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Costing the Earth on Radio 4 today examined the feed in tariff, which should become available with the new tax year, and the economics of buying yourself a windmill or solar panels. You can listen to it through iPlayer. Normally listen and watch again programmes on the BBC site expire within a week, but this one says it’s okay until January of 2099. Technorati tag: EcoHouse Link to this post! I still couldn’t pick NicK Clegg out of a line up, but he and the Lib Dems seem to be the only one of the big three parties coming up with any interesting policies. As Labour and the Tories descend further into (occasionally amusing) poster remixes the Liberal Democrats are putting forward solid suggestions. For example, as reported by Left Foot Forward, they’d invest in converting shipbuilding facilities into wind turbine factories, so that we don’t have to keep outsourcing their construction. This one works coming and going- cut carbon emissions whilst creating jobs in the UK. With time, we could even become an exporter of turbines and wind technology. Link to this post! Windmills aren’t the best solution for urban microgeneration- nearby buildings tend to make the airflow too rough for them to run efficiently. But they are cool technology if you happen to live far enough away from your neighbours and can get away with erecting a mast. So, to inspire you, here is the Instructables page on DIY wind power. Technorati tag: EcoHouse Link to this post! With the latest batch of offshore wind turbines to come on line Britain has overtaken Denmark to become the world leader for offshore wind. However, we lag behind Europe in overall renewable energy generation and most of our turbines are built abroad. Technorati tag: EcoHouse Link to this post! The Queen has invested in what is reportedly the largest wind turbine in the world, to be installed off the North East coast of England. She has previously had a water turbine installed in a wier near one of her castles and I believe the royal households are all going over to energy saving bulbs. All in all a good example to set to we commoners. via Island of Doubt Technorati tag: EcoHouse, Wind Power Link to this post! Wind cars are the future, according to the team behind Greenbird, a land yacht which is due to attempt to break the world record for a wind powered land vehicle. Greenbird uses a rigid wing rather than the traditional sail in its effort to exceed 116mph. I can see wind vehicles as a a viable transport method for the great expanses of Australia, Africa and even the US midwest. Rigid sails and some sort of computer control would cut down on the need for tacking, but there’d still need to be a bit of room given to the vehicles, so they couldn’t cope with crowded roads. Throw in some photovoltaic panelling and combined dynamos/motors in the wheels for electric drive at either end of the journey and it might work. Technorati tag: Wind Power Link to this post! Wind turbines are okay, but they’re close to the ground, whee wind speeds are relatively low and there can be turbulence to cut their efficiency. If you want to make the most of wind power you really need to go up to 800 metres with a kite. Technorati tag: Wind Power Link to this post! Gordon Brown has announced a £100billion renewable energy plan. The Daily Mail and its readers have reacted as you’d expect, ignoring the boost to the economy from all the jobs created and the opportunities through grants to go energy independent. So, those of you who can, I’d recommend stealing a jump on the whingers and using their tax money to go off grid. When I researched grants for solar panels last month I found that the existing scheme had been phased out, which was annoying. I’m now willing to give Brown the benefit of the doubt and hope this was because they were gearing up to a new and improved scheme. It isn’t easy. I’m not as obnoxiously and knee-jerkingly anti Brown/New Labour as the Mail’s readers, but past performance does mark the Government as untrustworthy. The schemes for householders will be announced later this Summer. I’ll be looking out for them and will try to do some number crunching on them when they arrive. Technorati tag: EcoHouse Link to this post! Scifi blog io9 looks at a couple of wind power options for domestic use. The micro turbine borders on a joke, but the Phillipe Starck designed transparent turbine is pretty. I’m still not convinced by wind power in suburbia because at least one study has shown that the small windmills erected by house owners don’t go high enough to get away from the blocking effects of nearby structures. They might be effective atop taller buildings though. Technorati tag: EcoHouse Link to this post! Commissioned by Orange, this mini windmill sits atop any dome shaped tent. It would be ideal for Glastonbury or one of the other festivals. Technorati tag: EcoHouse Link to this post! The world’s largest offshore wind farm could be built off the north coast of Devon. If it goes ahead it could provide nearly all of the county’s electricity, and there are plans to supplement it with tidal power schemes. As this article appears in the Daily Mail expect the usual NIMBY nonsense in the comments. Technorati tag: Devon, Wind Power, Offshore Wind Power Link to this post! From Manchester Evening News-
It’s possible the NIMBYs will still complain about these turbines, despite the fact that there can be few better places to site them than on a sea-front (and the fact that there’s little that could be done to make the Blackpool beach front uglier. It’s an endearing ugly, but it’s ugly nonetheless.) Technorati tag: Wind Power, Blackpool Link to this post!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6344215.stm Link to this post! Whilst large scale wind farms are quite efficient, especially the less controversial new breed of offshore ones, home turbines can produce little or no power because of wind turbulence. Perhaps it’s just the traditional windmills that have this problem and the next generation of home based wind power will involve Savonius or other vertical designs better suited to catching the breeze from constantly changing directions. Technorati tag: EcoHouse, Wind Turbine Link to this post! |
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