Alternative-Energy-Why-Alternative?

Alternative Energy, Why do we address it as Alternative?

The sun is something that has been used for it's energy for much longer than modern day man has walked our planet, cold bloodied animals have used it to warm their blood, plant life uses Photosynthesis to produce energy to grow and humans use it to keep warm.

Why is it then that we see Solar energy as an Alternative Energy Source?

Solar energy is responsible for our global weather, the wind, the rain both rely on the solar energy to drive our weather patterns across the planet.

Currently our technology for creating energy from the sun (Solar Photo Voltaic) is primitive, we are achieving somewhere in the region of 20% efficiency, I believe with better funded research and time we will be able to extract much more power in the form of DC Electricity, maybe nearer to 70% I would imagine this will make Solar PV installations much more common place.

Whilst the Sun shines and the wind blows we should strive to harness our energy needs from these sources, learn to minimise our waste of heat and power and become much more energy efficient.

We can do it, we all just need educating on how to tackle our individual power requirements before we are beyond the point of no return.

Wood-Forge-Project-Going-Ahead

Previously I have mentioned a wonderful little project to supply off grid power to a Metal Casting Wood Forge Down the far south of England.

The new 140W Panel arrived today from the manufacturers. I am extremely impressed with the Solar PV Panels construction. Open circuit is 21.8V and will charge 2 x deep cycle SLA batteries at 12V. The Pure Sine Wave Inverter arrived late last week so I am currently contstructing the sub frame for the panel to be mounted on.

I'll be posting some pictures of the setup once it is installed at the forge some time soon.

Domestic-Off-Grid-Setup-For-Power-Heating-HomeBrewPower

Above is the current schematic of the Off-Grid systems I designed and installed at HomeBrewPower.

At the heart of the installation is a Lister CS 5/1 (Not 3/1) as shown on the diagram that provides the bulk of power and heating, coupled with a large battery cubicle for energy storage. The batteries provide power to the 5KW MSW Inverter that produces 230VAC electricity back to our consumer unit.

Some of the waste heat from the Lister CS coolant circuit is recovered a water to water heat exchanger and then heat from the exhaust is also recovered via a air to water heat exchanger. The hot water is then pumped through insulated underground pipes to our central heating loop to provide heating via radiators.

Our PMDC custom built wind machine provides DC to the battery banks to constantly trickle charge the battery cubicle. We have seen it producing anything from 20W right through to 1200W on a very stormy evening in the UK.

Everything has been built from the ground up and custom made to suit our purposes, including the control installation, battery cubicle, metering, wind turbine & pipework.

UK-Solar-PV-Installer-Off Grid

Homebrewpower is offering a complete Design & Installation package for Solar PV Off Grid Installations throughout the UK & Europe.

This service will be particularly interesting to people who own or are purchasing a home in Spain, France, Holland, Switzerland & Belgium.

With the huge prices associated in obtaining a grid connection the Off Grid systems are the way to go! Carbon Neutral and Eco Friendly attracts great interest to owners and lodgers.

For more information feel free to contact Homebrewpower on 07504 50 50 89 or click HERE to email us.

Off-Grid-Design-Installation-Service-In-The-UK-Europe

Home-Brew Power offers a complete Design & Installation Package for completely Off Grid Homes, Houses, Barns & Remote Cabins.

Anything from a small Solar PV on the shed roof to a complete system for boats, barges, huts, Eco hideouts, remote buildings. The sky's the limit.

I can travel within the UK and Europe subject to project size!

Free quotations and assistance can be offered
andy@homebrewpower.co.uk

Breif-Explanation-Of-Alternative-Power-Sources

The majority of the electrical power used throughout the world is produced by generators containing a rotating magnet usually powered by steam created from burning fossil fules. Renewable sources of energy, however , are becoming more commonly used across the globe. The government has set a target to generate 10% of the UK's electricity needs from renewable sources by the year 2010.

Alternative energy sources include solar panels, wind generators, hydro-electric power and nuclear power. Solar panels convert sunlight directly to electricity but in general have low efficiency. Wind power is used directly to rotate turbines to generate electricity. Hydro-electric power converts the kinetic energy from falling water into electricity and nuclear power uses the energy locked in the nuclei of atoms instead of fossil fuels.

Googleplex-Goes-Solar

Google Enters the Energy Business

I read on the Google blog that they plan to begin installation of 1.6 megawatts of solar photovoltaic panels (PV panels) at their Head Office in Mountain View, California. They reckon it will be ‘the largest solar installation on any corporate campus in the U.S., and think it’s one of the largest on any corporate site in the world’. But something puzzled me – do they have enough room for all those panels?
Apparently ‘The panels will cover the roofs of the four main buildings of the Googleplex, and also those of two additional buildings across the street. There will also be a portion of this installation on new solar panel support structures in a few parking lots. The amount of electricity that will be generated is equivalent to powering about 2,000 UK or 1,000 average California homes. 'We’ll use that electricity to power several of our Mountain View office facilities, offsetting approximately 30% of our peak electricity consumption at those buildings.’

You can see how much roof space they have available in this photograph I came across (from Google Earth). So I looked into how much space you’d need to generate 1.6 megawatts from solar PV panels. According to one set of calculations I found on a mail order PV panel site ‘Solar Solar’, Google are going to need 919 PV modules generating 185 watts each. This will cover 13,250 square feet or one third of an acre. The campus covers 22 acres, so it would seem that giving up 1.36% of that space in roofing and parking isn’t such a big deal.
For you or I the cost of 919 PV panels would be anything from £0.5 million to £5 million. For some reason prices in the UK are at the higher end. Luckily for Google, the California Energy Commission has a very good rebate system for homes and businesses, particularly if Google use a ‘Grid tie’ system – putting electricity into the grid during the day when the sun’s out (so the meter goes backwards) and drawing it back at night on an off peak or reduced rate. So it seems Google may now technically be entering the energy market. Googlejuice! Googlegreen!
I dare say it won’t be too long before we can see something demonstrating how many greenhouse emissions have been saved by Google’s solar move - like this one at the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Institute.