By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Wed, 2010-06-30 05:30
What is the best use of small plots of urban land?
Gardening is presently a hot topic in many metropolitan areas around the world. Small open spaces — from rooftops and patios to unused parking spaces and disused building sites — are actively being turned into vegetable, herb, and decorative gardens. Terms like 'square meter gardening', 'parking space gardening', and 'micro-gardening' seem to be blooming everywhere. Self-styled 'guerrilla gardeners' even occupy public and private strips of land to plant their greenery and vegetables.
The advantages of small city gardens are obvious: they bring more green into the city, it is a pleasurable pastime for many individuals, and often provides a cheap source of produce. It is surprising in fact how much food a small urban garden can produce. Proponents argue that a single 30m2 piece of land is enough to feed one person for one year. In Singapore, for example, one quarter of all of the vegetables consumed are products of inner-city gardens.
Now suppose you are living in a large city and take the decision to stop using a privately owned vehicle and rely instead upon a shared car, public transport, or bicycling. Assuming you had off-street parking, what is the best use of your former parking space: gardening or solar electricity?
If your point of view is more heavily oriented towards aesthetics and leisure activities, then the garden will probably be your preferred option. But what is the economic and ecological balance between these two options?
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Tue, 2010-06-08 05:30
Reasons to adopt green energy
It has long been considered self-evident that green energy will cost more than conventional sources. Individuals opting for green energy do so because of their strong belief in the necessity of achieving a greener planet. Given the possible alternatives, this small price premium is not an issue. These people are truly early adopters, proud to anticipate major shifts in the energy market. Companies, on the other hand, are generally perceived to be investing in green energy to stress their public image of corporate responsibility and consider this added cost as part of doing business.
Beyond the green energy hype
Today, the green energy climate has changed. The period of big hype is over. Green energy is becoming increasingly mainstream. In addition, the worldwide economic crisis is forcing potential investors to think twice before spending their money. In the current economic climate, the assumption that paying more is acceptable is no longer obvious. One can regret this evolution, but the de-idealisation of the market also brings along certain advantages. The Jersey City Independent recently featured an article on the Szapala family. Adam Szapala calls himself 'a climate change sceptic' but has installed photovoltaic arrays on his rooftop. Sceptic or not, he has decided to take advantage of the ample New Jersey state financial incentives and the system of Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs) to bring the payback time of his installation down to five years.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Tue, 2010-06-01 05:30
Only very small amounts in terms of percentage
Last April, the Spanish newspaper El Mundo published a story on PV farms that claimed to have produced solar electricity between midnight and 7 a.m. The newspaper suspected the operators of running diesel-burning generators at night to cash in on the high feed-in tariffs for photovoltaic electricity in that country. A number of foreign media channels, including the influential Bloomsberg Businessweek, picked up the story.
The reaction of the Spanish PV industry association, Asociación de la Industria Fotovoltaica, regretted the fact that vague and sometimes unsubstantiated accusations of photovoltaic fraud get into the press with relative frequency. Not all of these stories translate into a valid legal case. Concerned about the public image of the sector, they asked the government to investigate the newspaper’s claims.
Such messages do indeed harm the image of solar energy. Moreover, they fuel questions regarding the usefulness of government incentives. Is the potential for fraud an argument against the system of feed-in tariffs?
Before jumping to any conclusions, it is worthwhile to put the figures into perspective. The total amount of energy that was allegedly produced fraudulently was 4,500 MWh, according to El Mundo. This is 0.05% of the total PV production in Spain in 2009 (Sources: Energyportal.eu and IEA). In the same period, the European retail sector lost 1.33% of their turnover to theft and the American retail sector even more at 1.61% (Source: CRR Centre for Retail Research).
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Tue, 2010-05-11 05:30
Facilitating individuals and companies in going solar
Photovoltaic (PV) energy is probably the simplest technology available for producing electricity. As a result, many green energy-minded individuals and companies have assumed a pioneering role and installed PV panels on their rooftop or site. However, not everybody is a pioneer. For the majority of individuals and companies, the financing, developing, and operating of PV panels are not at the top of their list of priorities. They do not — or no doubt in some cases cannot — expend precious time and resources on the effort that planning and installing PV initially entails. Yet, they may feel positively regarding renewable electricity and own a suitable site for harvesting solar energy. For those people, specialised renewable energy companies provide Solar Energy as a Service (SEaaS). The SEaaS company takes on a large part of the work and investment, in return for part of the benefits.
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By Fernando Nuno / Published on Tue, 2010-03-09 11:14
In this session the main elements of the parabolic trough technology will be described: concentrators, receivers, heat transfer fluids, connecting elements, etc.
Then, the main characteristics of today’s parabolic trough solar thermal power plants will be presented: design, operation and costs.
Finally, the audience will get some ideas for future developments.
This is the 2nd lesson of the general training on CSP technology.
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By Fernando Nuno / Published on Thu, 2010-03-04 18:21
Now in its fourth year, the Spanish Solar Industry conference will take place on 7-8 October 2010 in Madrid. This annual event will, among other topics, cover legislative developments, national and international market trends, look at how close Spain is to grid parity and bring in finance experts to show how to reduce costs for PV installations.
Solarpraxis invites all companies, associations, institutes, public-sector bodies and professionals to submit contributions related to the broad field of solar energy.
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By Fernando Nuno / Published on Thu, 2010-02-18 15:55
Lesson 1 : Fundamentals of concentrating solar thermal power
In this session, the contents will focus on the physical and thermodynamic basis of Concentrated Solar Power:
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By HDK / Published on Mon, 2009-11-02 06:16
Jean-Paul Hautekeer will explain why innovation, efficiency and sustainability have become such crucial needs for business and how silicon technology can help to meet those needs, particularly in the context of building design and protection. He will begin by discussing some of the factors influencing sustainability, defining sustainable building and explaining its benefits. Looking towards the future, he will reflect on why cities will increasingly depend on sustainable technologies and how silicon will contribute to the needs of urban areas.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Tue, 2009-09-15 05:30
Integrating road networks and power networks
The US Department of Transportation has awarded funding for building a 'solar highway' prototype. A solar highway contains photovoltaic (PV) modules covered with bulletproof glass as a road surface. The surface also contains a grid of LEDs that can light the roadway, draw lines, and flash warnings that react to traffic sensors. Apart from supplying power for the LEDs and sensors, the energy generated by the PV modules will also be used to heat the highway when required. The remaining energy can be used for houses and businesses alongside the road. If this systems works as projected, it could well make power stations and power lines superfluous. According to an article on Matter Network, covering all American roads with this system would produce an annual yield of energy three times as large as the entire U.S. energy consumption in 2006.
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Wed, 2009-09-09 11:54
This document is an overall report of the seminar “Electricity in the next decade”, the first in an annual series of events regarding “Low carbon electricity systems”. KEMA, ECI and Leonardo ENERGY are jointly organising these events.
Next to the topics presented during the first event, a few additional topics have been added in order to create a white paper and a more complete picture on the theme “Electricity in the next decade”.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Tue, 2009-09-01 05:30
Massive investments in wind and solar energy projects
China is well on track to surpass the US as the world’s largest market for wind turbines. While the European Union is struggling to reach its renewable energy targets, China is surpassing its own targets with ease. At the beginning of 2008, the target of the Chinese government was to have 5,000 MW of wind power installed by the end of 2010. Only a few months after proclaiming this figure, it was doubled to 10,000 MW. As of today, it looks like China is going to have 30,000 MW of wind power installed by the end of next year.
A favourable regulatory climate
The Chinese government has mandated that electricity companies must generate 8% of their power from renewable resources by 2020. Combine this figure with the enormous, steep, and ever expanding energy consumption in the country, and you realise that only a development of renewable energy at an up-to-now unseen scale will accomplish such a goal.
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By HDK / Published on Wed, 2009-05-27 08:10
The development of photovoltaic (PV) panels has made solar-powered pumps a reality. The pump drivers are usually direct-current (DC) motors, which are fed by power electronic converters with maximum power point tracking (MPPT) to extract the whole energy that the PV panels can generate, depending on environmental conditions including irradiation and temperature. The implementation of the MPPT algorithm essentially involves sensing both an input current and an input voltage. Understandably, such realisation is expensive.
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By Fernando Nuno / Published on Thu, 2009-01-22 17:58
A methodology and software for high resolution solar resource mapping and monitoring will be presented by Green Power Labs (Canada). Solar radiation can be modelled based on satellite-derived information on visible clouds. This provides a comprehensive source of high-resolution solar climatology data for utility-scale solar power/thermal energy producers, and power utilities as well as other industries requiring accurate solar energy data.
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By Stefan Fassbinder / Published on Mon, 2009-01-05 10:00
It is cold, and a little bit of snow has fallen onto the terrace table. – Only snow? No. For some reason a few black particles have dropped off the sky during New Year's Eve. Now the next day the sun shines bright, but still it is too cold to melt the snow. The white snow reflects most of the light. Only the black particles convert light into heat and melt the snow in their proximity.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Thu, 2008-07-10 05:30
Feasible if all stakeholders actively co-operate
A new study by Clean Edge concludes that generating 10% of the electricity consumed in the US with solar energy by 2025 is a feasible target. The Utility Solar Assessment (USA) Study has presented utilities, solar companies, and regulators a roadmap of how to reach this target.
Today, solar energy in the US contributes a mere 0.06% of all power generated. Reaching 10% by 2025 would require an active and co-ordinated effort on the part of all stakeholders. The following are the main action points mentioned in the report:
- Utilities should take advantage of solar energy’s ability to generate peak power, and they should implement solar energy as a key element in the build-out of the smart grid
- Solar companies need to bring the cost of a solar installation down to $3 per watt peak by 2018
- Regulators and policy makers should continue the current system of tax credits for solar energy for the foreseeable future
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By Angelo Baggini / Published on Mon, 2008-06-16 09:00
Year: 2006
Policy Status: In force
Upon its publication in the EU Official Journal on January 4th 2003, the EU Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings (EPBD) entered into EU law. The Directive's principal objectives are:
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