It’s been fifteen years since former US Vice President Al Gore won the best documentary Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth, which presented scientific evidence of the impact posed by climate change. It’s also been fifteen years since Venture Capitalist John Doerr delivered his famous TED Talk, in which he gave an impassioned and emotional plea for action to be taken against global warming. He emphasised the need for businesses to play a leading role in the transition to a low carbon economy, citing investment in cleantech as a clear route to a sustainable future. Over the years the cleantech sect ..read more

Discover Cleantech’s Cleantech Events Directory is the ultimate guide to the key events taking places in the global cleantech sector. The events listings include a range of exhibitions and conferences within solar, wind, biofuels, EV Charging and infrastructure, recycling, geothermal, smart cities, as well as many other areas of cleantech. Below, you will find a small selection of upcoming events from our events section, visit the directory here for more or get in contact to add your event or business. ENERGY STORAGE SUMMIT, UNITED KINGDOM As Europe grapples with an energy security crisis, net ..read more

At the end of last year, Skylight maker Velux Group and BayWa r.e., a renewable energy developer, signed the first European power-purchase agreement (PPA) involving agriculture and solar power. The move underscores growing interest in agri-PV, where photovoltaic solar plants are combined with food production on farmland. Under the terms of the PPA, BayWa r.e. will build two solar parks in Spain to power Velux’s European operations with 100 per cent green electricity by 2024, saving 40,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. The parks – one close to Seville and the other near Granada – will be con ..read more

Cleantech can be many things – products specifically aimed at making your lifestyle or home more sustainable, or innovations to make the products we must have more sustainable. Moreover, products that make it easier, safer or more fun to make a sustainable choice also play an important role in the cleantech transformation. The products selected here represent a bit of all of that. Clean, green and innovative, they help you enjoy the budding spring in a sustainable manner, whether that means finding comfort at home on cold days or outdoor explorations in the spring sun. Photos: Lumos/ Dave Leh ..read more

Many people look to preserve energy in everything they do, be it perfecting the way they drive to work, shower or eat. The construction trade is no different – John Sempill looks into whether 3D printing might offer a new, more sustainable way to build with concrete. Traditionally, the construction sector has been plagued with unsustainable habits, risk aversion and a tendency to do things ‘the good old way’. However, Swedish start-up, ConcretePrint, is looking to disrupt the game by printing homes instead of building them. “A house as big as 150 m2 can be built between 24 and 48 hours,” says ..read more

Last year, Beverley Gower-Jones, the founder of the climate venture capital fund Clean Growth Fund, and the cleantech consultancy, Carbon Limiting Technologies, was appointed to the UK Government’s Net Zero Innovation Board. This year, King Charles bestowed her an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE), for services to net-zero innovation. Discover Cleantech asks the climate leader whether investment and innovation can actually save the planet. For two decades, Gower-Jones has advised major corporates, UK and overseas governments, SMEs and cleantech start-ups on addres ..read more

The eastern coast of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean is home to what at first sight might seem like a kite maker’s folly. On windy days, a 120-square-metre red-and-white kite may be seen soaring and dipping over the sugar canes on the tropical island. Yet the kite, designed by a German company called SkySails Power, is in fact the first commercial example of a form of renewable energy that proponents believe could one day help power not only remote islands but many other locations besides. SkySails is one of a select group of companies pursuing what is known as airborne wind energy, which relies ..read more

Highly stable and resistant to degradation once in the environment, PFAS is a large group of manmade chemicals, known as ‘forever chemicals’. As the chemicals are being linked to several serious health problems in humans, including cancer, thyroid disease and immune system disorders, the removal of PFAS from water sources is becoming increasingly urgent. Writing for Discover Cleantech, Maria Stranne, PhD in biotechnology, explores the problem and its solutions. PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of more than 4,700 man-made chemicals, including fluorine-containing compoun ..read more

Visit any wind farm in the world and you will find three-bladed turbines with upwind rotors and horizontal nacelles perched on top of tall towers. This horizontal-axis wind turbine design, sometimes called the Danish concept because of the country where it was first commercialised, has become an industry standard worldwide. But not everyone is convinced it is the way forward. Back in 2010, UK architecture firm Grimshaw and engineers Arup unveiled what they thought would be the wind turbine design of the future. The biggest wind turbines then on the market had a capacity of seven MW per machine ..read more

A world-renowned test centre for marine energy technologies is looking to develop a demonstration site for floating offshore wind systems. The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), based in the Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland, says the demo site represents a 690 million GBP opportunity for the UK. The floating offshore wind test and demonstration site is at the concept design stage pending a lease on waters around 20 km west of Orkney. EMEC is proposing the development of six berths with up to 20 MW of capacity each. Four of the berths will have grid connections, EMEC says, whil ..read more