After more tahn one year of distance from the opening of this Blog it comes for us the moment of evolving, of rethinking, of redefine the role that we want to have. We are working out a project of rearrangement of the whole on-line Company presence.

This reorganization will even concern the position of Edison on new medias, and so even this Blog, launched to talk of environment  and renewable energies in a more direct, simple and useful way. For the moment you won’t see writing, but our work here goes on and we will let you see the results.

Thanks to all of you who have read and remarked.

Posted at 12:35PM Jan 20, 2009 by admin |  Comments[ 0 ]

Posted at 10:12AM Dec 24, 2008 by admin |  Comments[ 0 ]

Here comes the sun. Brandoni Solare has realized, first in Italy, a "transparent" photovoltaic module. It is a module made of glass instead of polymer material, meaning that light can pass between a silicon cell and another. This particular kind of photovoltaic module has been produced before only in Germany and in Japan. Now Italy too follows.

Those modules represent the ideal solution for the installation on roofs of greenhouses, skyscrapers, parking areas, and anywhere else where the room needs to be in semi-darkness. The silicon cells can be at a distance of 5 centimeters max one from another, so that one can decide the amount of light to let pass through it.

Posted at 11:27AM Dec 15, 2008 by Andrea Colombo |  Comments[ 0 ]

In Japan someone is experimenting a new way to obtain energy from people passing every day on the East Japan Railway Company in Tokyo. They have installed 25 mq of pizoelectric crystal under the floor where every day thousands of people walk. Those crystals turn each compression and decompression in an electrical discharge. Today the energy produced is used only as a demonstration but in the future it could be used for the display screen of the station, for example. The floor is expected to produce 1.400 kw/sec per day. It is not the only experiment of producing "alternative energy" using human movement. We have already written about what sport and fitness can do, but there are also the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth and eco-night club in King's Cross, in Great Britain.

Posted at 10:00AM Dec 12, 2008 by Francesca Maroni |  Comments[ 0 ]

In May we talked about Vatican's green commitment. They had announced that during the summer they would have built a solar plant. Last Wednesday the city-state has inaugurated its 2,400 solar panel array situated on the 5,000 square meter Paul VI auditorium's roof. It will produce 300 megawatts of electricity per year. The Vatican will use 80 tons less of oil and emit 225 tons of carbon dioxide less.
In accordance with the European Union's target, Vatican aims to power itself with 20 percent renewable energy come 2020.

Posted at 09:39AM Dec 10, 2008 by Francesca Maroni |  Comments[ 0 ]

Edison has a longtime partnership with Legambiente, an Italian environmentalist association. Together we have launched many projects and campaigns during the years, to carry out jointly environmental education programs at the local school level with the goal of contributing to the development of a more knowledgeable and responsible society. One of these programs is called "Kyoto Anch'io" and few days ago we declared the winner: "Itis Augusto Righi", a school in Chioggia, near Venice. The students have realized an energy saving program based on a photovoltaic plant of 17,5 kW. They managed to reduce energy consuption, energy waste, they sorted waste and used more rationally water.

They won the first prize: a photovoltaic plant.
Well done kids!

Posted at 11:35AM Dec 04, 2008 by Andrea Colombo |  Comments[ 0 ]

After the approval of new building regulations (by the italian Parliament), which introduced energy certification for new buildings and those undergoing restructuring,  recently another important step  has materialized for the Comune di Formigine on the issues of sustainable energy and the promotion of renewable resources.

The municipal administration has signed a new contract for the supply of electricity  with the energy company Edison SpA, as a result of the agreement signed by  Edison with the Agenzia Intercent-Emilia/Romagna that, on behalf of  Regional  Local  Institutions, has launched a competition between the various possible energy suppliers in the market. The big news of the contract by the Comune di Formigine is that Edison SpA is committed, through this contract, to provide  to the local authorities exclusively "green", solar, hydropower, biomass). The origin of the electricity supplied is guaranteed through the certification European RECS (Renewable Energy Certificate System) acquired by the supplier and delivered to the user,  in this case the Comune di Formigine, as a guarantee  to it. electricity from renewable sources. (wind, solar, hydropower, biomass).

“It’s another important step in the path we have taken since long time on energy issues - says the Formigine Councillor for Environmental Policies Paolo Fontana - the purchase of “green” electricity  on behalf of organizations like ours, may be of great help to  move more and more towards the production of energy from renewable sources and to reduce CO2 emissions. I  like to stress that, with the free market,  even private citizens can choose their supplier and, therefore, the supply contracts that support  renewable energy at a more sustainable cost".

Posted at 11:47AM Nov 27, 2008 by Andrea Colombo |  Comments[ 0 ]

In Spain they found a smart way to develop solar plants, the "huertos solares". Investors rally to contribute to the project of a solar plant, so that each of them can reduce their costs. By this solution they have already realized 12 huertos solares for a total capacity of 25 MW. The biggest is 10 Mw powerful and 750 owners that have paid about 50.000 euros each. In Italy we have done something similar with the photovoltaic condominium in Bologna: 300 Kwp of photovoltaic plant on the roofs of a city near Bologna.

Posted at 03:44PM Nov 25, 2008 by Laura Marinelli |  Comments[ 0 ]

Sometimes we find it hard to make people understand that solar energy can fulfill our energetic needs. Many think that it won't satisfy world's energy demand, but it isn't so. Solar sector market projections show that there could be a substantial development in the future.

Posted at 04:22PM Nov 14, 2008 by Gianni Moreschi |  Comments[ 0 ]

We usually read about energy saving, we find every where advices to reduce the consumption of electricity, for example using low consumption lamps. Seldom we read about how to reduce packaging, which affects both transportation costs and garbage production. Some objects have already been modified in order to reduce their overall dimensions. That's what the Korean designer Joonhuyn Kim has done with Flat Lamp. Unlike ordinary bulbs its volume is 1/3 smaller, allowing bulbs to be easily stacked reducing the cost of packaging and transport. Flat Lamp was presented as part of Tokyo Design Week.

Posted at 04:02PM Nov 12, 2008 by Andrea Colombo |  Comments[ 0 ]

Barack Obama is the next president of the United States of America. He's the 44th and the first afroamerican. Last week Gianni wrote about the candidates environmental policy. Now we'll see what Obama will do.
Something has already been done, with the The Bicycle Commuter Act. Starting January 2009, American employers who provide bike parking, bathing facilities, tune-ups, or other support for bicycle commuting, can deduct up to $20 a month per participating employee from their own taxable income. Not bad if you just think that it comes from the country that has more per capita cars than any other.

Posted at 05:49PM Nov 06, 2008 by Laura Marinelli |  Comments[ 0 ]

Election Day is almost here. On the 4th November Americans will vote their new President. In the last weeks debates have been dominated by economy and financial crisis, but I wanted to read again what the candidates have promised about environmental issue.
I found a useful summary here. Both believe that climate change is man man-made, so acting on human behaviour we can change something.
John McCain has promoted his Lexington Project for environment. It's based on expanding domestic oil and natural gas exploration, break Us dependency on foreign oil, investing in alternative sources of energy. McCain wants to set a limit on greenhouse gas emissions and allow entities to buy and sell rights to emit. It seems also that McCain believes in nuclear power, as he planned the construction of 45 new nuclear power stations.
On the contrary, Barack Obama believes that nuclear is a key component in the energy mix where renewable energy has a bigger role. He ensure 10 percent of Us electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012, and 25 percent by 2025.
In terms of emissions targets, Obama's campaign pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050, while McCain has pledged the target for 2050 to be 60 percent below 1990 levels
We'll see who will win and what he'll do.

Posted at 02:11PM Oct 31, 2008 by Gianni Moreschi |  Comments[ 0 ]

Keyword of today's web is sharing. Thanks to what they call Web 2.0 we share news, documents, photos, information but also experiences, pieces of our lives that we put online.
Blogs were the first step, now it's social networks' time. These are websites where each can create his account, complete it with information about life, interests, some kind of a short bio. Then, through social networks, you keep in contact with old friends, those who live far away, and meet new one. The most popular social network nowadays is Facebook, but there's also Linked In, for business network, and even Doggyspace for our lovely pets.

Posted at 04:25PM Oct 29, 2008 by Laura Marinelli |  Comments[ 0 ]

Last week EU leaders tried to set targets and timetable for tackling climate change. It was ment to follow the path already set by the “20-20-20” agreement of last March, setting binding targets as the reduction of at least 20% in greenhouse gases (GHG) by 2020 and a 20% share of renewable energies in EU energy consumption by 2020. Today, with worldwide economic crisis rising, some countries – Italy and Poland - have threatened to block the deal, arguing that they cannot afford to enforce tough emissions targets on their industrial sector. Mr Sarkozy, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, said: "The climate package is so important that we cannot simply drop it, under the pretext of a financial crisis." In the past, we – the “civilized world” - have told developing countries to pay attention to environment. They said they need to exploit their resources, to go on improving their economy, even if it meant leaving aside sustainability. And we told them they shouldn't, or couldn't, becasude it would have had consequences even on us, on our planet. Well, what is different now? 'Cause I can't see any differences. Economic crisis will pass, our planet will be always the same.

Posted at 05:15PM Oct 23, 2008 by Francesca Maroni |  Comments[ 0 ]

Wikipedia, the open-source nonprofit encyclopedia founded in 2001, has prepare the way for a thousand of application of wiki pages, where user generated content are collected to create knowledge. Few days ago Jimmy Wales, one of the co-founder of Wikipedia, has launched a new venture, Wikia, a community for all things "green."

Its monthly unique visitors grew from 1 million to 10 million since 2006,and the number of registered users reached 350,000 in August. The company too is applying to be certified by San Francisco's - where it is based - green business program.

Wales says that even if there are thousand of "green blogs" that update us on the latest news, Wikia Green in the place where people meet up and work on whatever the consensus is about a certain topic. It's were we collaboratively work to spread ideas and environmental commitment.

Posted at 12:00AM Oct 20, 2008 by Francesca Maroni |  Comments[ 0 ]