“Mrs Foster and her son, Ken Harcombe, have built a house at Whangateau, near Leigh, which is completely self-sufficient in energy with a windmill, four photovoltaic solar energy panels, a solar water heater and a woodburning stove. The house cost only $200,000. But the windmill cost just over $2000, the four solar panels cost $2000 each plus $4000 for an “inverter”, which allows them to run normal appliances, the solar water heater cost more than $3000 and the wood stove, $12,000.”
A Total of $29k for self sufficiency, no grid power connected at all since it was going to cost $20k for the line. The article points out that a cheaper stove could have been chosen. What the article dosnt say though is what lifestyle choices had to be made to accomdate this situation nor what the running and maintenance costs might be.
On the surface this looks a great arrangement and goes a long way to proving that NZ can avoid problems with energy shortages that have
plagued us since before the second world war. While this lifestyle will not be everyones choice I am sure the reduction of the domestic component it could provide would go a long way to reducing the demand currently on our generation resources.
Even if only solar water heating was used by all new domestic buildings (and smaller commercial buildings) the demand reduction would be
significant, but is the Govt (or the energy companies) considering this, no and NO, and why not? Because they lose too much!
Utilizing the power of the Sun to provide energy for homes has developed into a fine art. This month, Energy Awareness Month, the American Solar Energy Society is coordinating the opening of hundreds of private homes across the country for public viewing.
Whenever settlement of the outer solar system is discussed in this ng, it’s always assumed that it will be done using fusion power to provide energy, with an “edge of sunlight”, beyond which solar photovoltaics which cannot be used, around 3 A.U.
Solar hydrogen fuel dream will soon be a reality 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. “Based on our research results, we know we are on the right track and with the right support we now estimate that we can deliver a new material within seven years,” says Nowotny. Sorrell says Australia is ideally placed to take advantage of the enormous potential of this new technology: “We have abundant sunlight, huge reserves of titanium and we’re close to the burgeoning energy markets of the Asia-Pacific region. But this technology could be used anywhere in the world. It’s been the dream of many people for a long time to develop it and it’s exciting to know that it is now within such close reach.”
Almost anything will burn if you get it hot enough; but asside from fission, fusion, and water power, most of the energy we use these days comes from easily combustible matter such as wood, coal, or petroleum products. Through the years we’ve learned to safely control and direct this combustion with external combustion steam engines and internal combution gas; diesel, jet and rocket engines.
An opportunity to offer your hands, heart, and a unique gift: Solar Energy to a rural community in Nicaragua!
Back about 1981 I was working for a lrge corporation. My fellow workers and myself through the years would discuss many different subjects. But, that year the most frequently discussed subject was solar energy. Practically anyone in the place was eager to discus the subject. Then there came those socalled “solar energy specials” on T. V. Now I feel it’s important to to take note of who the sponsors of these “solar energy specials” were. It was always a major oil company and or the federal government. So, at the time I was doing some research on energy in general in The U. S. One of the things I found out was that from the beginning up until that time most of the people in congress especially the senators had their personal investments in oil. now, if you know much about cycology you know that sometimes something implied can be more effective than something said openly. So, what they did on those “solar energy specials” was to demonstrate using an engineer with a whole wall full of degrees the most complicated system possible. By doing this they implied that solar energy was too complex for the aveage viewer to understand. They couldn’t afford to come right out and say it because that would have insulted the audience. But, they could imply it and get with it. Then, they come right out and said that it was too expensive to be practical at the present time.
Many groups and individuals are proposing that our government spend tax money on research and development of systems to utilize solar energy. They urge construction of vast solar energy collectors to convert sunlight to electricity to supply our energy needs. They would even put solar collectors on roofs of homes, factories, schools, and other buildings. Proponents of this technology claim that energy obtained from the sun will be safer and cleaner than coal, oil, or nuclear energy sources.