UK: Microgeneration is on!

Swift 1.5kW Rooftop Wind Turbine - BowZED Housing Development, London

An array of 5 Swifts, atop TESCO, in Diss, Norfolk

Two Proven 2.5 kW turbnines, integrated with PV panels and signage for Sainsbury's, Greenwich, London.

The Iskra AT5-1, 5 kW, turbine in Worksop, Nottinghamshire

A pair of AT5-1s powering the new Environmental Education Centre in Rushcliffe Country Park, Ruddington, near Nottingham

Phase 2 of the DTI’s Low Carbon Buildings Programme (LCBP) opens, it is the successor to the old Clear Skies program. Grants are available for the supply and installation of any combination of the following technologies:

• Solar photovoltaics
• Solar thermal hot water
• Wind turbines
• Ground source heat pumps
• Automated wood pellet stoves
• Wood fuelled boiler system

So hurry up and order your own home wind turbine, while supplies last!

Wind speed at light speed

This is ZephIR, a highly accurate wind velocity lidar measurement for wind turbine farms, that we just acquired here at the CRES demo wind farm. It's a very unique piece of technology that measures the Doppler shift of laser radiation scattered by atmospheric aerosols in order to provide the user with the wind speed and direction at multiple heights up to 150 m. It also quantifies wind behaviour in terms of both turbulence and wind shear. It's fast to deploy and redeploy, with no requirement for planning permission.

The London Array is OK!

The UK government has finally approved Europe's largest off-shore windfarm to be developed off the coast of SE England. The London Array will consist of 341 turbines located 12 miles offshore. The DTI has also approved a second major scheme in the Thames estuary, to be built in Thanet. The 2 windfarms will deliver 1.3 GW of green electricity - enough to meet the needs of a third of homes in Greater London. The scheme currently depends on an onshore power substation being approved to be built in Swale, Kent, and an inquiry to discuss revised plans is due to start next month. It has to be noted that the estuary wind farm scheme has been altered to protect a little-known bird called the red-throated diver, even a conservation officer with the RSPB said that other developers they've worked with haven't always given the same priority to birds.

Other huge projects such as that of the Isle of Lewis have faced srong opposition by local communities and the RSPB is concerned that the wind farms would affect golden eagles and other birds, and damage sensitive peat land.

There is a light that never goes out

The Sun-jar
The Glowbrick

On the occasion of Morissey’s gig the other day and since I've been thinking lately how much energy we are wasting almost every night that we leave on a small lamp for my girlfriend’s young daughter who doesn’t want to sleep in total darkness, low and behold today’s post!
An average lamp that’s on for about 45 mins consumes 6500 watts, which means we are wasting a lot every night. So this got me looking for eco-friendly lamps on the internet. I came up with these solar powered - cool looking gadgets, that feature an appropriately soft light for the little one to sleep with. The design is super simple, a solar cell, battery and LED lights.

We're on African TV! Hooray!

News coverage of the opening and closing ceremony of the Intelligent Energy for Sahel (IE4Sahel) First Workshop, 2-6 October 2006, Niamey, on Niger Television, also available on Google video if it isn't streaming here. Jeez, I can be such a nerd sometimes!

Mama Africa here I come!

OK after so many years I'm going back to the motherland! This time it's Niamey in Niger for the Energy-Poverty Workshop (see Sept. 11th's post).

The London Beacon

The London Beacon (image from quietrevolution)

A group of London designers, architects and engineers recently unveiled The Beacon, a visionary new form of urban energy generation. The Beacon is a 40 m high Y-shaped structure, and is designed to be ‘planted’ along major roads and public spaces, reaching up to the stronger breezes above London’s buildings, while the top of it rotates into the wind direction. Each Beacon supports 5 vertical ‘triple-helix’ wind turbines, aka quietrevolution or QR5 (see relevant July 12 2006 post). Also, the QR5 turbines can become suspended video screens or colour-change lighting displays, thanks to LEDs integrated within the blades!

The Quiet Revolution

This is Qr5, a vertical axis - 6kW wind turbine, suitable for urban environments, that is virtually silent and vibration free – critical for use on or near buildings. This beautiful new turbine, designed by the UK's XCO2 - a very progressive environmental engineering consultancy, can produce 10,000 kWh annually, if we consider an average wind speed of 5,8 m/s. The first commercial installation will be on London Road in the London Borough of Croydon. The developers plan to install 7 turbines in order to achieve the required 10% of their energy requirements from a renewable source on site. There are several additional sites that already have planning approval in the UK and more than 20 are awaiting planning decisions and include schools, local council buildings and the headquarters of several FTSE100 companies. Managing to harness wind in a city for power generation I believe is a huge step in emissions reductions, something that up until now was considered to have many environmental and technical impacts, and was more suitable for rural environments. It would be great if we managed to get something like this going in Greek cities too, especially those lying close to the coast. That is a long shot however, since we are still in the process of revising the basic framework for renewable energy developments in this country, which is very messed up.

Waste to Energy = Beautiful

The ASM Brescia plant

side view

View of the huge cranes lifting the waste into the furnaces (from remote control room-really impressive how they are moved arournd with a joystick!)

District heating piping

The massive turbine (50 MWe & 150 MWth)

Main Control Room

I had to write an overview of some waste management technologies for a work related presentation yesterday, which led me to go through some of my old files. I came across photos I had taken of the Brescia waste to energy plant (Italy) which I had visited two years ago. It is one of the best plants in the world, in terms of energy production, environmental protection and aesthetics (but that's just my taste). This plant is capable of processing more than half a million tons of municipal waste (incl. biomass), to produce 400 GWh of electrical power and 300 GWh of heat per year. The plant is only 300 meters away from the city's residential quarters, to which it provides so much electricity and district heating. But as one can see from the photos it is not agressive in any way, on the contrary (to me) it looks beautiful in its own industrial way. The plant is so unbelievably clean, you could eat from the floors!, indoors and outdoors, and there are no bad odours whatsoever, despite the two massive combustion furnaces. It is truly a technological and environmental wonder!