Renewable, Clean Energy

[smokin]

There was a thread on here a few weeks ago about a 'green' house, beautifully built from natural materials, there were lots of comments about how idyllic and eco-friendly it was, and much as its a pleasant idea we won't all be living in them to save the planet.
So i was wondering what peoples views are on the more realistic in todays world options of wind turbines and solar power (and anything else eg willow coppice for woodchip co-firing with coal). Are they unsightly? Or would you prefer a coal fired power station and the coal mine thats required to run it? The UK currently produces around 8% renewable energy, the Kyoto agreement states this must be 30% by 2020, no mean feat - gotta do something !

 

[BREWSTERS]

We're an island, I think we should be making more use of tidal energy. Unlike the wind or the sun, the tides are totally reliable, and ultra powerful.

 

[willbon]

Firstly we need to use less energy - recycle more and have more efficient machines, electrical devices and products.

Once we've achieved that I think most houses could create some of it's own energy by using food, garden and other waste and using solar panels and mini wind turbines.. And storing energy in some battery type arrangement. Possibly on a 12v or fuel cell system.

National energy requirements should come from renewable sources and we need to do more and we can't be afraid of our landscape changing as a result. Tidal, wind and solar are the way forward.

I think house builders should build better and more practical houses and we won't need as much energy.

Says he whose last 3 cars had engine sizes of 3.5, 5.7 and 4.2...

 

[Rob_F]

Offshore wind farms is the way forward I think, here in the UK anyway.

I actually own a small willow coppice on some land I own – currently used by a neighbour to feed his log burner.

- Rob

 

[monaghan]

I looked at solar a while back, prices have come down, but it's still in the region of £12K for our size of house / family and that's with not with any battery based storage system so we'd still need the grid at night & most of the winter.

We don't have sufficient wind / space for a turbine and not enough land for ground source heating.

I suspect that most homes are in a similar position.

 

[disruptive]

I run photovoltaics.co.uk

I was at a very interesting seminar on that touched on what we need to do by 2025 in the energy sector.

 

[Marcoose]

Offshore windfarms and tidal is the way forward. The thing tht does my head in though is that we pay companies in other countries to build the stuff for us. No wonder we have a trade deficit!

 

[golddiggerguy]

On my door step, this is going to be a huge deal!

http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/news/pn11_012/pn11_012.aspx

 

[wb]

The Greater Gabbard offshore wind farm is under construction not too far from me.

It will apparently be the largest in the world once completed - huge project and lots of money invested in it.

 

[namealot]

Not sure why the focus always seams to be solar, wind, wave( which have there place but have so many limitations)and not more Parasitic, kinetic, piezo type etc

My fav is nanogenerators (Dr. Wang) the potential with just breathing, walking, the flow of blood around the body etc being used to generate electricity is pretty smart stuff

 

[BREWSTERS]

I looked at solar a while back, prices have come down, but it's still in the region of £12K for our size of house / family and that's with not with any battery based storage system so we'd still need the grid at night & most of the winter.

We don't have sufficient wind / space for a turbine and not enough land for ground source heating.

I suspect that most homes are in a similar position.

My sister got solar fitted for free - runs a good chunk of their electric and if there's any surplus it goes to the national grid and they get credited for it.

I'll find out what the company is that sorted it out.

-------------

The more I think about tidal power, the more sense it makes. We've been building dams to artificially create the same thing for decades. Totally reliable unlike wind and solar. Think of all the bridges we already have where a simple generator can be employed to benefit from the tides massive power? Billions of tonnes of water coming and going...constantly. Actually, make that trillions of tonnes.

 

[monaghan]

Hmm, I read an article about the free solar, you tend to get locked in for 25 years (based on the article I got from my dad) and the average payback period is between 6-8 years meaning someone is making a nice profit from these free installs.

My concern though was being locked into a long term contract if you want (or need) to move house.

 

[BREWSTERS]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-12767211

 

[expertc]

Tidal - big YES!

Windfarms, hmmm..., they generate infrasound at about 3-5 Hz this can resonate with internal organs of living creatures including humans. Unless it's fixed, I don't want to have them in my area.

 

[Aaron Clifford]

Tidal - big YES!

Windfarms, hmmm..., they generate infrasound at about 3-5 Hz this can resonate with internal organs of living creatures including humans. Unless it's fixed, I don't want to have them in my area.

I'm pretty sure theres an arguement both ways for that, not completly sure it's ever been proven to cause any issues.

 

[HariSeldon]

I actually own a small willow coppice on some land I own – currently used by a neighbour to feed his log burner.

As well as having woodland, I live on the River Wye so get loads of driftwood for my fires and woodburners... does that count as renewable? It's back-breaking work getting it into a form suitable for the fires though...

The layout of the place doesn't suit solar and a massive wind turbine would be a total eyesore so I'll be looking into Hydro Power and Geothermal Heating this year to see if either are feasible.

 

[expertc]

I'm pretty sure theres an arguement both ways for that, not completly sure it's ever been proven to cause any issues.

There is still some controversy. I think it should be sorted completely before we jump into that type of energy production. There is some info here. Better safe than sorry...

 

[accelerator]

I am very much in favour of safe renewable energy, particularly wind turbines and solar power. I have no problem with the look of wind turbines and would much rather have them providing power than coal or nuclear. I am also greatly in favour of solar power and have been finding out a lot more about this as I've just built a solar power installation site for a client. The benefits page on the site gives an overview of why you might want to install solar.

Rgds

 

[Aaron Clifford]

There is still some controversy. I think it should be sorted completely before we jump into that type of energy production. There is some info here. Better safe than sorry...

I've seen that, I do agree it needs to be sorted but there is always going to be an arguement, I guess we need to look at the whole set of data for/against, unlike alot of people (not you!) who just seem to run with bits of information and not including the whole set of data when researching it (much like the global warming issues).

 

[expertc]

I've seen that, I do agree it needs to be sorted but there is always going to be an arguement, I guess we need to look at the whole set of data for/against...

+1! That why I said it should be sorted before jumping into it.