Posts Tagged ‘greenhouse gas’

Welcome to this Blog that Shows How to Make Solar Pay

It’s great that you are considering making the switch to solar. Here you will find a wide variety of information designed to answer all your questions about putting solar power, solar hot water or a heat pump in your home.

To start you off, you can receive an instant, on-line proposal tailored for your situation simply by answering some questions about your rooftop and household.

Our on-line calculator will work out the best solution for you instantly. You will also be given a series of valuable information that explains the benefits of solar technology for your household, in terms of energy savings and how our systems pay for themselves – everything you need to go solar.

If cutting global emissions is a marathon, then it looks like we need to start training and get ready for the long run ahead.

Many householders who have already installed solar hot water and grid-connect photovoltaic systems are already fit for the race ahead, but are our politicians seriously lacking form from spending too much time trying to score political points and catering for big polluters?

Cutting global greenhouse emissions is an international marathon that will only be achieved if developed economies like Australia are fit enough to finish the race on time. Australia’s priority should therefore be to immediately commit to an aggressive training regime of energy efficiency and deploying and developing clean energy technologies to speed up the transition to a carbon costed economy.

This is what the Clean Energy Council believes is necessary if we are to get serious about reducing our collective damage to the world’s climate.

Clean Energy Council chief executive Matthew Warren said the release of the federal government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) draft legislation on March 10, highlights the importance of getting on with effective renewable energy targets and other complementary measures.

“This is a marathon, not a sprint. Developing a national trading scheme ahead of a global framework is clearly challenging and may have significant consequences for emissions and the economy.

“It’s important to make a start but it’s more important to finish the race well and deliver the emissions reduction at the lowest possible cost.

Our first priority should be to get the economy fit enough to do this. Setting challenging targets might sound impressive but it doesn’t mean much if we can’t deliver them.”

The clean energy industry is working with government to resolve a number of specific design features in both the CPRS and the government’s draft Renewable Energy Target (RET) legislation.

“We should be realistic about the scale and complexity of the challenge at hand and stop pretending that there is a simple and perfect scheme that is easily deployed and ready to go,” Mr Warren said.

“We expect to be debating the details of domestic and global emissions trading scheme design for at least the next decade. But we can and should start saving energy and increase the take-up of clean technologies today.”

Like any good marathoner would know, the race is long and really only starts in the last six kilometres. Let’s just hope we have the courage to keep pushing on, even as the doubters and sceptics gain in strength. And as with any long-distance race, as they say, our only real competition is ourselves.

But the real test for any carbon reduction plan will be — will it actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions in time to make significant changes. The politicians have to remember — most marathons, while long, still do have a cut-off time. And concentrating on anything but the race ahead, such as making deals with big polluters, will be detrimental to us all.

Although fossil-fuel based electricity generation creates Australia’s largest greenhouse-gas emissions, fuel used for transport has the dubious honour of being placed second.

With so much talk of the impacts of bio-fuels displacing food crops around the world it has appeared good, ethical alternatives to fossil fuel are rare.

Solar power, solar hot water and other renewable energy sources are growing in popularity, and as a result they have showed how viable they are for alternative electricity sources to satisfy our energy needs.

But now it appears algae is set to provide a similar antidote for fossil fuel. Although not a new technology, Australian scientists have found the economic benefits of using algae to produce diesel, in place of its commonly used fossil-based cousin.

CSIRO Energy Transformed researcher Dr Tom Beer and his team discovered the humble organisms’ green credentials during a detailed life-cycle analysis of the benefits of algal biodiesel.

“Our research has shown that under ideal conditions it is possible to produce algal biodiesel at a lower cost and with less greenhouse gas emissions than fossil diesel,” Dr Beer said.

“The greenhouse gas reductions are the result of avoiding the use of a fossil resource for fuel production, capturing methane produced by the processed algae to generate energy and taking into account the potential greenhouse gas offsets from industry.”

Algae thrive on carbon dioxide (CO2), which means that environmentally damaging carbon dioxide emissions from industry could also become a useful resource.

Algal biodiesel could also offer a number of other benefits.

“Making biodiesel from algae removes the issue of competing land use because the facilities would not be established on land that might otherwise be used to grow food and the algal farm has a very low environmental impact in comparison to crops that are grown for biodiesel,” Dr Beer said.

“The Flagship’s research has made significant progress in a short time and our extensive biofuels program will continue to develop solutions that result in a secure fuel future for Australia,” he said.

“Our study also found that the establishment of a 500 hectare algal biodiesel plant in a rural area might create up to 45 jobs and provide opportunities to diversify in the agricultural sector.”

The CSIRO Energy Transformed Flagship is working with a number of partners, both national and international, to develop a strong algal biofuel research program.

“The Flagship’s research has made significant progress in a short time and our extensive biofuels program will continue to develop solutions that result in a secure fuel future for Australia,” Dr Beer said.

Despite the global interest in the production of biodiesel from algae, further research is required to create a viable industry with widespread uptake and impact.

“Although the findings of our study are very promising, challenges still exist in relation to cost, infrastructure needs and the scale of production required to make algal plants feasible,” Dr Beer said.

“We see biodiesel from algae as one potential option for sustainable fuel production amongst a range of other technologies.”

The paper, Greenhouse gas sequestration by algae – energy and greenhouse gas life cycle studies, is authored by CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric researchers Peter K. Campbell, Tom Beer and David Batten.

On a related topic a new film has launched in the US. Fuel looks at America’s obsession with oil and the many alternatives on the rise.

This is the first in a three-part series where we will look at the fundamentals of electricity use and why a better understanding of power is essential for better household energy efficiency.

Electricity is crucial to our daily lives. The power goes out after a storm, suddenly your cordless phone is useless, you can’t cook, you scramble around looking for a torch and wonder where you put your battery-run radio.

Something goes wrong and you call your local electrician. It’s technical, yet so fundamental to our lives. It must therefore be worth understanding in some way. Understanding electricity usage, is understanding that it is us, the consumers, who encourage more coal-fired power stations. Our appliances, our energy needs, have encouraged a dirty and inefficient form of energy.

Demystifying electricity and becoming more efficient in how we use it, is probably the most important contribution we can make to reduce our greenhouse-gas emissions.

Part 1 : Understanding power

Energy efficiency is the key to reducing household electricity costs and greenhouse-gas emissions. Solar hot water systems can dramatically reduce your electricity usage by removing a large proportion of your power needs. Grid-connect solar power can reduce your ongoing electricity costs as well. Both, in very different ways, supplement your existing electricity supply with energy from the sun. Something that is very abundant in a sunny country like Australia.

But, both solar hot water, namely electric-boosted systems, and grid-connect solar power, still require connection to the electricity grid. Even if you opt for a complete stand alone solar power system, efficient energy use is the most important factor. Understanding power, is the key to being more efficient.

To start, it helps to know exactly how much power you’re using. The simplest method is to take note of your electricity bill, although this has its limitations as it does not show when you are using the most power during the day or which are your most energy-hungry appliances.

Electricity bills show the total power you consume over a certain period, based on readings from your power meter. The most common type of power meter displays total power consumption, and is measured in kilowatt-hours.

What is Power?

The power meter measures the two components of power – voltage and current. Voltage, which in Australia is usually steady within a set range of 240 volts, and the current, which is the one component of power that varies. The power meter combines the voltage and current readings to show the energy, or power usage over time, in kilowatt-hours.

Power is directly related to current, and current is related to the appliances and lights in your house.  A 100 watt light globe for example, creates a higher current than a 60 watt globe.  An energy efficient light globe may be only 9 watts, therefore creating only a very small current. The voltage on each of the globes is the same, it is only the current that changes.

Time is an important factor too. A high current for a short period of time (such as a toaster), or a low current from an appliance in stand-by mode over a long period of time (DVD player), all add up. However, high current appliances create large demands on electricity networks. This is why electric hot water systems are on different tariffs. A different tariff so the power supply authority can control when they are on by injecting radio frequency pulses down the power lines. If every electric hot water system in every house turned on at once, electricity grids can collapse, resulting in wide-spread blackouts.

Appliances, such as air-conditioners, vacuum cleaners, toasters, electric jugs and coffee makers can each demand 1500 watts or more, and therefore create a high current. If you use electricity to heat air or water, then this is a good hint that high power usage is occurring, as this is a highly energy-intensive process.

Current is the reason your electricity cabling varies in size. The more current needed, the bigger the cable. The bigger the cable, the less resistance to current flow.

So we have established that your household power usage is related to current and time. That high currents create big demands on electricity networks. In Part 2 we will look at how current is related to water, and why this analogy can help us become more energy efficient.

The $12,000 is an estimate using the current information we have collected from government sites. This is not a promise and might not apply in your particular circumstances.

How did we calculate that?

The yearly electricity savings are between $300 and $700 (Source: Department of Environment).

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates the life of a solar hot water system to be between 15 and 20 years.

So in an ideal scenario, you could save $700 per year x 20 years, which is $14,000.

You can install a solar hot water system from $1,800 (after rebates and depending on your location and needs).

Deducting the roughly $2,000 off the $14,000 leaves a potential profit of $12,000.

How else could you calculate it?

As you can see this calculation is the ideal scenario. Assuming that only $300 are saved per year and the system lasts 15 years, the total savings would be $4,500. There are systems that might cost around $4,000 fully installed (again after rebates).

So this scenario is not as profitable.

What we have not considered is the rising electricity prices.

Thinking further

However, even in this most negative scenario, you are still better off getting a solar hot water system than not doing anything – just financially.

Taking the environmental impacts into account: 3,000 kg of CO2 saved each year (25% of household greenhouse gas emissions) makes it an excellent proposition.

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