Atlantic City UA sells solar energy credits for $32,000

December 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

ACUA sells solar energy credits for $32,000

ATLANTIC CITY — Another part of its renewable energy program is paying off for the Atlan-tic County Utilities Authority. The ACUA reported the first sale of solar renewable energy credits for about $32,000. Those credits are part of an incentive program for companies to use more renewable energy, such as wind or solar power.

The state issues the ACUA one credit for every 1,000 kilowatts generated by its solar energy field. That field generated 135,000 kilowatts of power, or 135 credits. In this sale, the credits were bought by PSE&G Resources & Trade LLC. Each of the credits sold for $237.65.

Companies such as PSE&G can buy the credits rather than build their own solar fields to help meet their renewable-energy requirements, said ACUA Controller Katie Vesey. Vesey said that, in New Jersey, credits linked with solar energy carry the most value because the state is specifically pushing solar energy as a renewable energy source. The other benefit is that, without the credits and other associated state rebates, solar renewable energy
would be too expensive to produce, she said.

“The rebate provided by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities supporting the construction of this project and the revenue derived from the sale of (the credits) makes this solar project favorable from a financial standpoint,” said ACUA President Rick Dovey. The ACUA’s solar energy system at the treatment plant consists of two ground-mounted solar arrays, two roof-mounted solar arrays and one canopy array. The solar panel installation was completed in May.

ACUA officials estimate they’ll wind up with more than 600 credits for the “energy year” that began June 1 and will run through May 31, 2007. The solar energy system is one of several renewable energy products run by the ACUA. Also in May, ACUA officials said power generated by the five wind turbines at the treatment plant here helped the ACUA save almost $168,000 in energy costs during the first four months of the year.

The wind turbines generated on average almost 70 percent of the plant’s energy electricity during that time, according to ACUA figures. The ACUA estimated it would save at least $367,000 annually on electric costs once the wind farm was operational.

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Renewable energy crumb laced with poison

December 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

As leader of the Democrats, Senator Meg Lees negotiated the passage of the GST legislation with John Howard in 1999. She is standing for re-election in South Australia at the election for the ‘Progressive Alliance”.
This energy announcement and the diesel measures within bring us back to 1999 negotiations on the New Tax Package.

Then we were able to reduce the planned diesel bonus by $714 million and to include an environment package worth $376 million that covered fuel emission standards, gas conversions, renewable energies grants, green power, greenhouse gas emissions abatement, incentives for rail and gas vehicles.

At that time regional Australian relied heavily on diesel fired trucks for transport and for remote power generation. There were virtually no subsidies for any other fuels but diesel.

The aim of the negotiations with the government in 1999 was to encourage a shift to non fossil fuels to clean up diesel and petrol. The key aim of the abolition of the Diesel Fuel Rebate Scheme and its replacement with the Energy Credit scheme was to encourage use of other fuels – not just diesel.

Issues such as support for remote power generation were addressed through support for gas and/or solar and/or wind energy.

These reforms gave birth to lots of small renewable energy firms, particularly across regional Australia. They now provide the energy infrastructure for remote areas. It is an industry that has grown up since 1999 and has the potential for much more growth.

The 1999 changes to the Governments energy priorities were designed to take us into the 21st century. The new vision was for a smarter, and more innovative Australia through promoting clean renewable energy as an alternative to fossil fuels.

In today’s energy package the government claims that it is providing a balance between clean and dirty energies. Between the old and the new. That is plain rubbish. The scales are tipped significantly in favour of fossil fuel. The government has given the cake to the fossil fuel industry and the crumbs to the renewable energy industry. And even those crumbs are at risk.

Not only is the ‘clean’ package far from adequate, with an increase in the MRET missing, we find vastly increased support for diesel and petrol use.

The government proposes to extend an off-road excise rebate for diesel to those industries which were previously denied it, including forestry, manufacturing and construction. Primary producers will receive a benefit for their off road business use of petrol in their utility vehicles and 4 wheel motorcycles.

There is little point in providing support for research and development into renewable energies if these renewable options are priced out of use by the availability of cheap fossil fuels.

So while parts of the package that support the development of solar energy and support research into the storage of renewable energies are positive, the diesel part of the package undermines these measures.

The changes to the fuel excise system will have far reaching ramifications for Australia’s renewable energy industry if they are implemented – particularly the growing remote power generation industry – the traditional market for solar energy in Australia.

Making polluting fossil fuels excise free for stationary energy applications in regional Australia such as heating, electricity, generation and industrial applications reduces the cost of it by around 40 percent and works to make clean renewable energy systems uncompetitive.

Australia was generally recognised as a world leader in PV a number of years ago, largely driven by the extensive rollout of solar energy in remote area power supply – reliably meeting the power needs of our regional and remote communities. This has been Australia’s traditional market for solar energy.

Mr. Howard’s energy statement now undermines this industry sector, and this sector will face collapse if these measures are implemented. This puts at risk the livelihoods of around 300 renewable energy businesses and their families that are active in this market.

This not only results in an increase in greenhouse gas emissions but also reduces investment in regional and rural communities – the same communities who face the brunt of climate change.

The tragedy in this announcement is that Australia’s remote power generation sector has been a world leader with a number of businesses actively supplying renewable energy systems to developing countries. This is now jeopardised.

This is another example of the Howard government failing the renewable energy industry and small emerging businesses.

You can visit knolhub to know more about the DC 08 Vacuum cleaner.

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Vast New Energy Source Almost Here: Solar Hydrogen Fuel Dream

December 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Will Soon Be A Reality, Australian Scientists Predict

Australian scientists predict that a revolutionary new way to harness the power of the sun to extract clean and almost unlimited energy supplies from water will be a reality within seven years.

Using special titanium oxide ceramics that harvest sunlight and split water to produce hydrogen fuel, the researchers say it will then be a simple engineering exercise to make an energy-harvesting device with no moving parts and emitting no greenhouse gases or pollutants.

It would be the cheapest, cleanest and most abundant energy source ever developed: the main by-products would be oxygen and water.

“This is potentially huge, with a market the size of all the existing markets for coal, oil and gas combined,” says Professor Janusz Nowotny, who with Professor Chris Sorrell is leading a solar hydrogen research project at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Centre for Materials and Energy Conversion. The team is thought to be the most advanced in developing the cheap, light- sensitive materials that will be the basis of the technology.

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Solar energy Technology

December 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Solar energy is utterly incapable of powering the sort of heavy industry that our economy relies upon.  This is yet another one of those statements which is true and meaningless. Solar energy certainly isn’t capable of powering industry directly, and central generation of electricity by solar means is not all that practical. However, solar energy can power a lot of things on which centrally generated power is wasted, such as water heating and home heating and cooling.

I never said that solar energy is useless.  As you pointed out, it can be quite useful as a supplemental source of power for small-scale applications.  However, many people seem to think that solar energy can provide all the power needed for everything we do, and that if we just built enough solar collectors, we could abolish all other forms of energy generation.  That simply isn’t true.

Unfortunately, we seem to be overcome with this welfare state mentality, where we assume somebody else has got to do all the work and sell it to us by the gallon or kilowatt hour.It doesn’t have to be done that way, but it’s more efficient and safer. James Hogan puts it this way:

Decentralizing by putting solar panels on everybody’s roofs wouldn’t reduce the cost or the amount of materials used, either, but simply spread them out more thinly.  In fact, it would require more, for the same reason that McDonald’s uses less oil to cook two tons of french fries than eight thousand housewives who fry half a pound each.  The [power] storage problem wouldn’t go away, either, but would become each household’s own responsibility.  In a battery just big enough to start a car, gases can accumulate that one spark can cause to explode, sometimes with lethal consequences, as some unfortunates have discovered when using jumper leads carelessly.  Imagine the hazard that a basement full of batteries the size of grand pianos would present, which a genuinely all-solar home would need to get through a bad spell in, say, Minnesota in January.  Who would do the maintenance and keep the acid levels topped up?  And there would be the problem of keeping the panels free from snow and wet leaves–not in the summer months, but when the roofs are slippery and frozen.  Even today, the second biggest cause of accidental deaths in the country [U.S.], after automobiles, is falls. If we build all those houses with skating rinks on the roofs and bombs in the basements, we’d better build a lot more hospitals and emergency rooms, too, while we’re at it.

Solar energy is useful–no doubt about it.  But it’s not a magic solution to all our energy problems.

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: , , , , , ,

How come solar energy never caught on?

December 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Until batteries become far more efficient, solar energy will never become a widely-useable energy source.  Making a better battery is proving very, very difficult.  There really is no guarantee that it can be done.

Another potential is the cyclic conversion of water to hydrogen by day and hydrogen to water fuel cells at night.

However, in areas like Phoenix, storage is not an issue right now. Power consumption peaks when the temperature peaks. It is during these peaks that the local utilities are forced to use their least efficient and dirties generators. If we used solar for 15% of our power, it would smooth out the consumption spikes with little or no need of storage.

Solar cells get a little more efficient each year. If you convert a house in Phoenix to 100% solar (including batteries and a service contract) it will take ~20 years to pay off all the equipment. Some progressive banks are starting to offer combo-mortgages with a payment less than house payment and electric bill combined.

To conserve power, the local electric companies already offer a program where power is much more expensive in the afternoon. So, if you do all you cooking and washing in off peak hours, you save a fair amount of cash. Combine that type of billing with a self contained direct solar AC unit that runs whenever there is enough sunlight and it could pay for itself pretty quickly.

As conventional power gets more expensive and more vulnerable to accidental and intentional failure, and solar get more efficient, you will see solar take off. It is already growing at a substantial rate.

Even with current technology, there definitely is a role for solar energy. The start-up expenses are daunting, but if enough folks take it up, mass production will greatly lower costs.  Unless there is a fundamental breakthrough, solar isn’t going to provide a large percentage of our energy needs, but scenarios like you describe above show the utility of solar power under the right circumstances.

Filed Under: Technology

RENEWABLE ENERGY DEVELOPMENT IN CUBA

December 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Up until 1960 Cuba’s electricity was based on petroleum, and was mostly for large cities and tourist places. The majority of rural areas had no electricity. The whole country was surviving on barely 800 MW. The revolution of 1959 led to a big push for rural electrification. By 1989, 96% of the country was electrified, with over 3000 MW. However, Cuba was importing most of its petroleum from the socialist bloc, at low prices. In 1989, with the falling of the socialist bloc, Cuba could not afford to buy petroleum on the international market. They had been using 4 million tons of petroleum per year for electricity for houses. This had to be cut down to 2 million. The need to reduce their energy usage by 50% led to an extreme revamping of their energy plan, and a huge push
for renewable energy.

Energy, Sweet Energy
Sugar is the heart of Cuba’s renewable energy program. Sugarcane, Cuba’s main export crop, is supplying almost 30% of the energy used in Cuba. After the cane is harvested, the residue (bagasse) is used to power the whole plant. They then sell the excess electricity back to the grid. There are 156 sugar mills in Cuba. They each produce 20 – 80 kWh/ton of bagasse. They are also compressing the waste parts of the plant such as
the leaves and the stalk to be used as a solid fuel.

Energy from Cuba’s Rivers
The second most important renewable energy source in Cuba is micro-hydro power. Cuba is not blessed with many large rivers, but it does have a lot of small rivers. This turns out to be a great advantage. They have not had the chance to create the massive destruction of large dams as we have, but have installed over 220 micro-hydro systems, supplying 30,000 Cubans with electricity. Right now they are generating 55 MW from hydro
sites, with an annual generation of 80 GWh. Some of the systems are used to provide electricity to remote regions without the grid, and other systems are used to sell electricity back into the grid. The systems range from 8 kW up to 500 kW.
One of the towns we visited in Guama, a province with 30 micro-hydro plants, has a 30 kW system. The system provides electricity for the 250 people living in 56 houses. Each house is limited to 100 watts, and the entire community is only using 10 kW. They eventually want to send their excess electricity to the next town over, which is 4 kilometers away, and is also not connected to the grid. Four people operate the system, each working six hours per day. They make sure the output of the hydro system meets the demand of the community. The people in the town only need to pay a small fee to cover the salaries of the four operators.

The “Sol” of Cuba
We also had the chance to visit a beautiful town in the mountains called Magdalena. Magdalena is off the grid as well, and is completely powered by photovoltaics. The community has a population of 574. Each house has its own 70 watt PV system, to run compact fluorescent DC lights, radio and television. The houses each have 18 lighting hours per day. There are 11-watt PV street lights lining the street. There is also a 3 kW PV
powered water pumping system which pumps 30,000 gallons of water per day for the entire community. The community center has an inverter to run ac appliances, and the doctor’s office has a larger 8 panel system with a PV powered vaccine refrigerator.
Throughout Cuba, there are 295 PV powered rural homes, three community systems averaging 2500 peak watts each, and over 50 PV powered doctor offices. They are manufacturing their own charge controllers, have developed a sine wave inverter and are making their own modules from imported cells. They hope to soon manufacture their own PV cells as well. The majority of the problems with PV systems have been related to
the tropical conditions of the Cuban climate. Most of the installed equipment was not designed for tropical conditions. Therefore, the Center for Solar Energy Research (CIES) in Santiago de Cuba has a research lab to test the performance of solar equipment in a tropical climate. They hope to be the central research and information center for tropical PV research in the entire Latin American and Caribbean region.

A “Cool” Greenhouse

The intense Cuban heat also poses some problems for agriculture. While we have greenhouses so we can grow summer crops in the winter, the Cubans have devised a reverse greenhouse, so they can grow winter crops in the summer. The reverse greenhouse is a small room with a flat glass roof. There is a layer of water on the roof, which blocks the infra red radiation from entering. The water is colored, the exact color to block the IR, and they can vary the amount of radiation entering the greenhouse by varying the amount of water in the roof tank. They also pump this water through tubes in the greenhouse, and mist the plants with it, to help it cool off more. They have basically eliminated the need for any back-up cooling to grow plants in the heat of the summer.

Wind Power
Wind energy is also happening in Cuba. There are over 9000 wind mills pumping water in Cuba, and many small wind generators under 1 kW. The majority of wind mills and turbines are made in Cuba. They are currently studying the wind potential in Cuba with the possibility of installing large wind farms to provide electricity to the grid.

Solar Sisters
I cannot write about the energy program in Cuba without mentioning Cuban women. Cuban women are integrated into every aspect of Cuban society. Over 50% of the doctors in the country, and 55% of all scientific professionals are women. I realized how far we still need to go in the U.S. when we visited a 40 kW micro-hydro site in Jagueyon. I found
myself being shocked that the entire operation was run by two women. Although I have been in the engineering field for years, and have tried to integrate more women into the science and engineering field, it is a much more common sight to see women technicians and engineers in Cuba than in our “developed” nation. In fact, not long ago, 75% of the people passing the entrance exams to enter science and technology universities were women. The Cuban government had to implement an affirmative action program, by lowering the necessary test scores for men, to even out the gender gap. Now women
make up 60% of the students in the science and technology universities. Cuba’s Future Generations We also cannot forget the young people of Cuba. Renewable energy and the
environment are big parts of the Cuban education system, from primary schools through the university level. All high schools teach renewable energy in their curriculum, and some of them have renewable energy equipment at the school as well. We visited the Che Guevara Technical High School in Havana. There are 500 students (over 300 of them women) and the school uses a solar oven, solar water heaters, PV modules and wind turbines. Although the school is not specifically geared towards renewable energy, every class includes a renewable energy component. In biology class they learn how to build a biogas plant, and in physics they learn how a solar panel works. They also have an energy efficient wood burning stove which cooks the meals for the students during the week. This is the same type of stove that is implemented in over 250 schools throughout Cuba. It amazed me how far Cuba has advanced in the face of severe shortages. The economic crisis and the U.S. trade embargo have made electricity blackouts and shortages of food, soap and toilet paper a fact of daily life. Yet the determination to develop in a sustainable way has led the Cubans on an impressive renewable energy path, in spite of the lack of materials, computers, and money.
Although I brought a lot to Cuba in the form of humanitarian aid such as medicine and renewable energy books, I feel I came away with much more. I learned many things from the Cuban people. I realized that ending the trade embargo is crucial not only to allow Cuba to receive much needed materials, but also to allow us to learn from their accomplishments. I also learned that sustainable development is not so much an economic issue as a political issue. If a country truly wants to develop in a sustainable way, it can improve people’s quality of life no matter what the GNP. And Cuba’s accomplishments in the field of renewable energy proves it.

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Solar Energy Technology

December 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Energy the earth receives from the sun is so enormous and so lasting that total energy consumed annually by the entire world is supplied in as short a time as a half hour. It is clean and renewable energy, not emitting neither green-house effect gas nor noxious waste through its utilization. The New Sunshine Project is to pursue advanced technological development from a long-term point of view for reducing cost and improving efficiency in regard to the development of photovoltaic and solar heat utilization technology, aiming at the efficient utilization of solar energy.

Development of Solar Cells

Purposes
R&D of the manufacturing technology is carried out for the purpose of proving low-cost solar cells.

Issues and objectives
Towards the cost goal for 2000, it is aimed to develop the mass production technology for low-cost and high quality cells and modules, and to establish the technology for evaluation, so as to disseminate photovoltaic. Additionally, technological development of promising compound solar cells will be emphasized. When the Sun Shine Project started in 1974, the manufacturing cost of solar cells as Y20,000-30,000/W. In 1992, it has been reduced to Y600/W or so. R&D will be continued for further reducing the cost to Y200/W or less.

Contents of the activities programmed for fiscal 1995 With regard to thin polycrystalline solar cells, it will be attempted to develop technologies of purifying silicon for low-cost solar cells from high purity metal silicon, of electromagnetic casting, of manufacturing low-cost, high quality substrate for solar cells, and technology of low-cost, mass production technology of high efficiency cells and modules based on high quality polycrystalline substrate. For thin film solar cells, technological development is
conducting now for mass production of large area, low cost modules based on amorphous solar cells and CdTe solar cells, for cost reduction of manufacturing process of reinforced glass substrate with transparent electro-conductive film, for keeping the conversion efficiency of amorphous solar cells at a higher level following the initial deterioration, for manufacturing thin film polycrystalline solar cells and CulnSe2 solar cells. And for super high efficiency solar cells, technological development is conducting for manufacturing single-crystalline silicon substrate and solar cells, for manufacturing solar cells by joining III-V compound thin film (such as Ca, In, As, Ge and P) on
to silicon substrate .
With regard to solar cell evaluation systems, technology for standardized measurement and evaluation of stacked solar cells, conduction of long-term outdoor exposure test, and improvement of the accuracy of standardized technique for assessing reliability are being sought for.

Development of Photovoltaic Systems Technology

Purposes
Technological development is being pursued for the purpose of practical application of photovoltaic systems.

Issues and objectives
R&D for improving performance, reducing cost and simplifying of the grid-connected photovoltaic systems for residences, which have great potential as alternative energy application, as well as of the stand-alone systems for remote area, will be pursued.

Contents of the activities programmed for fiscal 1995 The research will involve systems assessment technology for systems design and operation of the photovoltaic systems as a whole, and standardized testing and assessing technology for peripheral equipment such as inverter, storage battery and grid-connection devices. Besides, for simplifying peripheral equipment, R&D of multifunctional inverters and low-cost high performance batteries are being advanced. R&D concerning the application of photovoltaics to
residence, including composite solar cells and modules incorporated with construction
materials and R&D concerning the improvement in reliability of the module is also strived for. On the other hand, as a demonstrating research for stand-alone photovoltaic system, R&D of diesel/PV hybrid systems is being carried out at Miyako Island, Okinawa.

 

Solar Heat Utilization Technology

Purposes
In order to promote the utilization of solar heat energy in industries and in overseas countries where abundant isolation is available, the development of various types
of solar heat utilization system is being advanced.

Issues and objectives
The solar system is divided into two categories: active and passive solar systems. The former is covert solar radiation into thermal energy for the utilization in hot water supply, air-conditioning and industrial heat sources. This system may be designed either for household or industrial application. While the household system is now in the stage of dissemination and practical application, the industrial system has a number of R&D problems, because the industry consumes an enormous amount of heat and involves diversified processes. A lot of technological development will be required for achieving practical utilization.
Contents of the activities for fiscal 1995
(1) Development of advanced heat process system to extend the temperature range derived from the solar radiations to either lower or higher temperature sides. The solar freezing/refrigerating system of stand-alone type will be developed, aiming at an independent system for use in desert or rich isolation area to provide refrigeration at -10 deg.C or so.

(2) Development of a passive solar system effectively utilizing solar energy by controlling the amount and direction of transfer of solar radiation and heat. Particularly, variable glazing glass is being developed in expectation of saving energy for air-conditioning of building. Additionally, international joint development projects are implemented to promote the utilization of solar energy in overseas countries having abundant isolation, by transferring solar heat energy utilization technologies developed under the Sunshine Projects. Development on industrial dehydration system utilizing an air heating collector, for application to wooden products and such, is carried in cooperation with Indonesia.

International Collaboration

Purposes
International Collaboration Projects will be advanced in regard to the development of Photovoltaic system.

Issues and objectives
With regard to the development of photovoltaic system, technological cooperation under the bilateral science and technology cooperation acts, and multilateral collaboration under the International Energy Agency (IEA) are implemented though information exchange, R&D, demonstration, analysis, promotion of application, etc.

Contents of the active programmed for fiscal 1995 As a part of bilateral technological cooperation on solar energy, information is exchanged with USA, France, Germany, Italy, and so on, and as a part of multilateral cooperation, joint efforts are made in the photovoltaic programs and solar energy air-conditioning and hot water supply programs under IEA, to conduct technological survey on solar energy technology. Moreover, on
the basis of Japan-Australia Science and Technology Cooperation, exposure test for solar
cells is being carried out to assess their performance at a number of sites in Australia under severe weather environment, and joint research is implemented on remote power supply system to provide electric power to villages sparsely dispersed in vast area.
In collaboration with the Indonesian Government, village electrification system based on photovoltaics for medium-sized villages are installed for running test, to put previous achievements into practical application.

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,