NuClear News, April 15  A report written by the French Environment and Energy Agency (Ademe) has concluded that supplying the nation’s electricity demand with renewables by 2050 would cost about the same as the plan currently favoured by the President and the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, which is to meet France’s power needs with 50% nuclear, 40% renewables, and 10% fossil fuel by 2050. (1)

 Vancouver has become the latest city to commit to running on 100% renewable energy. The city of 600,000 on Canada’s west coast aims to use only green energy sources for electricity, and also for heating and cooling and transportation. Cities and urban areas are responsible for 70-75% of global CO2 emissions and that’s where “real action on climate will happen” said Park Won-Soon, Mayor of Seoul, South Korea at the ICLEI World Congress 2015, the triennial sustainability summit of local governments where Vancouver made the announcement. (2)

 Ile de Sein, a small island off the coast of Brittany, dreams of becoming powered by 100% locally-produced, community-owned renewable energies. The island has a permanent population of just over 100 inhabitants and over 40 of them are pushing for their homes and businesses to rely solely on renewables in the future. They show that by harnessing the natural resources of the wind, sea and sun they could power their homes and rid themselves of the fossil fuels on which they are currently reliant. Today, the island receives its electricity from three generators that use 420,000 litres of oil a year. If the project were to come to fruition, the Ile de Sein would be the first place in France to be powered 100% by renewable energy. However, before this can happen, the islanders have to convince the French government to change national legislation, which states that areas not connected to the mainland grid can produce no more than 30 per cent of their energy from renewable sources to avoid blackouts. The Ile de Sein is one of three Breton islands that remain off grid. Proposed changes to the law are being discussed by politicians and could be voted on this summer. (3)

 The adoption of targets for 100% renewables by 2050 could deliver combined energy savings of more than $500 billion a year to the major economies of the EU, the US and China, and create millions of new jobs, a new study has found. The study, released this week by New Climate Institute and commissioned by Climate Action Network, also found that if all countries took action on renewables at this scale, global warming would not cross the 2°C threshold beyond which scientists predict would result in dangerous and irreversible changes to the earth’s climate. (4)

A city in Texas – home to the “Gusher Age” of American oil – is aiming to become 100% renewable within two years, after finalising a deal with SunEdison to supply it with solar power for 25 years. Georgetown – population 54,000 – will take the output from the 150MW solar plant and another 144MW from a new wind farm to source its needs from renewables. The local utility saying it has turned to wind and solar because it is cheaper and more reliable, and requires a lot less water. (5)

The news sparked surprise in the oil-obsessed, Republican-dominated state where fossil fuels are king and climate change No2NuclearPower nuClear news No.73, April 2015 14 activists were described as “the equivalent of the flat-earthers”. But when City staff examined their options last year, they discovered something that seemed remarkable, especially in Texas: renewable energy was cheaper than non-renewable. By January 2017, all electricity within the city’s service area will come from wind and solar power. (6) http://www.no2nuclearpower.org.uk/nuclearnews/NuClearNewsNo73.pdf