Alternative Energy

1) Aeration Windmill

This is the kind of windmill used for the aeration of a pond or for the pumping of water out of a small water body to serve your garden or animals. The maximum depth that this can pump water from is 15m.

2) Aermotor Windmill

Manufactures since 1888 these are the standard for windmills, it can be used only for pumping out of a well, and not for aeration or even for pumping water out of a pond or river.

These are the two smaller regular 240 volts AC requirement.

The ones that produce electricity require thousands of dollars in infrastructure costs, the most you can do from your windmill is charge a 12 DC volt battery but even that is cheaper of you plan to do it with solar cells.

The Wind Turbine
windmills are also called as wind turbines; it acts as an agent for harnessing the kinetic energy of the wind and then converts it into electrical energy. A wind turbine just like a windmill had blades called aerofoils which turn by the pressure of the wind. This aerofoils are connected to a shaft which in turn drives a motor which is connected to a generator. The total estimate of the wind energy surrounding the earth at any given moment is 1 x 1011 Gigawatts”. This value is variable year to year. Windmills in themselves are a complex energy source, even though they are very fickle as the value of wind energy keeps changing from time to time.

The types if windmills are

1)      Horizontal axis- low speed horizontal axis windmills are the ones used for pumping water and compressing air. Invented in Egypt and Greece in 300 B.C they became popular in Greece and Portugal.

Vertical axis- initially used for milling of corn by the Persians in 1500 B.C, they have sails attached to a shaft that turns vertically. They are inexpensive to use, and are very popular and are still being developed to their full potential.

The main fuel of our lives was once wood, using it to cook our food and to heat our homes and if we go a bit more back, to keep us safe and drive away animals. The energy from wood was always the mainstay of our energy needs. Wood was once our main fuel. We burned it to heat our homes and cook our food. It is still provides a percentage of the energy that we use so constantly, but during the course of time, we have been forced to look for another source of energy which is less polluting because of the nature and exhaustibility of wood and due to depleting forests thus causing immense global environmental problems.

Sugarcane is grown in some certain places which is perfect for fermentation and of the making of alcohol, which can be further burned to generate energy. This cane can also be used in an alternate way, i.e. by using the crushed pulp called bagasse which can be used for burning thus creating steam and that steam can further be used to drive turbines.

Various types of other wastes can be incinerated to produce heat, or be burned to produce steam which can power a power station.
The process of “Bioconversion” makes use of various animal and plant waste products for the production of various fuels like natural gas, oil and methanol. Various wastes that can be used range from rubbish, manure plant and animal, seaweed, woodchips to corn stalks and other waste products.

Working of the biomass fuel systems

When the fuel is burned, ths generates heat which is then applied to water, to convert it to steam, which turns on the turbines and subsequently generators, just as in a traditional fossil fuel power station.Sugar cane

Sugar cane is at first harvested and then in the mill it is crushed to obtain all the juice, this juice is used for the main purposes like making of sugar or of jaggery, but the left over pulp called bagasse, can be used for production of power in a power station.

This power house can easily provide enough energy for the power requirements of the mill itself as well as leaving some leftover energy to sell in the neighboring area.

Advantages of using biofuel.

• The usage of waste materials is economical and the best strategy yet to get rid of them productively.
• The waste material is rarely of use to anyone, so the fuel needed comes cheap.
• There is definitely a lot less demand on the resources of the earth, thus doing its part in solving the grave ecological problems.

Problems

• Waste tends to be in small quantities, such huge quantities of waste are slightly difficult to obtain.
• Te burning of fuel makes the greenhouses gases problem even more severe.
• Some of the water materials are season specific and cannot be available all the year round.

Also biomass production is renewable, because there will never be a dearth of organic waste. Also this waste is usually the by products of living flora and fauna which can be regenerated.

The easiest way to assume that a product is green is when it comes from the plants themselves, but such assumptions can lead to a dangerous ground being followed when it comes to the environment and its preservation. Making fuel by a layman’s language, if is from the plants themselves then it has to be green and renewable, but this is the paradox and a serious misconception. Such misconceptions and lack of knowledge has today led to a dangerous situation relating to the Palm oil Biodiesel. In the race for conservation and the new fad for biodegradable fuel resources, the politicians in Europe made the mistake of depending on minimal research and thus started importing large quantities of palm oil from South East Asia, to make the “green” fuel for transport and for using in generation of electricity.
The last two decades have seen an immense rise in the demand for Palm oil in Europe. Recently for fuel, and among the other uses being in cosmetics and food. It is cheap and can be used for a large number of purposes and as an approximate is used for about 10% of the stuff in kept in the supermarkets.
With hundreds and millions of dollars promoting the product by giving it subsidies, the leading importer of Palm oil quickly emerged as Netherlands. Netherlands imported approximately double i.e. 1.7 million tons of oil in 2006, of their import the previous year.
The alarming thing is that now the ecological disturbances due to the use of palm oil are coming to fore. These plantations, more so in the countries of Singapore and Malaysia are the factors in desecrating the environment rather than preserving it. The demand for palm oil has been raised in Europe, which has led to the destroying of hundreds of acres of rainforest area to make space for the plantations of this supposedly healthy and green fuel alternative. These spaces are often cleared by cutting down of rainforests and burning a large amount of peatland. Peat is a moss which stores a large amount of co2 in it, burning of peatland has made Indonesia the third largest emitter of co2 in the world.

The maximum of the hydroelectric power that we use comes from the conversion of the potential energy of dammed water which in turn drives a water turbine, which in turn drives a generator. The energy extracted from water in this method depends on the height of the water and the volume and also on the difference of height in the source of water and its outflow height. This difference in height can also be called head, and is directly proportional to the potential energy, so to increase the potential energy; the water is sometimes passed though a pipe.

The formula for calculating the electricity production in a hydroelectric plant is
P=hrk,
where P is power in watts, h is height calculated in  meters, r stands for flow rate in cubic meters per second, and k is a constant of 7,500 watts. This formula assumes an efficiency of 75%

Economics

The biggest advantage that hydroelectricity has is the cost elimination of the fuel. These hydroelectric plants are almost not affected at all with the cost of fuel and its escalation or depreciation. These plants also have a much longer lifetime and sustainability than the traditional fossil fuel fired electricity generation plants. The cost effectiveness further increases because they do not need manual labor, only supervisors are needed and that too few  in number, most of the plants are automated and have been built 100 to 50 years back.

The dams are built for several purposes and the creation of hydroelectricity can have significant cost effectiveness if a plant s established along with a dam where the other activities have also been taken up. The dams cover their costs in 5 to 7 years of their making and then require little or no investment.

Greenhouse gas emissions

The biggest ecological advantage of having a dam is that there are no emission of carbon dioxide which is a greenhouse gas, causing furor among the conservationists about its effects in global warming and the consequences of life on earth. The carbon dioxide though is emitted while making the plant, it is a tiny insignificant fraction of the benefit it provides once it gets operational.

The prayer of the environmentalists might as well be finally answered, in the turn of events several of the cities of south California have decided not to renew the contracts for long term coal fired electricity, instead turning to exercise their choices for a more cleaner form of electricity thus helping the earth to survive for a little bit more.

The officials of the cities told the Intermountain Power Agency which is based in Utah that there would not be renewal of the contracts for coal fired electricity, when the contracts expire in 2027 and would be in its place looking for a more favorable alternate source of electricity.

“It’s a huge change,” said Mayor Todd Campbell of Burbank, which is one of the cities to take part in this huge turn of events for the environment friendly.

The cities which have refused to finally use the coal based electricity are Pasadena, Glendale, Riverside and Anaheim. They now are set to join the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which had already decided not to renew the contract with the coal fired electricity maker Intermountain. The current energy is mainly consisting of the coal fired electricity and the level of dependence for coal fired electricity in some states is as much as 65% of the energy consumed.

The general manager of Intermountain Reed Searle said the company has been working for the renewals of the contracts for three years now and are now looking into avenues by which they will bring their plant to comply with the California’s greenhouse gas legislation which comes into effect on the first of January.

The decision of the cities is a direct impact of the pressure from the environmentalists and the politicians.

This move has propelled Southern California to the forefront of the fight against dirty energy and the use of alternative energy as an option for energy in the coming years.

Energy Efficient & Net Zero Energy Buildings

The new god of environmentalists is called “Energy efficiency” and “renewable energy”. They are quite correctly hailed to be the major ways in which carbon emissions can be reduced. Some of the most significant emitters of greenhouse gases are the buildings that we work or live in.
up to 70% needs for hot water annually can be fulfilled by solar hot water heating. Other places where ht water might be needed for e.g. gyms and nursing homes can also be provided solar hot water saving a lot of energy and in a very nonpolluting way. Read the rest of this entry »

The biggest and the hugest facility of solar power uses a parabolic trough and is located in California, Mojave Desert at Kramer Junction. Operational since the 1980’s this facility has the credit of producing the maximum mount of solar electricity in the electric power department in the year 2004.A parabolic trough collector is made up of a linear parabolic shaped reflector that reflects the radiation of the sun at a point where the receiver has been put in the middle of the parabola. The collector is made so as to track the sun continuously throughout the day so that the sun does not get out of focus and electricity is produced continuously from the parabolic receiver. The continuous focus of the sun on the receiver ensures that the suns energy is always received and converted by the receiver. Te intensity of the sun is further more focused due to the shape of the trough, the trough shape makes sure that the intensity of the sun is more by approximately 300% than a normal flat surface. The operating temperatures often reach a mind-boggling 400 degrees Celsius.

A field of collectors consists of a huge field of parabolic trough collectors operating on a single axis. This large field is of a modular nature and is comprised of a lot of parallel rows of solar collectors facing in a north south direction on a horizontal axis. The fluid used to generate super hot steam is put into pipes and is worked around its way to the parabolic troughs to collect the heat and then deposits it to a central location where is high pressure super heated steam is the generated. This steam is thereafter fed into a typical turbine, which is then used to produce the electricity. The cooled fluid after passing through the heat exchangers is then again sent to collect more heat, and the process is started all over again. The plant is usually made to be self sustaining and does not need any such outside energy source, but a hybrid solar or fossil fuel fueled working facility is also kept in abeyance for the periods of low solar activity. 

Photovoltaic energy is the name given to the electricity which is produced by the sun, this is converted into electricity using a photovoltaic cell also called as a solar cell. Usually made from silicon alloys, it is a mnonmechanical instrument.

The composition of sunlight is Photons, this is the name given to the atomic particles of energy which give us light. Different wavelength is the reason for these photons having different levels of energy in them. In a PV cell, these photons are absorbed and thus help us to provide energy. When a sufficient amount of photons are absorbed by the semiconductor inside the PV cell, electrons from the semiconductor are dislodged, and form electricity.  The way a PV cell is made conduces the electrons to come to the surface and then flows as electricity.

The position that the electrum leaves blank forms holes and when all these electrons carrying the negative charge are attracted towards the front surface of the cell, there is a charge imbalance between the two and due to this the electricity flows in the cell just like the two terminals of a battery.

The photovoltaic cell is the basic component of a PV system, which can range from 1 cm to 10 cm. the production capacity of one cell is limited to 1 or 2 watts of electricity which is a very meager amount, thus these cells are packed and repacked into tighter, weather tight modules, each containing thousands of these cells which then give the needed electricity.

The solar powered wristwatches or calculators that we use everyday are in essence powered by the photovoltaic cells. Some other uses of this cell is to provide electricity to homes, pump water and other power communication equipment.

The uses of photovoltaic cell are many. it is useful because the conversion from light to electricity is so direct that there is no need for bulky machinery, also the cell is a self contained, non mechanical unit and thus extremely useful in any situation requiring small amounts of electricity.

Every one of us has heard about the heat produced by the sun and how harnessing it can yield amazing results for us as well as for the ecosystem. Majorly the thermal energy harnessed from the sun is used in hearting up of water, may be in a swimming pool or water heated for domestic use.  Maximum use of the energy is done by using the flat plate solar converters which have a fixed position.At places where the space heating is of maximum priority, the maximum benefit is derived if the flat plate collector is placed at an angle equal to the latitude plus approximately 15 degrees in the south direction.

The two categories that we will mainly come across in a solar converter is

1)      concentrating

2)      nonconcentrating.

In the concentrating type solar heater, the area exposed to the solar radiation that is interception area, that collect the radiating is huge, sometimes hundreds of times, than the area that absorbs the energy or the absorber.

In the nonconcentrating type of heaters, the two areas i.e. the absorber and the interception area is the same.

For temperatures below 200 degree F, nonconcentrating type of heaters are sufficient.

The typical flat plate solar heater design consists of

1)      an absorber which absorbs and intercepts solar heat,

2)      a transparent film which works as a heat retainer, but does not prevent the sun light to pass through to the absorber,

3)      a fluid to transport heat, which may be water or air, which flowes through the tubes and removes heat from the absorber

4)      a backing of heat insulation.

Thermal heating systems can be classified into active or passive systems.

Passive systems are the ones where air is circulated along a solar heat surface and then through the building by way of convection, while in active systems air is pumped by fans and pumps.

Your grandma’s foot pedal sewing machine is an example of an antique green lifestyle treasure built to last and this antique is stylish with its own charm of design. There are examples of the hardy machines that still exist and many are still functional. Too bad, not many machines that can last a hundred years or more are available to everyone. Just imagine if our cars were built to last like these antique Singer sewing machines.

If you do have one of these lovely machines, you should consider yourself lucky to have gotten such a marvellous piece of work for a song if that was the case. When it came to designing the sewing machine, inventors had been trying to devise a sewing machine that could replace the slow hand sewing of people who also were not always as reliable as a machine.

A patent was awarded to French designer B. Thimonnier for a sewing machine that was powered by foot pedals. This design was an innovation although it was not a perfected machine yet and this continued to be a problem in the development of mechanical sewing machines. Various machines were invented and improved upon yet these machines were not yet ready for full operation until Isaac M. Singer was awarded a patent in 1851 for a machine that was fully functional and was powered by an foot device called the foot treadle. This sewing machine improved upon the successful elements of the best machines until that time and this was the sewing machine that would be mass-produced for the market.

Sometimes you can see these antique foot pedal sewing machines on eBay and they are readily identifiable because each of these early Singer machines are painted black with bodies that look more like a machine than the current plastic cased and sleeker looks of current sewing machines. Some of the machines are spare looking with a black metal foot pedal and others are cased in wooden cabinets.

You can find appliance services, which offer maintenance and repairs for antique Singer sewing machines including the treadle or foot pedal type sewing machine. If you sew, like antiques and want to cut down on the energy that you use with a mechanical powered sewing machine, here is your machine.