Renewable Energy for Everyone (garden creatures)
No commentsBy Cedric DSilva
Affordable Renewable Energy for Everyone
Have you ever wanted to power your home or office with renewable energy, but thought it was too expensive? Or you didn’t want to deal with installing and maintaining equipment?
Now there is a way that everyone can use solar, wind, and other renewable energies, at a fraction of the cost. Even renters can power their homes with renewable energy.
Renewable energy certificates (aka green tags, green energy certificates, or tradable renewable certificates) make it easy and inexpensive for anyone to reduce or eliminate the environmental impact of their electricity use.
Each certificate represents the delivery of a specific amount of renewable power (usually one megawatt-hour) into a regional or national energy “grid.” This replaces the non-renewable fossil fuels that would have otherwise been used with non-polluting energy from solar, wind, biomass, and other renewable sources.
While the renewable energy you pay for may not flow through the wires in your own home, the resulting overall benefit to the environment is the same as it would be if you installed solar panels or wind turbines directly on your own property.
The certificates are purchased in addition to paying your regular energy bill. So it doesn’t cost less than standard electricity, but its a small premium to pay to keep toxic pollutants produced by the burning of fossil fuels out of the environment. And it supports the market for renewable energy as a whole, which ultimately will bring the price down for renewable energy and make it more generally available.
These certificates are available on the internet, but not widely known. Green energy certificates are currently being marketed to big businesses that use a lot of energy and can make a big impact with their purchase, but anyone can buy them.
I recently purchased renewable energy certificates to offset the electricty I use in my own home and home office. Though my purchase is only 15 MWh per year for my 1500 square foot house, every little bit helps establish the market for renewable energy. It prevents the emissions of 20,700 pounds of carbon dioxide annually, equivalent to planting 1,500 trees or removing 2 cars from the road for one year. I pay only $40 a month (in addition to my regular energy bill) for solar, and other renewables cost even less.
Cedric DSilva
Age: 43
Position: CEO: Bits,Pieces and Fishes And CDS People
Previous jobs: Worked as Mechanical Engineer in several countries around the world
Education: Bachelor’s degree
Residence (Dual) : Mumbai, India; Calgary, Canada.
Other interests: Travel, golf, Adventure, Ornamental Fish Breeding
Energy Consulting For Eco Homes
By Dominic Donaldson
In this tumultuous political climate, a time when banks are collapsing, house prices are falling and the planet is warming up; the issues surrounding new housing developments have become entwined with affordability and green living. The Government have set targets for new builds to have a sustainability level rating of six by 2016. This essentially means that these buildings will have to be carbon neutral by using renewable energy, and they will have to be built in a way that minimises energy loss. Embarking on an era where solar panels and wind turbines power our homes, government regulations mean that we are more likely to be calling upon the services of an Energy Consultant than an electrician.
The prominence of Energy Consultants in the construction industry is a reflection of the changing times of energy awareness. Climate change is being discussed in primary schools, and global warming has become a familiar household topic. Recycling cans and glass and composting organic waste has become second nature for most British households, and is a direct response to energy awareness campaigns. As the information filters down to the public, and becomes part of everyday life, the role of the energy consultant takes a turn towards the domestic sector. Energy consulting entails advising clients on how they can save money by saving energy, and how they can help save the environment by using energy from renewable sources.
The new Eco Towns as proposed by Gordon Brown are to be constructed from ecologically friendly materials and the architecture is designed to make them as energy efficient as possible. One such development in Nottingham called the Hockerton Housing Project has been a major success and provides a practical template for future energy efficient communities. By using materials with a high thermal performance, heat can be stored and released efficiently minimising the energy consumption of the household. Using solar panels and wind turbines to generate energy for electrical goods eliminates the need to be hooked to the national grid, and ensuring that all appliances are low energy, the need energy, even from renewable sources is reduced dramatically.
The Hockerton project is the result of a community self-build project. A group of people, with common interests in a low impact living put their enthusiasm and knowledge together to create a sustainable community. The project began in the early 1990s, before most people were aware of the impact our western lifestyle could have on the climate, and before eco-friendly became the buzz word du jour. The members of the project had the knowledge to create a sustainable low energy homestead using thermo-efficient materials and renewable energy technology. The eco-villages and towns that are being proposed by Gordon Brown are not projects initiated by people with a common interest in greener living. There will not be a wealth of experience for sustainable living to be drawn upon should anything go wrong with the system.
Despite the ever increasing interest in sustainable living, these towns will function like any other; they will be reliant on technology that requires professional maintenance and management. This is why energy consulting is going to be so prominent in the domestic sector. In the homes of the future, home owners are more likely to be worried about the house springing an energy leak than a water leak, and if the lights don’t come on the chances are you will call for the services of an Energy Consultant, not an electrician.
Dominic Donaldson is an expert in the engineering industry.
Find out more aboutabout energy consulting and how an expert on renewable energy could help save you money.
Learn About Outdoor Creatures In Wildlife
Leaving no stone unturned - The new direction in road maintenance
By ASI Solutions ASI Solutions
Massive international growth potential for UK breakthrough in road maintenance
ASI Solutions plc (ASI) the first UK company to develop a fast, low-cost and permanent way to eliminate defects on roads and footpaths is experiencing an unexpected surge in demand to roll out its sustainable, high performance road preservation and repair processes across multiple countries.
To service major market opportunities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, ASI has set up a joint venture based in Hamburg, however the UK parent company is also now being asked to supply its processes into many other regions including Eastern Europe, Russia, Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. For example, just this week a delegation of around 40 senior road maintenance engineers and contractors from Georgia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Russia and Iran visited the company at their own request to discuss transferring these UK innovations back into their own countries. ASIs breakthrough processes have already been used routinely by around half the local authorities in the UK.
Sonia McLintock, sales and marketing director at ASI is delighted with the worldwide interest that the company is currently receiving, Many countries are looking for better, faster ways to repair potholes and improve the condition of their roads and it is not just a case of throwing more money at the problem. Rhinopatch was developed because traditional dig out and replace techniques simply do not work and they are no longer sustainable either financially or environmentally.
Our repair process delivers a joint-free, permanent answer at a fraction of the cost of traditional approaches and is completely sustainable as all materials are recycled within the damaged area being repaired. It is also fast enough to allow three or even four times the number of surface defects to be repaired in a working day and thats great news for both road users and tax payers.
The German joint venture company, which is also being announced today, is ASIs first dedicated operation outside the UK although the companys second major move into the European market. In September, ASI confirmed a licensing deal covering Cyprus, Turkey and Greece and further announcements for other regions are expected over the next few months.
Asphalt Strassen Instandsetzung GmbH (ASI GmbH) will introduce the parent companys breakthrough performance processes throughout Germany and is an ASI joint venture with;
LT Linnhoff Maschinenbau GmbH, who design and manufacture the companys patented infrared heaters on a worldwide basis;
and Klingenberg Consulting GmbH, a business development consultancy with strong links into the countrys network of approved maintenance contractors and national/community road authorities.
ASI GmbH is headquartered in Hamburg and will initially supply three of ASIs key processes: Rhinopatch for routine repair of potholes and other road surface defects; Rapidrhino for an ultra-fast response to emergency repairs; and Rhinophalt, an asphalt preservative that prevents surfaces ageing and deteriorating in the first place. The preservative can be re-applied every few years to significantly extend the functional life of new or existing roads and to eliminate the increasing costs, traffic chaos, driver frustration and very high carbon dioxide emissions associated with surface dressing or resurfacing.
All processes are expected to be well received by Germanys road authorities who are urgently looking for better ways of dealing with the poor condition of the nations roads and a growing number of potholes. ASI GmbH is already off to a flying start with two Hamburg-based firms who have signed up to use the Rhinopatch process for all their road repair contracts on the citys roads.
Tim Batzer, managing director of Werner Batzer is delighted with the results his company is achieving, At last we can make a real and long-term improvement to the roads in Hamburg. With traditional techniques the joint between the existing and repaired surface was always a permanent weak point that can open and allow water to penetrate but with Rhinopatch there are no joints. The process is also fast, safer for our road maintenance teams and quiet enough to allow off-peak working.
Rhinopatch is already the UKs most widely specified infrared road repair process and is unique in being both Highways Agency- (HAPAS) and British Board of Agrment approved (BBA). Rhinophalt is currently BBA-approved and in the final stages of receiving full HAPAS-accreditation. ASI and ASI GmbH are also working together to finalise all relevant European and international approvals to further accelerate market penetration and fast uptake.
ASI Solutions plc is author of this article on Sustainable Road Repair .
Find more information about Sustainable Road Repair here.
Friday, October 31st, 2008 at 11:15 am and is filed under environmental. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
