Now is your turn

OK, let's imagine that you have followed this blog on its short life and you are craving to set off your own Distributed Generation source, business or whatever. This are the steps to follow if you live in the Community of Madrid (and Leganés?) and you need some financing, or visit them here:

First of all you have to be sure that you know enough about the source you want to start with or instead you will need some help (that is not free). If you are more positioned in the second option you will need to contact the Energetic Service Company, or ESCO in Spanish.

If you are thinking of doing it all by yourself, think twice and call IDAE (Instituto para la diversificación y ahorro de la energía) which is an institute for advising and consulting. Also, and most important, they are the ones to give you the money.

Main building of IDAE

There are two ways of financing: The "modest" way for those demanding between 2M and 42M€, where a group of enterprises unite together temporarily. If you have a masterplan and you need more than 42M€ then an agroupation of economic interest will be bound to help you.

Also, depending on the effect it has over the region, the regional government will provide you with part of the money, as it happened years ago with the solar panels in Navarra. Sadly, in this very case the owners are going to stop receiving helps.

But this is another story.

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Canarias Avanza en el Auto-abastecimiento

El proyecto de La Graciosa en Canarias llena de orgullo a este blog. El nuevo proyecto pretende autoabastecer la isla al 100%. Para que este sueño sea posible la comunidad canaria cuenta con la ayuda de Endesa y mediante los avances tecnológicos de la generación distribuida, almacenamiento energético y gestión tanto activa como pasiva de la demanda, pretenden "independizar" electricamente la octava isla canaria.

Por ahora es solo un proyecto en marcha, esperamos que muchos más salgan adelante, tal vez en un futuro este tipo de proyectos sean el pan de cada día
Articulo fuente

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Small hydros: The younger brothers

Our issue today is what it is known in Spanish as centrales minihidráulicas. In other words, we are talking about the young brother of hydro-power stations.

The main characteristics to differ it from its older brother is that small hydros generate a maximum capacity of 10 MW (up to 30 MW in USA and 50 MW in Canada), 1000 times less than the first one.

Example of small hydro that generates 1x10^(-87) MW

Now, is it really worth installing a small hydro instead of a hydro-power station? Indeed. Large stations may cause irreversible effects to nature due to the vast dams, whilst small hydros are environmentally friendly, as it is explained in the specific case of Boulder, Colorado (click here).

It goes without saying that the cons are the low ratio between the invest and the outcome. In other words, it is too expensive for the benefit you can get from.

However, and luckily, the world produces 85 gigawatts via small hydros, of which 70% come from China.

Pictures: Solar Power Notes

Just compare and contrast the two images and think of the vast difference in nature in the long run. Although it is true that none of them use fuel or any non-environmental energy source; it is just the impact they cause to the surroundings.

This is not a fierce defense of small hydros against big hydro-power stations. The aim is to provide you with useful information about this different option of distributed energy, which is not new (it was first dated of year 4000 b.C).

Going down under, we can find exceptional examples of Micro Hydro and even Pico Hydro!
The first one refers to those stations with a capacity to produce up to 100 kW, and the latter is just up to 5 kW (the maximum to power two fluorescent lights and a TV in 50 homes).

Another example of small hydro.

As American anthropologist Loren Eiseley said, "If there is magic in this planet, it is contained in water".

Source: Wikipedia

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¿Un invento que sustituirá a los convencionales generadores de energía eólica?

En ello esta el inventor Heath Evdemon, de Derbyshire con ayuda de la Universidad de Nottingham Trent y su programa Future Factory.

Un modelo a escala de la WInd Haervester

Su invento, el Wind Harvester no tiene nada que ver con los actuales generadores de energía eólica, ya que a primera vista no parece ningún generador, más bien una escultura. El caso es que Wind Harvester es capaz de generar energía a partir de una amplia gama de velocidades de viento. Es decir, los actuales molinos eólicos no pueden empezar a generar energía si el viento no tiene una velocidad mínima de 13,5 metros por segundo y lo peor de todo es que solo puede soportar una velocidad máxima de viento de 22,5 metros por segundo, provocando una menor eficiencia de algunas turbinas y limitando el uso de los actuales generadores.

Heath Evdemon demostrando el movimiento alternativo de la Wind Harvester

La Wind Harvester tiene un movimiento alternativo que utiliza superficies sustentadoras horizontales similares a las alas de un avión. No obstante, es prácticamente libre de ruidos lo que permite su instalación en medios protegidos y urbanos.

Una similitud con los generadores eólicos actuales es que se puede fabricar de distintos tamaños siendo su longitud máxima de 15 metros de longitud pero, hay que dejándolo a 0.5 metros del suelo para poder colocarlo en lugares expuestos y elevados como edificios. Su instalación se puede hacer por partes por los que facilita el montaje y no requiere de maquinaria pesada.

En definitiva, este invento puede ser el futuro de los generadores eólicos y sustituir a los actuales ya que tiene muchas mas ventajas que los actuales.

Fuente:

http://www.ntu.ac.uk/apps/news/117321-15/New_style_turbine_to_harvest_wind_energy.aspx

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