The Energy Retail Association – a British group that represents electric and gas utilities, and works with customers to make their experience better – has just set up a cool new Google Map which shows various smart metering projects that are currently being implemented all across Europe. You click on an icon, and it tells you the type of project that is being done, and how big the project is. Cool stuff, especially if you’re into smart meters, which we here at EcoGeek are.

This map is just the latest in what has become a trend to create various types of green maps (usually using the Google Maps platform). For example, there is sf.solarmap.org, where San Francisco residents can look up the solar potential of their rooftop. The EPA also used their data to publish a map showing similar information – potential for solar, wind, etc. – across the entire nation.

What’s interesting about these maps (and the proliferation of all sorts of Google-Maps-based information) is that sometimes they perform a direct service, but sometimes they don’t. For example, if I’m thinking of putting up a solar installation or a wind turbine, I will consult one of the aforementioned maps, because it is a useful tool.

However, there are other maps out there – including this smart meter map – whose primary purpose is to illustrate the current state and scope of a trend, rather than “do” something. There are others that fall into the same category. There’s Green Map, a site that shows various green places and businesses for someone who wants to see what’s going on in his/her area. There is even a site called See I’m Green, where self-declared green individuals can make themselves known.

Granted, these maps are small, and not very filled-in. Realistically, unless they offer some tangible benefit to users I question whether they will ever really catch on and grow. But I think that these maps are part of a larger attempt to unify all the factors that EcoGeeks care about, and make it available to everyone. That's why there is enormous potential, and that's why I am excited. In the same way that the internet has granted unlimited options for self-expression and social networking, hopefully it will one day allow unprecedented communication, participation and cooperation in implemented clean technology.

Via Greentech Media

It's been a grim month for Nuclear Power, always a contentious issue for greens, power from the atom has taken two steps back as South African utility Eskom announce plans to cancel their tendering process for new nuclear plant in South Africa. It comes a week after revelations from the French economic publication Les Echos reveal that French campaign group "Sortir du nucléaire" have accused EdF of lying during a public consultation exercise which was the prelude to the decision to build a new nuclear plant at Flamanville in France.

Originally, it was announced that power from the Flamanville plant was costed at €43 / MWh, however, delays and added construction costs (a feature of every nuclear plant that has gone before Flamanville) have added to the costs and so the price of nuclear electricity from the plant is now estimated to be €55 / MWh - Les Echos stated that EdF were expected to announce this at their next meeting. The only other nuclear plant under construction is that at Olikuoto in Finland. It is of the same EPR (European Pressurised Reactor) design that is being constructed at Flamanville. The Finnsh reactor has also been plagued with problems and at one point in the construction, French contractor Bouygues were accused of using unqualified welders... quite worrying considering the specialised nature of nuclear engineering!

In an economy where finance is hard to come buy, and the governments of the world are already propping up their economies with massive debt, will massive projects which carry potentially massive liabilities such as nuclear power begin to look even less attractive, whilst smaller unit-cost renewables, with a demonstrable payback within their own life time