Germany has currently 17 nuclear reactors. After the earthquake in Japan that caused the nuclear tide to change, Germany shut down 7 of their oldest reactors in March due to safety concerns, one reactor had already been off-line. The remaining reactors will stay online until 2021 when 6 more will be decommissioned with the last 3 turned off the following year.

This is quite a large risk for Germany. It is a highly industrialized country and many of those industries demand lots of energy. Nuclear Power accounts for around 25% of that demand and will have to be replaced with reliable sources.

The country has always had a “green” aspect to it’s culture and the Government hopes to encourage this with efficiency to reduce the energy demand. Renewable energy will play an important role and we can expect lots of developments in this area.

Germany’s biggest source of electricity is from coal power plants. These produce around 45% of the country’s needs with renewables like solar, Wind and Hydro taking up the remainder.

The challenge here is much greater than what has happened to Switzerland’s Nuclear production. They have muck less energy to replace and twice as much time to achieve it. Germany might have to go back on its nuclear free commitment or extend the time-scale of it’s proposals.

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Switzerland to become nuclear free.

After the massive earthquake and tsunami in March, many countries around the world were shocked at the resulting catastrophe. The resulting meltdown of the Fukushima Nuclear reactors gave many governments to quickly re-evaluate their own nuclear policy.

Switzerland has made tentative plans to rid itself of nuclear power by the year 2034. This would mean the decommissioning of the country’s five nuclear reactors starting in 2019.

The reactors would be coming to the end of their operational lives and in any case have to be replaced either by newer safer nuclear power or by other energy sources. Ultimately it would mean Switzerland would have to find an extra 40%, based on current consumption, of it’s energy needs elsewhere.
Currently the country generates most of its energy from hydro-electric and it is expected that that dependence will increase as the reactors are phased out. No doubt other forms of energy production will have a future in the country. Solar power along with Wind and other forms of renewable energy will play their part in keeping the lights on.

Switzerland’s neighbours Italy and Germany have also decide to be nuclear free. German Nuclear Power is to be phased out while Nuclear Power in Italy will never get started  The country has ditched any plans to use nuclear power stations.

Nuclear energy in Europe is still a major source of electricity with over 140 power plants in operation across the continent.

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The wave of anti-nuclear feeling among countries has reached Italy and the voters gave the idea a resounding no. The sentiment was strong with 94% of those voting being against building nuclear power plants in the country.

Following the Nuclear disaster at Fukushima plant in Japan, many countries and their citizens have taken a deep look at their own nuclear future. Switzerland and Germany have already made it a promise to phase out their nuclear electricity production in the coming decades. Italy has now voted to join them.

The disaster in Japan was devastating to the population and the ongoing crisis with the nuclear plants in meltdown is on everybody’s mind. There is obvious good sides to this somewhat extremely rare series of events and that is a shift to other forms of energy.

There is no doubt that wave, solar, hydro and thermal energy are extremely desirable but they can never replace the capacity of a large nuclear power station without massive environmental impact themselves.

Italy is lucky in having no Nuclear power stations that produce energy and thus there will be shortfall in current capacity. Germany is not so lucky and will have 17 to decommissioned and around 23% of energy that needs to be replaced.

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Connecting the Island to the Country’s energy grid would not have been practical and the answer was to turn to Solar Power and Wind Energy.

China Light and Power (CLP) is installing the panels and wind turbines which is hoped to supply just under 200kW of electricity. This will enable the facility on the island to power the much needed air conditioning units for the residents. Previously they suffered in the heat with the constant unreliable generators which also pumped CO2 into the atmosphere.

The Dawn Community offers Drug users an opportunity to clean themselves up and what a better way to get clean than with clean energy.

The Hong Kong region comprises of around 200 islands and many of them are inhabited. For these small communities renewable energy installations, like solar and wind, would offer them a cleaner and alternative supply of energy.

Over all there are 7 million residents in Hong Kong. Mostly living in high rise blocks situated close the the sea. The majority of the land is mountainous or forest and is not ideally suited for large scale Solar Power Plants.

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Solar Array

The Solar Farm will comprise of 382 AllSun trackers located on a 32 acre site near South Burlington.

The company behind this, AllEarth Renewable use their All Sun Tracker system which unlike fixed Photovoltaic arrays, will follow the sun as it moves throughout the day. Solar Panels work much more efficiently when they receive the energy directly rather then from an angle which can reduce electrical output enormously.

AllEarth Renewables have estimated that using the tracker system can produce up to %45 more electricity that fixed panels. Adding all this together will produce 2.2 Mega Watts of renewable energy that will be sold on to the states utilities.

While tracking systems aim to perform at optimal output by following the sun there are drawbacks over fixed arrays. The most obvious one is cost of the tracking system and it’s maintenance which is not a factor static photovoltaic. They do need room to move and turn which means they cannot be as compact.

One the whole this is good for the state with renewable energy and while it may not be the biggest farm in the USA or the World it is something that Vermont can be proud off and only aim to beat.

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As ever mariner knows the sea should be respected for the forces it can unleashed. The Australian company Oceanlinx has found this out with the destruction of their generator in Port Kembla.

The prototype machine was moored close to a breakwater and due to rough seas broke loose and came crashing on to the rock. It currently lies smashed into pieces waiting to see what can be salvaged.

Oceanlinx had indented the wave generator to be a prototype to gain valuable information for future designs. The destruction of the machine has cut short the experiment with a bang.

An obvious lesson to learn is not to underestimate the power of the sea and provide adequate anchorage for your machine. With it being moored so close to rocks some would have said it was an accident waiting to happen.

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Karnataka district located in the southwest of India is the region for the development. Using multiple sites for the development  project aims to produce up to 10 GW of energy by solar power. Using Solar Photovoltaic arrays to capture the suns rays and with just 3 GW being produce by wind power.

The project is estimated to take up to ten years to complete and will cost around $50 billion.  The project is being build in multiple phases with the initial constructions due to start shortly. These will have a capacity of 200 MW generated by wind turbines and 100 MW produced by solar arrays.

For comparison 13 GW of energy would be the equivalent of   between 20 to 30 coal powered power stations.

Unfortunately there will be no reduction in CO2 emissions as these are not replacing power station. The world is still demanding more energy and the uptake of renewable forms of energy is still slowly building its capacity.

This is still good news for India who badly needs energy and if a large portion of that demand cam be met by projects such as this then the nation will be better of fin the long run. India, like China, is embracing these new forms of energy and forging ahead with large scale projects as well as smaller capacity generation which will bring much needed benefits to the smaller villages in India.

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LED have until recently been used in an indicator capacity. The elder people among us may remember those red led digits used in the early generation calculators or space age watches. With the introduction of different colors their use had become wide spread as indicators in such things Hi-Fi equipment and as  Power indicators. The LEDs low energy use made them ideal in this capacity. The drive was on for LEDs that can produce more ranges of light and particularly white light.

Overcoming this hurdle has opened the market for LED Televisions and as LED Lighting as replacements for illumination in the home. Last year (2009) the demand was for 63 billion units and with a manufacturing capacity of just 75 billion the world supply is going to be like gold.

It is clear to see why the demand is skyrocketing.  The advantages of using LEDs for lighting are too good not to take advantage off. The most obvious is the power consumption when compared to incandescent lighting.  Replacing an old bulb with a Light Emitting Diode bulb could reduce the the energy used by a factor of 4. Instead of needing 60 watts of energy you are now just using around 15 watts. Remember you pay for every watt used so that can be quite a saving on your energy bill.

The advantages just don’t stop with reduced energy consumption.  The wasted energy in the form of heat produced by incandescent lighting is massively reduced and this opens up areas of design and use that were not available before. Lights can be dimmed or used on lower power settings without causing a change in the color of light emitted.

LED Lights do not flash like other lights. For most people this is not a problem but for many this may cause unwanted medical side effects most notably being headaches.

Just for the energy savings you can see why the demand is there and unless the manufacturing supply increases the LED for lighting might be a rare device. There is no doubt manufacturing will increase so there is no need to run out and stock up on spares. (Given the LEDs advantage of long life is might be a while before you need to change a bulb)

Next year the consumption will no doubt be much higher than 63 billion and this only enforces the advantages that this new form of lighting can bring to consumers.

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The imitative which will take place in Florida, USA, will see the retrofitting of advertizing billboard with solar energy  or wind powered generators that will combines produce around 1 MegaWatt of clean energy. This will help power the signs and any excess will be fed  back in to the Floridian electrical grid. The cost of the venture  is expected to be around US$12.5 million with the US Department of Energy offering US$2.5 million.

Using these existing structures around the country to generate renewable energy is not as efficient as a suitable placed wind farm or photovoltaic solar plant. The big advantage is that they already exist and replace the need for dedicate wind farms to sprout up spoiling the landscape more. Just like rooftops in homes and businesses  can be solar generators and combined produce an enormous amount of energy, utilizing these existing structures helps reduce the demand even more.

For most of us we will not see a direct benefit, the advertisement will still be bombarded down at us as we drive along the roads and highways. For Lamar and other advertising companies their costs will be reduced and we can not fault them for that. For the nation and world it is a small but cumulative reduction do demand for energy and the positive effects.

Many people go green or off the grid for the passion of the ideal. A business, no matter how they wish to portray their causes are driven by cold hard cash. Whenever we see a Business, like here in the case of Lamar, taking up renewable energy then most likely they are saving money. This is something we can take up ourselves and reduce our costs and the plant may eventually thank us.

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Solar Array

There is no doubt that energy in the future is going to be a high demand product and there is a push to enable operation to continue without being held hostage by the lack of overseas fuel supplies.

The Israeli Air Force (IAF) are in tender for photovoltaic solar installations to be installed in their bases that would produce up to 50 kilowatts of electricity. This would be enough to completely supply the needs of some of the bases with the excess energy fed back in to the national grid. A second round of installations for large bases would produce up to 5 megawatts of energy.

Some nations are realizing that a dependence of fossil fuel is going to become more problematic as the years go on.  Using solar energy, either in photovoltaic solar cells or solar thermal, is an ideal option for many nations especially those that have a heavy reliance on imported energy fuel.

Recently the US military have taken this a step further with experiments in alternate fuels for powering their aircraft and ships. These are not a total answer but can help reduce consumption.

If the military is embracing solar energy then it is probably something we should all think about. They do no always make the right choices or have the right reasons but quite possibly they are in the right direction with energy security. We can all have part of this by reducing our reliance on outside sources and thinking about alternate supplies. Solar Energy is and idea candidate for nearly all parts of the world to help reduce our dependence.

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