Renewable Energy Sources

[gone-ot]

...yeah, the desert area east of Yuma, AZ, is going solar.

...used to be Jojoba farming area (as well as WWII airfield, Dateland), but fizzled out...hope the solar plant is more successful.

...interestingly, about 10 years ago, the same area (around Welton-Dateland) was talked-up to be the location of a new oil refinery, but it too went down in obscurity.

[Arragonis]

Wave power research has been going on in Scotland on and off since the 70s, loads of different devices and designs used. The Scottish Government thinks it will be a winner. I still want to see the hard numbers but credit to them for giving it a large enough trial.

Scotland had a target of 50% from renewables by 2020, they are close to reaching that so they have raised it to 80% by then.

Originally Posted by Scottish Government

23/09/2010

Scotland's renewable electricity target for the next decade is being raised from 50 per cent to 80 per cent, First Minister Alex Salmond announced today.

All credit to them for having the bravery to commit to it, although there are some doubts.

Originally Posted by Rupert Soames, Aggreko

It is not an argument that Scotland should not have a fantastic presence in renewables, my argument is that policy-making is so focused on the end of the road that you can't see the pothole 300 yards ahead.

In Scotland, as in England, we cannot ignore the realities of what is possible in engineering and financial terms.

If we persist in thinking only about 2030, we will be in deep trouble in pretty short order, for Scotland and for renewables.

I urge policymakers in Scotland to do more on the question of how Scotland is going to respond to the fact that the National Grid, on which we all depend, will lose 30% of its generating capacity by 2018."

Wind power is less settled here - there are loads of people who object to the windmills and equally a large number who wonder about the subsidies we have to give them all the time. There is an additional levy on my energy bills to pay for this stuff. If it goes into research good. If it goes into someone getting a tax break to build windmills which then don't work well, not so good.

Solar won't work here - for obvious reasons. Now if someone could harness the energy of persistent miserable drizzle Scotland would be onto a winner.

I like the microgenerator ideas a lot. I have a watch which uses a generator in it to charge the battery so I don't have to remember to forget to wind it up.

EDIT - At the same time Scotland has a lot of things going for it, oil and gas for example, still some coal (although all the pits were closed years ago). And if we need to go Nuclear then Scotland is a place empty enough so that plants could be built away from large populations.

[NeilBlanchard]

Here's an update of the USA solar PV installations:

Top Residential Solar Installers | CleanTechnica

They don't mention a company that both my nephews are now working for called Astrum Solar. They started in New Jersey (I think) and they are hiring here in Massachusetts and I think they want to expand out to Arizona, at least.

They offer the $0 down lease deals, among other arrangements.

[Arragonis]

Euro news - uk.gov has tried to reduce solar feed in tariffs because they cost too much, but the solar industry has appealed about the speed of the change - which seems fair but the subsidies are too high.

At the same time Spain.gov (a pioneer in Solar tech.) has killed subsidies for this kind of energy - mind you they have up to 60% unemployment for some age groups / industries at the moment so their focus for spending is elsewhere.

[tortoise]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

Hello,

We know about wind turbines and solar photovoltaic and solar heat, right? And going beyond biomass, what other sources are there?

Make of this what you will.

My public utility district gets about 80% from hydroelectric, and sells it at 6 1/2 cents per KWH. They are required to purchase some minimum percentage of renewable power, and by the statute, "renewable" doesn't include hydroelectric.

To comply with the law, they subsidise home PV in a big way. My grid-connected system, besides being net-metered, has a production meter on the inverter, and I get an annual check for 54 cents for every KWH it produces, on a contract running through June 30, 2020. This amount is because the PV panels and the inverter are made in-state. As you see, the payback is almost all in the subsidy.

Even with this deal, the economics of the system for the user (me) are marginal. I might have done better buying a CD.

[Arragonis]

This appeared a few days ago

BBC News - Glasgow solar study: 'We could put oil back in ground'

I have no idea if it works or if it is a Unicorn.