Category Archives: renewable energy

Wind Energy System for Consumers?

Posted by Liesbeth on April 9, 2012 No comments

Wind Energy System: Take Advantage of Wind

Small Wind Energy System

When viewing the North Sea from the sandy beaches of Holland, the sea looks deserted apart from the odd seaship. No Wind Energy system in sight.

As a matter of fact the North Sea is the busiest sea on earth. It is a busy industrial area: under the surface many pipes and cables dating back to the nineteenth century to the newest internet cables.

The sea is no more than 30 to 50 meters deep in most places, which is ideal for constructing platforms. In the ‘Doggersbank’ the depth is only 15 meters.

Above the surface, but luckily often out of sight, hundreds of oil and gas platforms have been built since the 1970s. The North Sea is ideal for building a wind energy system.

In the meantime ten wind turbine parks have been constructed that turn the fierce sea winds into energy. In total they are responsible for 1.941 Megawatt energy which is sufficient to supply 1,8 million households with energy. These turbines can be as tall as 20-story buildings and usually have three 200-foot-long (60-meters-long) blades. The wind spins the blades, and these blades turn a shaft that is connected to a generator producing electricity.

If all plans that have been scheduled for the next years will get carried out, the North Sea will deliver 40 times as much wind energy in ten years time. An area as large as 25.000 square kilometres will be occupied by wind turbines. But what about a wind energy system for us, consumers??!

Wind energy system for consumers?

Now, what can we as consumers do if we live in a windy area? Can we build a small wind energy system near our house, or even on top of our homes? What are our options to make use of wind? It seems such an easy option to producing energy and to saving energy. Wind is a very clean source of green energy or renewable energy, producing no pollution of the air or water.

And since wind energy is entirely free, operational costs are almost nihil as soon as a wind energy system is erected. But, wind is unpredictable at the same time. If it’s not blowing, no electricity is generated.

Small wind energy systems are indeed one of the most cost-effective renewable energy systems, and non-polluting at the same time. A small wind energy system could lower your electricity bills with 50% to 90%. A great method of saving energy!

Secondly, it can also help avoiding the high costs of having utility power lines extended to a remote location. Once you have a small wind energy system, it can be utilized for other applications such as water pumping on a farm or ranch.

Wind energy system: stand-alone or connected?

A small wind energy system can be connected to another electric system, or can stand alone. If you are living in a remote location, a stand-alone wind energy system can be more cost-effective. The alternative is to extend a power line to another electricity grid. These costs could well range from $15,000 to $50,000 per mile! A small wind energy system erected in a backyard can produce enough electricity for a single home or small business.

A successful stand-alone green wind energy system generally takes advantage of a combination of technologies. Setting up a stand-alone wind energy system is not an easy business to do, but can be very rewarding if successful! If you are not very technical yourself, you can always ask a local system supplier or installer, a local renewable energy organization to help you. Often there are specific requirements in your area. A very useful site for those of you who are American, is the website of the United States Department of Energy.

If you want to know more about a small Wind Energy System, and may want to look into constructing one yourself, just have a look at this Solar, Wind Energy DIY guide

Click here for more information on constructing a small wind energy system!

* Why Not Build Your Own Electric Car?! *

Posted by Liesbeth on March 10, 2012 No comments

Time to build your own electric car?

Consumers unfortunately still barely buy electric cars, despite great interest in saving energy, and in green energy. If we take a country such as The Netherlands as our example: in the years 2010 and 2011 Dutch individuals – so companies excluded- have bought no more than 58 electric cars! This is only 5 percent of the total number of electric vehicles sold in these two years, which mounts to 1135. The total market share of electric cars is a mere 0.3% of the entire car market in The Netherlands. The price is still far to high. It seems time to build your own electric car!

The electric car is very much the focus of the attention of consumers who are interested in renewable energy technologies, green energy and saving energy. In all likelihood it is the still relatively high price of the electric car that scares them off. Also, the number of plug-in stations is still very limited. Who wants to be on the side of the road with an empty battery, with no plug-in station nearby..? Some electric car manufacturers guarantee a pick-up in the first year of use when the batteries are empty..! The number of plug-ins stations will increase drastically in the next five years or so. It seems many companies are investing in placing plug-in stations in countries where the electrical cars are being used more frequently. It indeed is a sine qua non for the use of electric cars..!

Also, and that still is a great hurdle for people, the range of electric cars is still limited. Every 150 kilometers one has to recharge. Last but not least, once you have driven some 150.000 kilometers in total, you would have to renew all battreries of the car. We still have to wait for the second or even the third generation ef electric cars! Why wait for all this, and take life in your own hands. It is time to build your own electric car!

Where is the electric vehicle charging station??

When a driver has found a plug-in station, it all depends on whether there is a fast-loader or a regular one. If you plug a car with empty batteries in a fast-loader it still takes 20 minutes for it to be loaded 80%. Of course, the charging can be done at home with regular 220 Volt, but that takes 12 hours for the batteries to be completely charged from 0% to 100%.

Fortunately, a lot of research is being done to make the batteries in the car smaller. Further research needs to be done to make batteries more efficient. The American Company Now Envia Systems has managed to produce a battery that allows an electrical car to drive for 480 kilometers. The company has developed a prototype of car that should cost around 19.000 euros. This is a very competitive price for an electric vehicle.

I very much look forward to more research on batteries & fast-loading devices, so that electric cars will be more popular among customers. In this time and age when the interest in green energy and renewable energy is growing among people this is crucial. They need to be more affordable. We will get there (preferably) sooner or later! In the meantime there is only one solution: Build your own electric car!!

Can you build your own electric car?

You can rebuild a car into an electric car. Many people have already made their own converted electric cars. One of them is Tom Hanks.

Did you know that the famous actor Tom Hanks has been driving CONVERTED electric car for years now?

Check out this video from YouTube!!

If you think electric cars are still too expensive to buy, you could consider to build your own electric car! I found an inexpensive & easy -to-follow guide.

Do check if you want to start saving money right now, and BUILD YOUR OWN ELECTRIC CAR!! Click Here!

New Discovery for Solar Panels!

Posted by Liesbeth on March 9, 2012 No comments

Solar panels with new anti-reflective layer discovered!

House with old style solar panels

If we think of solar panels we tend to think of shining bright reflective rectangles on top of roofs: ugly and distracting. For me personally this is so off-putting that I have not placed them on my roof. I live in a neighbourhood built in the 1920s where this would be too distractive, and perhaps even prohibited. The good news is that these shiny blue panels can be covered with a thin anti-reflective layer which turns them into black surfaces! This ultra-thin layer makes sure that the photovoltaic cells in the panels let through hardly any light so that they can generate more energy. All of it, of course, green energy, straight from the sun. Solar panels from now on will be less ugly and more energy efficient!

These type of discoveries make solar panels increasingly efficient. Not only is the market growing for renewable energy, the market for solar panels in growing explosively. But the competition is killing. Especially the Chinese are very much getting into solar energy and solar panels which is why a lot of companies who are making and distributing solar panels have gone into bankruptcy. Prices of solar panels have dropped 80% in the last years!

Solar panels have dropped in price considerably!

To us as a consumer this is really good news because competition implies lower prices. Solar panels last for some thirty years and can be earned back within fifteen to twenty years. Discoveries such as the anti-reflective layer can even shorten this period of earning back. The layer now increases the efficiency of a solar panel with no less than 1 %. This does not seem to be a big increase, but it is. Developments go step by step, and add to the efficiency, which is now 15-20 %.

The discovery was made by Albert Polman, director of the research institute AMOLF in Amsterdam. He published his findings in Nature Communications.

The next challenge is making the sun cells slimmer while maintaining the current levels of solar energy.

The International Energy Agency forecasts that half of all electricity will be generated by solar energy in fifty years time. Solar panels for consumers is to be the big thing! Differences between neighbouring countries can be rather large depending on governmental policies. For instance, in The Netherlands this is still 0,1 %, whereas in Germany this is already 4%. There is still a lot to be won in the world of renewable energy and solar panels in particular!

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What is ‘Green Energy’ actually?

Posted by Liesbeth on February 25, 2012 No comments

Green Energy: what is it?

Green Energy

Green energy (or renewable energy) is energy coming from natural resources such as the sun, the wind, the rain, or even geothermal heat and tides. These are all renewable – naturally replenished. The positive aspect is that Green Energy can be extracted, generated or consumed without causing significant negative impact to our globe and the environment.

At this moment in time, no more than a mere 16% of all global energy consumption is green, with 10% deriving from traditional bio-mass which is most frequently used for heating, and 3,4% from hydro-electricity. New renewable energy sources such as small hydro, modern biomass, wind, solar, geothermal, and biofuels, account for another 3% and are fortunatelt growing rather rapidly. The share of renewable enrgy in the generation of electricity is approximately 19%, with 16% of global electricity deriving from hydro-electricity and 3% from new renewable energy sources

Wind power is currently growing at a rate of 30% annually worldwide, and is widely used in Europe, the United States and also in Asia. At the end of 2011 the photovoltaic (PV) capacity world-wide was 67,000 MegaWatt. Photovoltaic power stations are now very popular in Italy and Germany.

Green Energy: solar power stations

Solar power stations operate in the US and Spain. The largest power plant is the one in the Mojave Desert. The largest geothermal power installation of the world is the Geysers in California. This has a rated capacity of 750 MegaWatt. Currently, Brazil has one of the largest renewable energy programs in the world, involving the production of ethanol fuel from sugar cane (!) and ethanol, providing 18% of the automotive fuel of the country. In the United States, ethanol fuel is also widely available.

Many renewable energy projects are large-scale. Renewable technologies are also very suited to rural and remote areas where indeed energy is often crucial. In 2011, small solar Photovoltaic systems provide electricity to a few million households. Micro-hydro configured into mini-grids serve many more. It is estimated that over 44 million households use bio gas which is made in household-scale digesters for cooking and /or lighting lighting. More than 166 million households heavily rely on the new generation of more efficient biomass cookstoves. This is great: green energy has the ability to lift even the poorest nations to new, better levels of prosperity.

Climate change concerns, in combination with very high -even peaking- oilprices, and increasing government support, are behind increasing renewable energy legislation, incentives and commercialization. New government spending, regulation and policies can really help the industry weather the global economic crisis better than many other sectors. According to a 2011 prediction by the International Energy Agency, solar power generators could well produce most of the world’s electricity within 50 years, thereby dramatically reducing the emission of the greenhouse effects harming the environment. Green Energy really is the future!

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