Posts tagged "alternative energy"

Designing North America’s first offshore wind farm

Professor Habib Dagher is building the first offshore wind farm in North America that will float off the coast of Maine – a state that some consider to be the Saudi Arabia of wind power. Test models have performed well in the laboratory, but the farm’s real turbines will need to stand up to the region’s bleak weather. If they do work, experts believe that they can generate enough electricity to power the US four times over. Critics, however, worry that the cost of such a development will be passed on to consumers, as the US has no formal energy policy. Al Jazeera’s John Terrett reports from Maine.

WIND TURBINE VS SOLAR POWER

Solar power is dead silent has no moving parts. This video is about my decision to take the turbine down. I dont feel good about leaving a cheep wind turbine system like this unatended in windy conditions. By no meens am I stearing anyone away from wind. The quality of the system may be somthing to consider.

Why Solar Energy? (HD)

Free Energy From the Sun: THE clean, never ending resource! Onbeautiful Seabrook Island, nestled on the coast just south of Charleston, South Carolina, lies Camp St. Christopher It offers over 300 acres of beach, marsh and maritime forest and multiple facilities including meeting and conference centers, lodging, and worship centers. We’re excited about keeping you up-to-date on our progress and informing you about how this project was made possible. The process began last August when the State Energy Office put out information that there were going to be .9 million available in grants for alternative energy projects for non-profits. As soon as we found out, we immediately started getting in touch with local Charleston non-profit organizations to inform them about the opportunity. When St. Christopher responded about being interested, we setup a meeting for late September 2009 and went out to view the grounds and start planning. The RFP from the State was issued in early September. The government was looking at multiple factors before approving a non-profit like St. Christopher for the grant. These included visibility of project, potential job creation, overall benefit in terms of investment and payback of the project (they needed a minimum return of .50 dollars to spent). The grant writing process was long and hard, but St. Christopher didn’t have to worry about that. SES took care of making sure the grant was completed correctly and on time. Anything we were able …

Collection Of Solar Energy: An Alternative Energy Source

Photovoltaic cells—those black squares an array of which comprises a solar panel—are getting more efficient, and gradually less expensive, all the time, thanks to ever-better designs which all them to focus the gathered sunlight on a more and more concentrated point. The size of the cells is decreasing as their efficiency rises, meaning that each cell becomes cheaper to produce and at once more productive. As far as the aforementioned cost, the price of producing solar-generated energy per watt hour has come down to $4.00 at the time of this writing. Just 17 years ago, it was nearly double that cost.

Solar powered electricity generation is certainly good for the environment, as this alternative form of producing energy gives off absolutely zero emissions into the atmosphere and is merely utilizing one of the most naturally occurring of all things as its driver. Solar collection cells are becoming slowly but surely ever more practical for placing upon the rooftops of people’s homes, and they are not a difficult system to use for heating one’s home, creating hot water, or producing electricity. In the case of using the photovoltaic cells for hot water generation, the system works by having the water encased in the cells, where it is heated and then sent through your pipes.

Photovoltaic cells are becoming increasingly better at collecting sufficient radiation from the sun even on overcast or stormy days. One company in particular, Uni-Solar, has developed solar collection arrays for the home that work well on inclement days, by way of a technologically more advanced system that stores more energy at one time during sunlit days than previous or other arrays.

There is actually another solar power system available for use called the PV System. The PV System is connected to the nearest electrical grid; whenever there is an excess of solar energy being collected at a particular home, it is transferred to the grid for shared use and as a means of lowering the grid’s dependence on the hydroelectrically-driven electricity production. Being connected to the PV System can keep your costs down as compared to full-fledged solar energy, while at once reducing pollution and taking pressure off the grid system. Some areas are designing centralized solar collection arrays for small towns or suburban communities.

Some big-name corporations have made it clear that they are also getting into the act of using solar power (a further indication that solar generated energy is becoming an economically viable alternative energy source). Google is putting in a  1.6 megawatt solar power generation plant on the roof of its corporate headquarters, while Wal Mart wants to put in an enormous 100 megawatt system of its own.

Nations such as Japan, Germany, the United States, and Switzerland have been furthering the cause of solar energy production by providing government subsidies or by giving tax breaks to companies and individuals who agree to utilize solar power for generating their heat or electrical power. As technology advances and a greater storage of solar collection materials is made available, more and more private investors will see the value of investing in this “green” technology and further its implementation much more.

Rich Westenberger likes to write for UniformHaven.com who sells cherokee scrubs, urbane scrub pants and lab coat as well as a host of other products.

Alternative Energy: Renewable Fuels

The Germans have really taken off when it comes to renewable fuel sources, and have become one of the major players in the alternative energy game. Under the aegis of the nation’s electricity feed laws, the German people set a world record in 2006 by investing over $10 billion (US) in research, development, and implementation of wind turbines, biogas power plants, and solar collection cells. Germany’s “feed laws” permit the German homeowners to connect to an electrical grid through some source of renewable energy and then sell back to the power company any excess energy produced at retail prices. This economic incentive has catapulted Germany into the number-one position among all nations with regards to the number of operational solar arrays, biogas plants, and wind turbines. The 50-terawatt hours of electricity produced by these renewable energy sources account for 10% of all of Germany’s energy production per year. In 2006 alone, Germany installed 100,000 solar energy collection systems.

Over in the US, the BP corporation has established an Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) to spearhead extensive new research and development efforts into clean burning renewable energy sources, most prominently biofuels for ground vehicles. BP’s investment comes to $50 million (US) per year over the course of the next decade. This EBI will be physically located at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The University is in partnership with BP, and it will be responsible for research and development of new biofuel crops, biofuel-delivering agricultural systems, and machines to produce renewable fuels in liquid form for automobile consumption. The University will especially spearhead efforts in the field of genetic engineering with regard to creating the more advanced biofuel crops. The EBI will additionally have as a major focal point technological innovations for converting heavy hydrocarbons into pollution-free and highly efficient fuels.

Also in the US, the battle rages on between Congress and the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA). The GEA’s Executive Director Karl Gawell has recently written to the Congress and the Department of Energy, the only way to ensure that DOE and OMB do not simply revert to their irrational insistence on terminating the geothermal research program is to schedule a congressional hearing specifically on geothermal energy, its potential, and the role of federal research. Furthermore, Gawell goes on to say that recent studies by the National Research Council, the Western Governors’ Association Clean Energy Task Force and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology all support expanding geothermal research funding to develop the technology necessary to utilize this vast, untapped domestic renewable energy resource. Supporters of geothermal energy, such as this writer, are amazed at the minuscule amount of awareness that the public has about the huge benefits that research and development of the renewable alternative energy source would provide the US, both practically and economically. Geothermal energy is already less expensive to produce in terms of kilowatt-hours than the coal that the US keeps mining. Geothermal energy is readily available, sitting just a few miles below our feet and easily accessible through drilling. One company, Ormat, which is the third largest geothermal energy producer in the US and has plants in several different nations, is already a billion-dollar-per-year business—geothermal energy is certainly economically viable.

Eduardo Wickenhauser writes for UniformHaven.com who offers cherokee scrubs, discount urbane scrubs and lab coat as well as a host of additional items.