Stories in topic "Alternative energy"

Offshore Wind taking off - some background on installation issues

Recent statistics have been published showing that Europe has now installed over 2,000MW of offshore wind capacity, with more than a quarter installed in the past year, and lots more to come in the next few years. I discussed these numbers in more detail here, but wanted to give you here some insights on what these numbers mean on the ground.



Left: Offshore wind installations. Source: EWEA - The European offshore wind industry
key trends and statistics 2009
(PDF) )
Right: Transition pieces for the Belwind offshore wind farm, Zeebrugge harbor, 22 January 2010

I recently visited the port site in Zeebrugge, Belgium, where the foundations for the Belwind offshore wind farm (the financing of which I worked on) were stored before their installation. This is a good opportunity to give you a glimpse of the kind of logistics involved, and what kind of problems can happen (and how they are solved), on offshore wind installations.

Follow me below for a tour of a small bit of Europe's fastest growing heavy industry.

Part of the windpower series.

The Latest Developments in Wave Power Technology

Beyond Zero Emissions is organising a talk on Oceanlinx's wave power technology which might be of interest to Melbourne based readers - The Latest Developments in Wave Power Technology.

Guest speaker: Scott Hunter
Time: 6.30 ~ 8pm Monday 1st February 2010
Event location: Sans Frontiers Room, 2nd Floor, Kindness House, 288 Brunswick St, Fitzroy VIC.

Scott Hunter is the Engineering Manager and Naval Architect for Oceanlinx. Oceanlinx is a leading renewable energy company based in Australia with a unique and efficient system for extracting energy from ocean waves.

Scott's current role as Engineering Manager involves assisting the general manager of engineering in bringing the concepts developed through R&D to reality.

In this discussion group we will discuss how wave power technology works, discuss current projects in NSW and its potential to provide zero carbon electricity.

Solar Hot Water Heating

We often hear that solar thermal is quite cost effective, but if a person looks into the situation, it appears that solar thermal's primary use is for heating swimming pools and hot tubs. A recent publication by the EIA shows this chart:

In the chart above, the low-temperature solar heating units (140 degrees F or lower) are primarily used to heat swimming pools. Medium temperature solar thermal units (140 to 180 degrees F) are primarily used for heating hot water. High temperature collectors (over 180 degrees F) are primarily used to generate electricity for the grid.

In this Campfire post, we will talk about solar thermal hot water heating--the major part of the little blue bars in the above chart. Sales of solar hot water heaters have been growing since a tax credit for home installation became available in the USA in 2006. I will share some of what I found on the Internet, and ask what your experiences have been.

What Practical Advice Can Readers Offer Regarding Home Solar PV? (Open thread)

I am sure there are at least a few readers who have solar PV installed, and others who are considering installing solar PV. Someone sent me an e-mail, asking if we could do a Campfire discussion of practical advice regarding solar PV, based on the experiences of readers who have tried it.

Below the fold are a few questions that come to mind. I am sure that if you are using solar PV, you may have answers to questions I haven't even thought of.

The Wheels Come Off the Biodiesel Wagon

Domestic Biodiesel Production Plummets

One of my Top 10 Energy Stories of 2009 involved the actions taken by the EU against U.S. biodiesel producers. U.S. tax dollars had been generously subsidizing biodiesel that was being exported out of the U.S. European producers couldn't compete against the subsidized imports, so the EU effectively cut off the imports by imposing five-year tariffs on U.S. biodiesel.

This was a big blow to U.S. biodiesel producers, and was one of the factors leading to a disastrous 2009 for U.S. biodiesel production. But there were other factors as well, which I will describe in this post.

Australia's Renewable Energy Future

I'm still waiting to see the forthcoming report on Australia's renewable energy future from the Australian Academy of Science. In the meantime, I came across this series of lectures, which the report will presumably be based on.

Aruba's New Windfarm

As Copenhaguen ended, unsurprisingly, in confusion, I have the opportunity to give you a more positive tale, and show you it is possible for people - including even bankers amongst them - to work towards a more sustainable future without necessarily endangering our way of life.


The Vader Piet 30MW wind farm on the island of Aruba.

In this case, it involves the construction of a windfarm in a place where it will directly replace fuel-oil-burning power plants. As you'll be able to see below, this wind farm is quite remarkable in a number of ways which means that this experience will not be replicable as easily everywhere, but it shows that there are many places and energy systems which it is possible to materially improve under almost all criterai using renewable energy.

(part of the wind power series)
Full disclosure: As indicated below, I financed the project discussed in this post last year.

Managing the Peak Fossil Fuel Transition: EROI and EIRR

The Smart Growth Portfolio

This is a guest post by Tom Konrad, Ph.D.  This article was first published on his Clean Energy Wonk blog.

Current renewable energy technologies must be adopted in conjunction with aggressive Smart Growth and Efficiency if we hope to continue our current standard of living and complex society with diminished reliance on fossil fuels. These strategies have the additional advantage that they can work without large technological breakthroughs. 

In this post I will talk about a topic which is likely familiar: Energy Return on Investment or EROI. I will also talk about Energy Internal Rate of Return (EIRR), a measure which is similar to EROI, but reflects how quickly society gets its energy return back from its energy investment.

The Ethanol Questions I Didn't Ask

I have been asked to submit a video question on ethanol policy that will be potentially answered in a video blog by someone who is very well-known in the energy business. I will keep the details quiet for now, including the question I did submit.

I really had to brainstorm on exactly which question I would ask. I made a short list, and finally honed it down to one that I think is fair, but tough. But I had a number that I decided not to ask, either because I already knew how it would be answered (even if I disgreed with the expected answer) or the questions/answer to the question was so complex that it couldn't be answered in a short video clip.

Desertec Asia - A Pan-Asian Energy Infrastructure Proposal

Cross-posted from Peak Energy.

Stewart Taggart of Desertec Australia and the solar thermal desalination company Acquasol, has recently started a new branch of Desertec for Asia.