Renewable energy...........

[local energy]

............ is there anyone interested in doing hands on projects --- solar thermal, wind, hydro, etc   I have many ideas and am in the process of building out a small hydro presently.    Could use some help  - would like to do a concentrator dish --- mostly out of scrap --- you always need some money but I do most of my stuff on the cheap..... email me or call and leave a message if interested -- nothing like almost free heat---chris --802 463 1408

[Lex]

I would like to help/learn. I will be in Grafton, NH in a few weeks. Where are you at?

[Pat McCotter]

I see by the phone you are in Bellows Falls, VT. Too far for me from Concord, NH, but I have a small turbine wheel I could loan to the cause if you'd like to do a micro-hydro setup.

[local energy]

Pam thank you for the offer --- I'd like to know more about your turbine ---- don't think it would fit my immediate needs but maybe in the future........ I'm looking for a turbine to pass approximately 250 to 350 cfs at 15 ft of head----My project is in the southwestern part of the state--- not too far from Keene or Brattleboro.....
chris

[Pat McCotter]

I have just the wheel and shaft assembly - impulse type blades. Angled 2 or 4 nozzle setup with about 50psi would be good for this.

[Russell Kanning]

Nothing like using all that moving water in NH.

[Lloyd Danforth]

Yah!  For one week last october, NH could have powered the entire country.

[local energy]

Pam -- without looking at it=== sounds like you have the rotating assembly of a pelton wheel turbine -- this style is used for higher heads usually 100 ft plus..... Hope I meet you someday soon.   If you drop me an email with your phone # -- I'll like to chat for a few minutes ---- where did you find the turbine assembly you have???

[Pat McCotter]

First, let's correct my name - Pat and male

This is not a Pelton wheel - don't know the technical name for this one. Diameter is about 6-8 inches (don't have it in front of me.) I work at a power plant and this was from a trashed turbine driven pump where pump was trashed. Turbine casing long gone.

[Lloyd Danforth]

GOING OFF-GRID
by S.R. Nunnally

It's 8:10 p.m. Samso Time, Thursday, February 23, when the ferry pulls
into dock at Kolby Kas after a two-hour float from Kaludborg. It's dark...
and dusty. And cold.

There are no streetlights between cities, I notice, as I blindly follow
the car ahead of me to the center of the 20-mile by 6-mile island, to
Tranebjerg and Flinch's Hotel - my home base for the next two days. The
island feels deserted, and it is in a way... February is Denmark's coldest
month, and many of Samso's 4,300 residents are burrowed snuggly in their
warm homes - a stark contrast to when an influx of several tens of
thousands visit the island during the tourist season.

Many come in July for the popular music festival, the beautiful beaches,
and sailing. But of late, Samso has been invaded by a different kind of
tourist... an eco-tourist.

That was my mission... why I traveled over 4,000 miles: to discover
Samso's Eco-Revolution.

In 1997, Denmark held a national competition. The selected winner would be
home to a one-of-a-kind experiment: The winner would be expected to
convert all its energy supply to 100% renewable energy within 10 years.

The small island of Samso was given the nod. Because it is an island that
has no conventional energy resources of its own, Samso was an ideal choice
for such a controlled experiment.

Since 1998, Samso began converting its energy into renewable energy, and
has been so successful that 100% of its electricity comes from wind power
and 75% of its heat comes from solar power and biomass energy.

That's a near total Eco-Revolution...but it gets better.

Here's how they do it...

Think of the amount of time that wind turbines have been around... and
multiply that by 40.

According to the Danish Wind Industry Association, wind turbines and wind
mills have been "a part of the northern European landscape for more than
800 years." Now, wind power makes up approximately 20% of Denmark's power
consumption... and that's with Danish wind manufacturers selling 90% of
their production outside of the country.

Germany is the largest buyer of Danish wind turbines snatching up 24% of
exports, and Spain comes in second with 10.5%. Big numbers for big
markets. In total, Danish manufacturers held 40% of the world market for
wind turbines.

That equates to over DKK21 billion, or nearly $3.4 billion here in the
U.S. - about 1.8% of Denmark's GDP.

With power like that, wind is like Denmark's new currency.

Samso has taken the torch and has really shown the world what wind power
can do.

With the completion of an offshore wind farm comprised of 10 beautiful
turbines, Samso has become carbon neutral. The energy produced by these
wind turbines compensates for the island's transportation emissions,
including the ferries, and all other non-renewable energy sources.

In fact, sometimes Samso's wind turbines produce so much energy that the
island sells it back to the mainland!

But wind power isn't the only thing that's super-charging Samso's
Eco-Revolution...

On Samso, it's much more effective to use solar power for heating. Because
of the expense of solar modules, the island has put them to use in a
"collective" environment. Instead of installing solar arrays on individual
homes for electricity, Samso uses solar power for heat at its district
heating plants.

District heating plants pump hot water to nearby homes for individual
heating purposes. The water is heated using a combination of solar panels
and renewable wood pellet or straw-furnaces.

Studies have shown that it's about 20% cheaper get heat from the local
district heating plants than it is to buy oil for heat.

There are about 250 homes that have installed solar cells for heating
their own water tanks in instances where they reside too far from the
district heating plant. In total, Samso is pushing past the 75% renewable
mark when it comes to heat energy needs.

By combining solar power with local, renewable, biofuel, Samso has
custom-tailored a renewable energy program that is simple and highly
effective. Solar panels are so efficient that on a cloudy winter day, it
can heat the water to 25 degrees above freezing on its own.

With only 25% of heat energy derived from fossil fuels, Samso's well on
its way to achieving 100% renewable status ahead of schedule.

There's only one sector left to tackle, and it might prove to be the most
difficult.

Samso's Eco-Revolution is in danger of stalling... so the many naysayers
say. Every critic of Samso's progress ritualistically cites transportation
as the missing cog in the otherwise praiseworthy renewable energy system.

Well, they'll be eating their foot once Samso's new projects have been put
into place.

The experts on Samso will by applying two radically different concepts to
tackle the transportation problem.

The first project is a biofuel: rapeseed oil.

Rapeseed oil can be used to fuel any vehicle once a simple adaptation is
made to the engine. It is cleaner than ethanol, and does not need to be
refined in a clunky, energy-consuming refinery. That wouldn't be practical
for this small island.

All that you need to make your own biofuel is rapeseed, and a rapeseed
press... and cows to eat the waste. Once pressed, the oil can be put
directly into your fuel tank.

The island can grow approximately 600 hectares of rapeseed a year. That's
not enough to run every car, but it's definitely enough to take car of the
largest diesel guzzlers: farm tractors and ferrys.

To eliminate the rest of transportation's oil consumption, Samso wants to
introduce a hydrogen plant, powered by all that excess wind power. That's
a few years down the road, but in the meantime, the Energy and Environment
Office wants to put a hydrogen-fueled truck on display at its new Energy
Academy upon its completion.

The hydrogen truck, designed by H2 Logic Alps, would be a demonstration
piece to start generating interest in this new, renewable fuel. Samso is
planning on banning traditional combustion engines from the island once
vehicles are converted to hydrogen.

Generating community interest has been a key way of developing projects
and increasing investors. Samso's Energy and Environment Office was so
successful because it offered more than just a great chance at a return on
investments...

In order for renewable energy project to survive, they needed strong
backing from the community. In that way, Samso's success goes way beyond
the "greening" of energy consumption. This Eco-Revolution was not only an
environmental change.

Samso's residents embraced a way to save their economy and improve their
way of life.

Through investing in co-ops that financed wind power and district heating
plants, islanders took personal control over their quality of life. By
introducing these renewable energy projects, Samso has created new,
better-paying jobs, increased tourism, and added to its economy.

"The community is more inclined to support the project because they see it
as something that is done locally by local people. As such, people
participate not because they are forced to by the authorities but because
they want to," says Soren Hermansen, director of the Samso Energy and
Environment Office, in an interview with Chan Cheng Tuan of Sunday Mail.

Community commitment is necessary for the advancement of any project,
which is why Samso uses many local resources like straw and wood pellets
for the district heating plants. Soon rapeseed will be added to that
list.

Residents want to see Samso succeed, and understand that by participating
in the islands renewable energy projects the whole island benefits.


Cheers,

S.R. Nunnally
for The Daily Reckoning

P.S. I'm not the only one visiting Samso to take in all the renewable
energy advances. New eco-tourists have been visiting the island to take
back ideas for their own Eco-Revolutions. Industry experts from Thailand,
Japan, Nepal, Indonesia, to name a few, are all interested in Samso.

[local energy]

So from the last post ------- you all can see great things are possible .......  Chris

[Dreepa]

I am looking at buying solar panels right now.

With gas going up I think that hybrids are going to have people start thinking of them again.

[Zork]

I'd love to get involved with these types of projects once I get to NH.  Currently working on developing plans for a diesel-electric hybrid.  Diesel cars already get 40+ mpg and combined with a hybrid fuel train should really blow gas engiens out of the water.  On top of that, I hope to make my own biodiesel to run on as often as the weather permits.

[Pat McCotter]

A Real 'Green' House: No Heating Bill for 25 Years
Sara Goudarzi
LiveScience Staff Writer
LiveScience.com
Sat Apr 22, 9:00 AM ET

When David Mears and his wife Dorothy put their house up for sale at the end of last year, it wasn't just the four-plus acres of beautiful woodlot land that made the property appealing. Nor were the five bedrooms or extra cabinet space in their roomy kitchen the most significant features.

The main attraction was the fact that the couple hadn't paid their heating bill for more than 25 years.

That's because they hadn't received one since 1980.

Using his knowledge of alternative energy sources for commercial greenhouses in response to the energy crisis of the 1970's, David Mears, a professor of Bioresource Engineering at Rutgers University, virtually eliminated the use of fuel oil for heating his home.

Multiply that ...

According to the     Department of Energy, more than 85 percent of all the energy consumed in the United States comes from fossil fuels, including coal, oil, and natural gas. 

Some 2,700 pounds of carbon per person each year, or 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, come from operating individual homes, the U.S.     Environmental Protection Agency estimates. Most of emissions from a residential home come from operating a typical heating, ventilation and air conditioning system.

In 1974, Mears and his colleagues publicly presented a new energy efficient greenhouse concept. The design involved installing a special subfloor that can be filled with water heated by solar collectors or a backup fossil fuel system for use on cloudy days. This creates a massive heat storage system that allows the entire greenhouse floor to act as a primary heat source and heat exchanger.

The design was a success and was soon implemented at the university.

A few years later, while Mears was continuing his greenhouse research, several other institutions were working on a residential attached-greenhouse concept. Their work generated many unanswered questions he was eager to resolve.

"In addition to the desire to answer some of the open questions, we were facing a need for some more space in our home so were planning an addition," Mears said. "Also Dorothy was raising so many houseplants we were running out of space in front of windows for them and they were crowding us out as well, so we really could use the greenhouse."

Government support

Around the same time, the Department of Energy was offering a competitive grants program for solar projects for which Mears wrote a proposal that was supported.

Using the grant funds, he added a flooded subfloor to his 125-year-old New Jersey home and attached a greenhouse on the south side of the house with a similar floor design. Solar collectors heated the water from both floors.

For days with cloudy skies or in cases of possible malfunctions in the solar system, Mears installed a logical backup system given his large woodlot: a woodstove, capable of heating both the greenhouse and the residence. A water-heating coil in the woodstove made this system efficient in extracting heat, which meant minimizing the amount of wood consumed.

Finally, if for some reason both the solar collectors and the woodstove failed, the final back up system?an existing oil-fired setup?would kick in.

It never had to.

"We were essentially free of the cost of oil for space heating and much of the domestic hot water heating was provided by solar in the spring, summer and fall," Mears said. "This has been the case from 1980 until we moved and sold the house in February, 2006."

Cost effective

During the day, the sun warms the house and greenhouse. A fan is sometimes used to circulate the warm air from the greenhouse throughout the house. Most of the time just opening a window to the greenhouse and the sliding door from the family room is sufficient for air circulation.

That coupled with the large amount of heat stored in the floor of the house allowed the overall system to "coast" for a few days without using the woodstove, even on cloudy winter days.

Throughout the entire year, except for winter, the solar collectors were also used to heat the domestic hot water. A concept that Mears explains could have been implemented even in winter had they not needed to heat the greenhouse for maintaining plants.

Mears' energy sustainable residence has since been maintained above 68 degrees Fahrenheit with the heat from the woodstove and passive gain from the greenhouse, demonstrating that "green" living is not an outlandish and inaccessible concept.

It's also cost-effective, even without the help of the grant.

"The system paid for itself very quickly," Mears said. "Those additional costs for the solar and woodstove heating were probably covered by fuel savings in the first several years."

[Dreepa]

Hey Pat,
How hard would it be to add a windmill or two if you already have a solar system an inverter and batteries?