Éliminer ses déchets organiques tout en produisant de l’énergie et en réduisant les émissions de polluants. La prometteuse mais exigeante voie de la valorisation énergétique par méthanisation est de plus en plus explorée, notamment pour les ordures ménagères. Il était temps.
De la matière organique, un digesteur, une flore microbiologique adaptée, pas d’oxygène, beaucoup de doigté et de la patience. Collectivités, industriels ou agriculteurs sont de plus en plus nombreux à se laisser séduire par la subtile recette du biogaz. Avec ce précieux ingrédient, ils produisent ensuite électricité, chaleur voire biocarburant. Boues de station d’épuration (Step), déchets de process industriels, ordures ménagères résiduelles, déchets organiques issus de collecte sélective, lisier,... Tous les gisements de matières organiques sont potentiellement utilisables. Et partout en France, les projets se multiplient.
> suiteThere is no quick way for the European Union to penalize Russia and Ukraine for the gas dispute that led to a frosty two-week cutoff in natural-gas supplies this month. So, for the time being, the EU continues to receive one-quarter of its gas supplies from Russia — and four-fifths of that via pipelines in Ukraine — just as it did before the feud began.
But the 27-member bloc has already signaled that it will neither forgive nor forget, with EU officials exploring new energy alternatives that circumvent Ukraine, or Russia altogether.
> suiteWhen European leaders met to discuss how to respond to Russia’s aggression in Georgia, they appeared to find themselves between a rock and a hard place. Punish Russia and the EU will risk goading its large neighbour into following through on threats to divert gas and oil supplies from Europe to the Far East. Do nothing, or merely stick to tough-sounding rhetoric, and the EU will find itself out of sync with its own aspirations for a larger role in the world and especially in its eastern neighbourhood. No wonder the results were less than forceful.
But the EU is in a stronger position than it realises, as far as energy is concerned. Vladimir Putin’s threat to divert Russia’s energy exports away from Europe is not new : Russia has been using it for at least a decade, especially to put pressure on the EU not to pursue liberalisation of its gas market. But this threat is as irrelevant today as it ever was. Oil and natural gas are very different products with different markets, but in each case, the Russian threat is overdone.
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