Fundraisers for church roof repairs could be a thing of the past if places of worship are all kitted out with solar panels. According to British Gas, religious buildings could make up to £29m per year by generating their own electricity and selling it back to the grid under the Feed-in Tariff scheme. There would also be carbon savings of up to 42,000 tonnes, which has got to be good for the soul, as well as the planet.
As Phil Bentley, managing director of British Gas, explained: "Religious buildings are particularly well suited to solar power as they tend to have large south-facing roofs which receive direct sunlight for the main part of the day."
Monday, 12 July 2010
Monday, 5 July 2010
Let's go fly a kite
An American inventor (that's my favourite type of inventor) has come up with an interesting way of generating energy from wind. JoeBen Bevirt, of Joby Energy, has created kite-like airborne wind turbines, that make the most of the high-speed winds found at higher altitudes. As Bevirt told BBC's Radio 4, higher altitude winds are not only faster, but more consistent than the winds nearer the ground and considerably more power can be converted to electricity.
This seems to be a fabulous idea that is not only a more efficient way of harvesting wind energy, but less likely to annoy those people who don't want a wind farm near their house. One concern would be safety. I'm a nervous flyer already and the thought of an aircraft getting tangled with a giant kite would add to the already substantial list of things that I'm worried will go wrong. Not an issue, says Joby in its FAQ: "Well-established air traffic control procedures have been in place for decades to ensure the safety of aircraft around areas of Restricted and/or Special Use Airspace (SUA). We are actively working with the Federal Aviation Administration and military airspace coordinators to choose sites in existing SUA, or where our airborne wind turbines will not adversely affect existing traffic. Our turbines will be equipped with lighting and radar transponders to ensure their visibility to pilots and controllers."
So with that worry dismissed, airborne wind turbines do seem to have a lot going for them. They're even cheaper than conventional wind turbines (the materials cost less and the units produce more, so the capital costs are reduced). Although still at the development stage, it seems likely that airborne turbines could be producing some of our renewable energy soon.
This seems to be a fabulous idea that is not only a more efficient way of harvesting wind energy, but less likely to annoy those people who don't want a wind farm near their house. One concern would be safety. I'm a nervous flyer already and the thought of an aircraft getting tangled with a giant kite would add to the already substantial list of things that I'm worried will go wrong. Not an issue, says Joby in its FAQ: "Well-established air traffic control procedures have been in place for decades to ensure the safety of aircraft around areas of Restricted and/or Special Use Airspace (SUA). We are actively working with the Federal Aviation Administration and military airspace coordinators to choose sites in existing SUA, or where our airborne wind turbines will not adversely affect existing traffic. Our turbines will be equipped with lighting and radar transponders to ensure their visibility to pilots and controllers."
So with that worry dismissed, airborne wind turbines do seem to have a lot going for them. They're even cheaper than conventional wind turbines (the materials cost less and the units produce more, so the capital costs are reduced). Although still at the development stage, it seems likely that airborne turbines could be producing some of our renewable energy soon.
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