Solar panels are becoming more common on the tops of industrial buildings, but wind power potential is typically far greater in coastal areas, by as much as 10-to-1. Why not put at least some of the wind turbines where they can do the most good, namely, in the cities who will be using the power? That way the friction between the NIMBY syndrome versus the industrialization of the countryside can be at least lessened. Sometimes just the honest effort will bring progress where none was anticipated.

For an article on the Palo Alto installation, see this article by Will Oremus at the Palo Alto Daily News.

• How much power do you need?
• How much sun does your location receive in an average year?
• How much of the installation can you do yourself?
• Are you tying into the grid, or will you be completely self-contained?

The last two factors are the primary ones.

If you can install a system and tie it into your circuit box, the cost will range between $7 and $10 per watt. This will give you everything you need to tie into the grid, all the mounting hardware, wiring, power inverter, and backup storage capability. A 1 kiloWatt system would thus cost around $10,000. The installation is not trivial, and you will need a licensed electrician to do the final wiring and connections. Don’t try to get away without a licensed electrician – the insurance implications alone should discourage that.

If you’re having a system installed, that 1 kW system will be closer to $20,000. But this is by far the safest way to go, because a licensed contractor will know how to make sure that everything meets NEC code specifications and standards. Just having that certification might save big money on insurance, which will add in to the potential savings of a system.

For the do-it-yourselfer, there might be a temptation to go with used parts. The main thing to bear in mind is that silicon solar panels have a useful lifetime, typically 25 to 30 years, after which their output degrades enough  to be very noticable. If it means the difference between being able to afford to get a system running and not, I’d recommend going ahead with the used panels and replace them as you accumulate utility bill savings. Make sure that you can get your money back if your used panels prove to be poor generators.

So, the answer is $7 to $15 per watt to get tied into the grid. Cut those numbers roughly in half if you are going to be self-sufficient and completely off the grid.

Energy Ideas

This week’s Friday picker-upper comes from a CNN Money article about Bob Metcalfe, widely acclaimed as the ‘inventor’ of the internet. Mr Metcalfe has had many successes as innovator and entrepreneur, and he is now turning his creative sights on alternative energy, especially solar power systems. His main point is that the renewable energy field will benefit from the same innovative and entrepreneurial thinking that drove the internet from an experimental oddity to the great technological/social force it is, in just a few decades.

One great point he makes is that we need to stop thinking centrally and begin looking at distributed systems (like the internet) as a way of driving growth and advancement in renewable energy systems. By having more locally-generated power, as well as two-way power grids where everyone could be both a generator and a consumer, the need for huge power plants and massive control systems is at least lessened greatly, if not done away with completely. Distributed generation makes sense in a distributed consumption system.

I wrote an article dealing with this question a while ago, over at eZine articles. Give it a look at eZine. And be sure to see the CNN article here: Bob Metcalfe: For clean energy, look to infotech – Dec. 23, 2008

Here at 42 degrees north, the savings are lower and the payback time higher than I would have thought, but there are variables that I didn’t input to the calculation which might have changed the numbers a lot. Give it a try and see how your location fares in the solar arena.

The program is at NREL IMBY.

After looking at this one, go over to YouTube and browse the Green Power Science collection. It’s time very well spent.

I recommend going to the website of the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency. This site has information on all the tax breaks and assistance programs for residential and corporate clean energy systems, broken down state by state in great detail. The site is very well made and easy to navigate, and the information there is quite trustworthy. Take some time and check it out; it may surprise you to see how much government support is there for homeowners to invest in clean green.

 Energy storage is key to developing usable renewable systems, because both solar and wind generation is by nature sporadic. While batteries are the first thought when looking at storage, other methods need to be developed to make new equipment viable as a reliable energy source. 

One storage system being explored is thermal, where the energy stored in the form of heat can be released as needed to generate electricity through a turbine system, or through many other generating devices.

Today’s post offers a few looks at thermal energy storage. Enjoy!

Global Warming: Compressed Air Energy Storage

That may even include the spent water in a thermal plant which is still at the edge of boiling. Fuel sources such as municipal waste are normally unsuitable as useful energy sources unle…   Read more…

Webinar – Compact Thermal Energy Storage Technologies: Status …

More than half of the primary energy consumption is for the generation of heat. Thermal energy storage is of key importance for energy reduction technologies and for increasing th…   Read more…

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Thermal Storage – An Economical Alternative to High Energy Bills

Are you tired of paying high prices for heating and cooling? Would you like to save the excess heat of summer until you really needed it in winter? Thermal storage might be the answer you are looking for.

By Earl Hunsinger

On a hot summer day, do you think about how cool it was last fall or winter? On cold winter nights, do you dream about lying in the sun on some tropical beach? What if you could save the heat of summer to use in winter, and save some of the cool air of winter to air condition your house during the summer? This concept is called thermal storage.

It is important to understand that heat is a form of energy that can be moved from one place to another (this is how a refrigerator or air conditioner works). Thermal storage refers to a number of different technologies that are used to store this thermal, or heat, energy in a reservoir for later use. While technically cold is simply a term that refers to a relative lack of heat energy, the same thermal storage principle applies to the storage of cold substances, those with a relatively lower quantity of heat. The simplest example of this is one that the older generation may still remember. Before the proliferation of modern refrigeration equipment, farmers used to cut blocks of ice from frozen ponds and lakes in the winter. This ice would be stored in a well insulated building, with much of it remaining frozen until summer. It would be used to keep milk and other farm products from spoiling.

Most thermal storage equipment today is usually designed to store heat for only a few hours or days. This is done for a number of practical or economic reasons. Thermal storage units are often used with solar heating equipment to save the heat of the day for use during the night. An example that combines heat collection with heat storage is the device manufactured by the Solar Components Corporation. This device is a simple water filled vertical tube. These tubes capture heat from the sun during the day and release it at night. Since no mechanical equipment is involved, this is what is known as a passive system. Active systems are also available, where a pump or blower moves heated water or air from one place to another, often to a thermal storage tank.

Another reason why thermal storage is used involves the electrical usage rate structures used by many power companies. Because of the high cost of building new generating plants, power companies often charge more for electricity used during peak hours. This creates an incentive for large commercial and industrial users to limit their energy usage during these peak hours. One way to do this is running heating or refrigerating (including air conditioning) equipment during off peaks, usually at night. How can they do this? Thermal storage.

As an example, consider the problem of how to provide air conditioning to an office building during the day, by running the air conditioning equipment at night. In most cases, large commercial air conditioning systems are used to cool water and then this water is pumped to different parts of the building and used to cool the air going to the office space. If you chill the water at night, how do you keep it cold until it is needed during the day? The Cryogel company sells a product that many of us would find very familiar. When packing a picnic lunch, you might go to your freezer and take out a blue pack to keep your food cold. Their product is similar. Sealed balls filled with water are placed in an insulated tank. The chilled water (or glycol) is pumped through the tank, causing the balls to freeze. Later, warm water is circulated through the tank, the balls cool it, and this chilled water can be used to air condition the office building.

While it is obviously easier to maintain the temperature of a substance for a few hours, seasonal heat storage is also possible. An example of this is Britain’s Beaufort Courthouse, which is designed to be a zero emissions building.

Because of the cost and the work involved, thermal storage is probably more commonly used in commercial and industrial applications than by the average homeowner. However, with a little ingenuity and a modest investment, there is no reason why you too couldn’t save the sunshine of summer for those long winter nights.

By Buzzle Staff and Agencies Published: 7/9/2007

Ben Hasty: Reading Eagle

The Reading (PA) Eagle has a great article by Darrin Youker today, dealing with that state’s attempts at energy diversity as a means to energy independence. In areas that were once relatively thriving coal communities, the now declining towns are welcoming alternatives such as wind and solar cogeneration as a means to provide both new energy and new jobs for their people.

As has become usual, there are two Spanish companies involved in the new wind turbine installations going up all over the state, but there are also solar farms being built by Exelon, who also has nuclear generation facilities in Pennsylvania. This willingness to diversify is what will bring the hoped-for 80,000+ new jobs to the state in new clean energy industries.

This is of course also dependent on the continued expansion of federal incentives, including the $100 billion promised by the incoming administration. Like most projects, the willingness to invest and the strength to stick to the plan will make all the difference between great success and a lackluster fizzle. We can hope for the best. Meanwhile, check out the article at ReadingNews.com.

AP Photo

According to the Boston Globe, Massachusetts is ahead of the planned yearly increases in available renewable energy for the state’s utilities, rising to more than 3% green. The plan is for this 1% increase to continue until 2020, when 15% should be coming from renewable sources.
The state has a renewable energy ‘trust’ that utilities must pay into if they fail to meet their assigned goals, with one third paying in 2007. And although 3% isn’t that much yet, the 15% will be a substantial reduction in fossil-based generation. That, of course, still leaves 85% to come from traditional sources, which still begs the question of whether energy independence will occur in our lifetimes, and if so, what will be the source of that other 85%?
The Globe article can be found here.

Photo: Time Magazine

At the University of Massachusetts Amherst Campus, wind power research has been going on for a long time, on campus, and with a test project on a nearby mountain top. In 2002, members of the Renewable Energy Research Lab and the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering published a white paper detailing their studies of Wind Turbine Acoustic Noise.

Their findings indicate strongly that noise should not be a problem with “new” wind turbines (the report was amended in 2006) as long as the site is studied in advance and proper allowances made for height vs distance from nearest homes.

Most of the study deals with smaller turbines, in the few-hundred kW range, while most of the problems involve 1- to 1.5 MW (a factor of 10 larger). The reason I’m recommending this white paper is not to “settle the issue” or anything like that. The goal is to have the numbers and the concepts out there in understandable form for the people who will be making local siting decisions. More importantly, this might help people whose area is being targeted by energy interests far from the proposed wind generating plant.

This report is recommended reading no matter which side of the wind power noise issue you might be on. You can find it at:  Wind Turbine Acoustic Noise.