France has log been a leader in finding and using alternatives to Carbon combustion, and also in legislating against potentially dangerous extraction schemes such as fracking. And now that solar technology has become cheap enough to make sense in many contexts, France appears ready to back it with legislation rather than bribes.<\/p>\n
But in the article\u00a0France Says New Roofs Must Be Covered In Plants Or Solar Panels (at\u00a0ThinkProgress)<\/a>, ends with a weaselly remark that “France has\u00a0<\/span>lagged<\/a>\u00a0behind other major European countries like Germany, Italy and Spain in solar power development. As of last summer, France had just over five gigawatts of photovoltaic capacity, accounting for around one percent of total energy consumption. Germany has nearly 40 GWs installed. France is heavily reliable(sic) on nuclear power for its energy, and nuclear generation in 2012\u00a0<\/span>made up<\/a>\u00a0about 83 percent of the country\u2019s total generation.<\/span>” So Germany’s solar effort, being about 8 times that of France, displaces about 8% of its Carbon combustion – which France has beaten by a factor of ten by going\u00a0nuclear. Some laggard!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" France has log been a leader in finding and using alternatives to Carbon combustion, and also in legislating against potentially dangerous extraction schemes such as fracking. And now that solar technology has become cheap enough to make sense in many … Continue reading