Posts tagged solar

Solar air conditioning

March 29, 2009 · Filed under technology · Tagged

Here’s something that might make a difference. The ANU is developing a solar air-conditioning system. Air conditioning is one cause of peak loading on the electricity grid, when everyone puts on their air-cons at the same time on hot days. Reduce peak loading and you don’t need so many power stations.

You’d think some form of thermal solar air conditioning would be a no-brainer. After all, when do you need air conditioning? When the sun’s shining, of course.

At the same time, it’s interesting because a supposed inability to cope with peak loading is often cited as a drawback of renewable energy.

Talking of the ANU, if you’re wondering what’s happened to their sliver cell technology, which could dramatically reduce the cost of photovoltaic solar panels, here’s an update of sorts.

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Solar Sahara could power Europe

July 25, 2008 · Filed under commentary, inspiration · Tagged , , ,

This article in The Guardian  gives an idea of the scale of thinking and vision needed to really turn climate change around. I’ve felt for a long time that tinkering around the edges of the problem won’t do it; what we need is a Manhattan Project for renewable energy. 

My sense is solar thermal, out in deserts and able to be transmitted over huge distances by DC power cables, is the endgame for clean energy. Something, that is, similar to this proposal. And if you can put a huge power station in the Sahara to power Europe, then you can put a huge power station in the middle of Australia and power this continent too.

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Portugal’s clean energy revolution

July 4, 2008 · Filed under inspiration · Tagged , , , ,

A few posts back I mentioned how Spain was taking a lead in switching to renewable energy. So it’s only fair to add a link to this article about Spain’s little neighbour Portugal, another country that is taking some real steps to develop a clean energy future.

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Spain setting a lead

June 18, 2008 · Filed under inspiration · Tagged , , , , , ,

Is anyone taking this climate change business seriously?

Spain might be.

The government has promised to achieve 12 per cent of energy from renewables by 2010 and unlike a number of other countries, it looks likely to achieve that target. It already generates almost third of its electricity from wind power and has an installed solar generating capacity of 400 megawatts. It has introduced feed-in tariffs to encourage homeowners to install solar panels.

In 2005, it became the first country in the world to require the installation of photovoltaic electricity generation in new buildings, and the second after Israel to require the installation of solar hot water.

Some regions of Spain are aiming to be 100 per cent renewably powered in the near future – the northern provinces of Castilla y Leon, La Rioja, Navarra, Aragon and Galicia all generate more than half their electricity from renewables.

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Green car handout isn’t the answer

June 15, 2008 · Filed under commentary · Tagged , , , , , , , ,

The government’s decision to give $35million of taxpayers’ money to Toyota to persuade them to build a hybrid Camry in Australia is not a bad thing, but is it really doing anything to fight climate change?

Toyota was going to build the car anyway, and the only question was whether to build it in Australia or Thailand. So the tax handout may have helped secure a few hundred Australian jobs (at the expense of Thai workers) but it isn’t R&D money to develop any new, low-emissions technology.

In fact it’s debatable whether Australia’s small car industry has the capacity to contribute much to development of clean car technology. It seems, after much hot air about hydrogen, that plug-in hybrids are now acknowledged as the obvious future for green cars.

A hybrid has an electric motor plus a petrol engine. The electric motor operates at lower speeds, in traffic, while the petrol engine kicks in at higher cruising speeds, where it is more efficient. The petrol engine also recharges the electric motor during driving. A plug-in hybrid has an electric motor that can also be recharged from grid electricity (by plugging it in to an electricity socket in your garage, for instance).

Within the next decade, we should be seeing plug-in hybrids that can drive from Sydney to Brisbane on one charge and one tank of petrol (or ethanol). Beyond that, development of all-electric cars that can drive all day on a single battery charge will make petrol engines redundant.

The technology is already here. What’s needed to speed up development is more subsidies and tax breaks for low-emissions cars. Although, of course, rising petrol prices may achieve this anyway.

But electric cars are only as “green” as the source of electricity that powers them. And this, I feel, is where Australia could better contribute to the global effort on climate change. We’ve got some of the world’s leading solar energy researchers (the ones who haven’t already moved to California) and vast amounts of sunlight.

And our money might also be better spent investing in improved public transport. By getting people out of their cars altogether, this can save far more energy and greenhouse emissions than hybrid cars.

If you’re interested in green cars, see this guide from the Sydney Morning Herald’s Drive website. 

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