Archive for Renewable energy generation
Samsø: Denmark’s Renewable Energy Island
Posted by: | CommentsSamsø began orienting island citizens about the potential and perspectives in the Energy Island project in 1998. There was a Ten Year Plan to orchestrate the project. Eleven 1 MW wind turbines would make the island self-sufficient with electricity. They were erected in 1999-2000. The wind turbines are owned by a windmill cooperative and by individual owners.
The island is 100% self-sufficient with wind-generated electricity. About 70% of island heating needs are met with renewable energy, and the transportation energy consumption is 100% compensated by the electricity production from the offshore wind turbines.
Quite a number of people are working with plans to establish a cooperatively run farm-based biogas plant to extract biogas from the major pig farms’ slurry . This biogas will be used to produce electricity and the excess heat will be used for heating purposes.
Future plans include the transport sector, that can in part be supplied with canola oil for diesel vehicles and the island’s gasoline cars can use bioethanol or can be converted to hydrogen and electricity, when technological innovation and lower prices make large scale conversion feasible.
Energy Sustainable Island for Real Life Community
Posted by: | CommentsAn integrated renewable energy network shall be built on Ikaria Island (Greece), allowing renewables to become the backbone of public power supplies. Power supplies are presently covered 94% by diesels (6,050Kw installed capacity) and 6% from wind (385kW). The project represents the 1st phase of a programme aiming to turn this ratio in future to the opposite, namely 90% from renewables and only 10% from diesel. But already the present project (1st phase) is expected to cover nearly 50% of electricity demand from renewables.
Communal implementation of a wind project – Vép, Hungary
Posted by: | CommentsIn Western Hungary, close to the Austrian border, the first turbine of a wind farm is operational and provides the public lighting costs of the village of Vep (3000 inhabitants). The project company has a two step extension plan: first to in-stall three more turbines of altogether 4.8 MW (second phase), and then 16 turbines of 32 MW (third phase). The managers of the project aimed at proving that it is possible to use renewable energy in the village of Vép and that this kind of locally available energy can also be used for a community purpose.
This is why the project managing company was established which was able to launch the investment using resources from tenders.
Electricity generated in the wind farm is fed into the public utility electricity network. The owners have taken on a commitment saying that they would settle the complete bill for public lighting for the village of Vép from the income derived from the sale of the generated electricity. The trial operation of the wind turbine started in mid-June 2005, and the technical acceptance was scheduled for 4th September 2005.
Investment milestones:-
2002 – The idea was born, wind measurements, gaining support of village residents
2003 – Submitting bid for design tender (West Pannon Regional Development Council)
2004 – Ending design
May 2004 – winning bid of PHARE CBC
January 2005 – public procurement
June 2005 – surveys in village concerning acceptance of wind energy and construction of wind farm
4th September 2005 – technical acceptance
2006 – agreement with village on footing public lighting bill.
In Hungary the use of wind energy is traditional (windmills), but usage of wind for electricity
producing was not characteristic until last years. Until the end of the twentieth century usage of wind-energy was only possible using low-power wind converters, which operated water-pumps, inductors or water-fans. But researches confirm that it is worth to build wind power plants for electricity producing, with aware place choice.
According to the European wind sorting Hungary is a moderately windy area. The windiest
month is March, the less windy month is October, but the wind climate of Hungary is relatively equalized. The spatial inequality of wind is significant. The most suitable area of the country for using wind-energy are the northwest and the southeast regions (Radics, 2004). The geographical environment of Hungary is not ideal, but there are more advantages of usage of wind-energy, so Hungary has to exploit the wind-energy potential.
According to a survey (MPOMRI, 2006) made by Median for Callis Energetics in January 2006 wind is a ‘popular’ renewable energy-source.
91% of the population of Hungary support building of wind power plants, and 85% would support it even if the price of electricity would increase 1.5%
ECTOS Project. Mobilizing social support for hydrogen – Reykjavik, Iceland
Posted by: | CommentsFor several years the Icelandic government has been keen to become the world’s first hydrogen-based economy, replacing traditional fossil fuels with fuel cells. In May 1999 the Icelandic holding company VistOrka hf, Shell Hydrogen, Norsk Hydro, and DaimlerChrysler entered into a joint venture and established Icelandic New Energy Ltd (INE). The first task of INE was to set up a project that would explore the possibilities of hydrogen on the island. This led to the concept of the ECTOS (Ecological City Transport System) project, which was finalized by the end of 2000.
The ECTOS project is centred on a Shell Hydrogen retail filling station that has been installed on an existing Shell forecourt in the city of Reykjavik. The hydrogen for the project will be produced, stored, and distributed at this station. The hydrogen is produced by electrolyzing water using electricity generated from renewable energy. Norsk Hydro supplied the hydrogen fuel plant in which this process takes place.
ESTEEM was used and developed in one of INE’s projects called SMARTH2. SMARTH2 is a demonstration project for hydrogen fuelled vehicles and vessels. The project will test various types of hydrogen-fuelled company cars and other equipment that run on hydrogen, including a hydrogen auxiliary power unit for a tour ship. The project also aims to demonstrate the operation infrastructure for compressed hydrogen and develop the distribution system, for example by organizing and running a small-scale hydrogen transport service.
Archimede project. Developing solar thermodynamics – Sicilia, Italy
Posted by: | CommentsPerfect wind and solar conditions make the town of Priolo Gargallo (200.000 inhabitants), a town on the east coast of Sicily (Italy), a unique location for applying innovative sustainable technologies. One major innovation is a local solar power plant. The plant generates steam from solar radiation, which is then fed into the steam cycle of a gas-fired combined cycle power station next to it. The system combines several innovations that over-come the existing problems of solar power systems.
Nobel Prize winning physicist Carlo Rubbia, president of the alternative energy agency ENEA, has opened the pilot of the Archimedes solar power plant in 2004. The prototype on industrial scale, which will supply energy to the town of Priolo Gargallo and save 39.0000 tons of CO2 emissions each year.
The Solar Habitat – Grand Lyon, France
Posted by: | CommentsThe project aims to participate to the objective of 15% RES in 2010 in the energy balance of the Great Lyon. REStart concerns :
Energy efficiency and renewable energy program in the building sector;
Photovoltaic installation;
Building sector.
At urban scale, the objectives are:-
To decrease energy consumption of new buildings with low environmental impact
To decrease or even eliminate the over-cost of RES with efficient techniques for building
RESTART project concerns 200 dwellings in the social housing sector in 7 independent projects in social housing sector.
Mini Hydro Power – Megeve France. [Technologies Alternative]
Posted by: | CommentsAmong the renewable energy sources, hydropower is the one that is used most. In some European countries, it covers more than 30% of the national electricity needs. New, big hydropower stations will be required because of the damming up of rivers and the related environmental laws only very rarely be constructed. But there is a big potential for the mini-hydropower below 1 MW. It can be very cheaply (re)activated in those places where there are still old exploitation rights and where old installations can be reactivated in the case where dams exist. In the city of Megève, in the French Alps, since 1968 one mini hydro power system was installed in the drinking water system, this supplied the municipal sports hall with electricity. Hydropower on water system is hardly developed in France. In the absence of incentive policy on the matter, only a few facilities on the irrigation and on the drinking water systems have been carried out. Most of the time, these facilities have been developed as people became more aware of the aspects linked to the energy promotion and to benefits and/or economies that may result from those different facilities.
It was during the 60’s that the idea of promoting drinking water collected and stocked in the reservoir of the Livraz, on the plateau of the Mount Arbois, 300 m above Megève, first
appeared. Plan and action followed. When the Sports and Conference Centre opened in 1968, the hydro-electric plant (Pelton turbine and asynchronous generator of 300 kW) worked in a semi-automatic and discontinuous way, with heavy human constraint.
The Lighthouse – Glasgow, United Kingdom
Posted by: | CommentsThe Glasgow project involved the refurbishment of the Lighthouse Building, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The lighthouse building has been a landmark in Glasgow city centre since it’s construction in 1895. The building is constructed with cast iron columns, steel beams, concrete floors and stands six storeys high, including the basement level.
The building has been classed as grade 1 listed and is of significant historic value to the local area which has had a significant impact on the design options.
The aim of the project was to design a centre for art and design with exhibition and gallery space that will engage the citizens of Glasgow. The building will accommodate educational space, art and architectural exhibitions and a demonstration of embedded renewable energy.
An objective of the design was to produce a multifunctional building which will appeal to the citizens of Glasgow and not just the designers. There was also a requirement to maintain the appearance of the existing building which has a valuable presence within the city which has been reflected in the design.
Environment Park – Turin, Italy Technological Park
Posted by: | CommentsEnvironment Park is part of the strategy which supports the innovation and that characterizes the territory of Piemonte, as a subject of connection between the research world and the industrial system. In the operative sectors where it acts (Technology Observatories and laboratories), the activity model of the Park is structured in the following points:
Revelation of the technologic requests of the territory in relation with the development trends of the new sustainable technologies;
Recognition of the technical-regulations evolution;
Development of the initiative of applied research in partnership with enterprises and research agencies;
Networking activity directed to the increase of innovative distribution systems;
Diffusion of information relative to the best technological practices in the sectors of intervention.
Varese Ligure towards 100% renewable – Varese Ligure, Italy. [Technologies Alternative]
Posted by: | CommentsA decade ago, Varese Ligure found itself in difficulties due to a weakening economy, declining settlements and people moving away. This prompted the mayor to try to do something to reverse the trend and revitalize the local authority by investing in its main resources within the framework of sustainable development.
The investment in renovation of the urban centre, in organic farming and renewable energies boosted the environmental quality of the village, which eventually allowed it to become the first ISO 14001 certified Italian local authority in October, 1999 and the first European EMAS-registered local authority in November 1999. All these actions have resulted in important synergies that support each other towards the final aim of being 100% renewable and 100% organic.
