Conservative policy advisor and speechwriter Peter Franklin has written a piece in the Guardian Unlimited entitled “Conservatives must oppose nuclear”. The piece is mainly about nuclear, as you can imagine, but does make the statement.
“We need to raise Britain’s abysmal energy efficiency standards; do more to promote the use of energy crops and micro-generation”
Unfortunately of course he is not saying what should be done by the Conservaties to achieve this promotion of micro-generation. You can read the piece here.
Written by ashleys on May 24th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on News and micro generation.
In this section I would like to focus on the some relevant definitions with respect to the micro-generation of wind power. First a set of more general definitions followed by definitions more specifically relevant to wind power. A lot of these definitions are also available on the great online resource wikipedia, and where relevant I have included a link.
Ampere-hour (Ah): Quantity of electricity or measure of charge. (1 Ah = 3600 C [Coulomb])
Electrical grid: An integrated system of electricity distribution, usually covering a large area.
Kilowatt (kW): 1000 watts.
Kilowatt-hour (kWh): One thousand watts acting over a period of 1 hour. The kWh is a unit of energy.
Micro-generation: Defined as generation of a capacity of less than 50 kW. Although there has been some discussion
about this.
ROC: Renewable Obligtion Certificate - A certificate that is issued to accrediated generators for each MWh of electricity that is produced from renewable sources. ROC’s can be traded and have a value of approximately £46/MWh, though the value will obviously vary due to market conditions
Wind Power
Constant-speed wind turbines: Turbines that operate at a constant rotor revolutions per minute (RPM) and are optimized for energy capture at a given rotor diameter at a particular speed in the wind power curve.
HAWT: Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine - The most common form of wind turbine in which, as the name suggests, the blades rotate around the horizontal. This is of course the form that most people will be familiar with.
VAWT: Vertical Axis Wind Turbine - In this case the turbine blades rotate about the vertical axis. This design is less common although a number are now being developed for the micro-generation market.
Wind turbines can be classified depending on the blade diameter:
Micro: Less than 1.25 metres
Small: Between 1.25 and 2 metres
Large: Greater than 2 metres
Written by ashleys on May 11th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Definitions and Wind Power.
There is an interesting article on Guardian Unlimited by Jeremy Legget which is actually in response to a previous article by George Monbiot in support of the use of gas to create hydrogen. However the main thrust of Jeremy’s article is that it is entirely possible for the average, British in this case, household to significantly reduce carbon emissions. Initial reductions are easy through energy saving initiatives such as insulation and the use of energy efficient appliances and lighting fixtures etc. There are significant cost benefits to be realised in taking those steps.
Further reductions are then possible through the use of micro-generation technologies. Of which, Jeremy supports solar PV generation, which as a CEO of a solar PV company makes sense! The final push to zero requires that the power needs of the grid are largely coming from renewable sources. Something that Jeremy argues is potentially feasable for the future if you manage to effectively hook up big and micro renewable generation.
Interesting stuff. Read Jeremy’s article
here and George’s
here
Written by ashleys on May 7th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Solar Power and micro generation.
Micro-Generation- An Introduction
Welcome to the first in a series of articles on micro-generation. This article is an introduction to small scale generation in the UK. I hope you find it useful and please feel free to provide feedback.
It’s about targets
The UK has set targets to source 10% of its electricity from renewables by 2010 and 15% by 2015 with an aspiration to reach 20% by 2020. Other governments have also been setting similar targets, although at the time of writing I haven’t researched any specific details.
The UK Government has said that it believes that micro-generation, which has been defined as under 50kW for electricity, has the potential to make an important contribution to these targets.
Secondary Benefits
Of course in addition to helping governments meet their targets, the micro-generation of power provides a number of secondary benefits such as:
- Reduced CO2 emissions
- Increased robustness of national grids
- Generation of power where it is going to be used, which will eliminate wastage due to transmission losses
- Reduced energy costs for individuals. The return on investment is at present is over the medium to long term.
- Visibility of the uptake and use of the micro-generation of power
(more…)
Written by ashleys on May 3rd, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Wind Power and micro generation.