturated market, the struggle can now only be harder between companies that will have to fight to maintain profitability. It is still early to say if GTM scenario will happen, but the market has already started to resemble it a lot.

In China for instance, the Financial Times reported that two solar cells manufacturers were on the verge of bankruptcy and only maintain afloat through local governments bailouts. Such events have occured in the region of Xinyu and Wuxi and sound a lot like what GTM foresaw when writing its report. As for American and European companies, they struggle to be competitive and will have to be tremendously imaginative to escape the fate they seemed doomed to.

CleanTech Showcase in Sacramento

Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance (SARTA) is organizing CleanStart Showcase on the 22^nd of October. The event will be set in Sacramento and is aiming to connect actors of the region’s growing cleantech industry which revenue generated in 2011 has exceeded 1.5$ billion.

SARTA is a not for profit corporation and has been active in nine region of the Sacramento’s area since 2001. It is now directed by more than thirty representatives of the region’s thriving cleantech community. These leaders come from industrial, financial and science background.

As one can imagine, SARTA CleanStart Showcase is all about Sacramento’s industrial community. However, this event is going to be a good opportunity for investors to know more about green industry and market in California. Organizers have planned to inform attendant about new business opportunity induced by evolving legal environment. Non-professionals are also going to be part of the event. Consumers and clients will besides enjoy a special car exhibition set up by local electric car specialists. As for those who are too far to attend, the showcase will be debriefed on SARTA’s dedicated website.

The event will be held from 8 in the morning to 6:30 in the afternoon at Sacramento’s State University Union. Let’s wish American top notch industrials and cleantech aficionados a good day back to school!

Oil giant considers geothermal energy as a potential business opportunity

We all know about the worldwide oil giant BP. It has existed since 1909 and has been a historical actor in the oil industry. Within a century, BP has become a worldwide company generating more than $380 billion in revenue in the sole year 2011.

In spite of its success in the oil industry, the company has started to develop activities regarding renewable energy. BP indeed committed to investing $8 billion in renewable from year 2005. In 2011, total investments of the firm in that field were estimated to have reached $7 billion already. The company is definitely on its way to overtake its goal as stated initially. Has BP found a commercial interest in renewable energy? It is very likely so.

                             

The giant oil company is now getting ready to face the inevitable intensification of mitigation in the field of energy production. Recent news has besides confirmed this impression. It indeed seems like BP is about to develop a brand new geothermal activity in Indonesia. “The UK-based energy firm had been mulling the plan been mulling the plan ever since the company’s chief executive met with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono this year” one could read in today’s online version of the Jakarta Post.

According to the Ministry quoted by the Indonesian newspaper, BP has already sent engineers a couple of time in the country to “explore the possibility”. Could this be the first signs of an industry led shift to renewable energy? Probably not: BP’s motivation is undoubtedly fuelled by profit expectations more than environmental considerations. However, it goes to show that energy giants of today are determined to be tomorrow’s big fish as well.