Kerry Wind Farm

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Wind Farm
at
Kilgarvan

It was a clear but windy and cool day that I visited the Everwind Wind Farm, at The Coom, Kilgarvan. Co. Kerry. The place is breathtaking in every sense of the word. It is beautiful and barren, and the wind takes the breath from your body!!

The place is stunningly beautiful

These Massive Turbine are so Elegant

This wind farm has 15 turbines called the “Vestas V90” they are 3 Mega Watt output each so the farm is capable of giving a total of 45 Mega Watts. The turbines are sleek and IMHO elegant and beautiful. The elegance and sleekness of lines belie the sheer size of these monsters.

I was really glad I had my camera to photograph these beauties. I was surprised at how little noise these massive machines actually made. Apart from the swish of the massive blades, the only other sound was the background sound of the gear box, and the occasional sound of the turbines turning into the shifting wind.

The base of the tower give one a perspective on the size

The site is located high on the Coolea mountain road near the Cork-Kerry border, about 7km from Kilgarvan village and 8km off the N22 main Cork to Killarney road. It is about a mile from Ireland’s highest pub. It is a lovely drive on a fine day but a road not for the nervous driver.
The Everwind contract with the ESB National Grid is for 42.5MW of capacity. The connection to the site is by 110 kilo Volt grid.





The Vestas V90 turbine is one of the biggest available. This turbine has a blade diameter of 45m and stands on a 75m tubular steel tower. These were originally designed as an offshore turbine.

This is clean and beautiful energy. Give me this anyday compared to coal fired generators or nuclear power stations



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Edison on Sustainable Energy

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Edison on Sustainable Energy

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“We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using natures inexhaustible sources of energy — sun, wind and tide. ...

... I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that”

Thomas Edison in conversation with
Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone (1931)
unverified quotes

I came across some interesting, though unverified, quotes from Edison on sustainable energy, particularly solar energy and battery storage. One of the sources is a journal by an Elbert Hubbard which is in the public domain and freely available. I have given a link to this at the end. For what these quotes are worth, I share them here.


It is reported that Edison said …

"Some day some fellow will invent a way of concentrating and storing up sunshine to use instead of this old, absurd Prometheus scheme of fire. I'll do the trick myself if some one else doesn't get at it. Why, that is all there is about my work in electricity - you know, I never claimed to have invented electricity"

"Sunshine is spread out thin and so is electricity. Perhaps they are the same, but we will take that up later. Now the trick was, you see, to concentrate the juice and liberate it as you needed it. The old-fashioned way inaugurated by Jove, of letting it off in a clap of thunder, is dangerous, disconcerting and wasteful. It doesn't fetch up anywhere. My task was to subdivide the current and use it in a great number of little lights, and to do this I had to store it. And we haven't really found out how to store it yet and let it off real easy-like and cheap. Why, we have just begun to commence to get ready to find out about electricity. This scheme of combustion to get power makes me sick to think of--it is so wasteful. It is just the old, foolish Prometheus idea, and the father of Prometheus was a baboon."




"When we learn how to store electricity, we will cease being apes ourselves; until then we are tailless orangutans. You see, we should utilize natural forces and thus get all of our power. Sunshine is a form of energy, and the winds and the tides are manifestations of energy."

"Do we use them? Oh, no! We burn up wood and coal, as renters burn up the front fence for fuel. We live like squatters, not as if we owned the property.

"There must surely come a time when heat and power will be stored in unlimited quantities in every community, all gathered by natural forces. Electricity ought to be as cheap as oxygen, for it can not be destroyed.

"Now, I am not sure but that my new storage-battery is the thing. I'd tell you about that, but I don't want to bore you..."

Original article :
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12933/12933-h/12933-h.htm#THOMAS_A_EDISON




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Change.ie

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change.ie

New Website launched by the "department" called change.ie. Will it be another SEI that merrily goes on its way - driven by generous government funding and a bunch of out-of-touch executives, or maybe will it actually listen to the public and take suggestions and criticism - openly and honestly on board? Somehow, I think the former is most likely to be the case, but you never know!!

www.change.ie



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World's Largest Tidal Generator in Ireland

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Artist Impression of the Giant Sea Twin Turbine

World's Largest
Tidal Generator
Installed in Ireland

Renewable energy company "Marine Current Turbines", have successfully completed the first installation phase of a 1.2Mega Watt under water generator called "SeaGen" in Strangford Lough Narrows.

The hefty 1000 tonne structure was safely lowered onto the seabed in the early hours of Wednesday morning 2nd of April. SeaGen’s location is roughly 1km south of the ferry route between Strangford and Portaferry, approximately 400m from the shoreline.

When fully up-and-running, sometime in the summer, the 16m diameter twin rotors will operate for up to 18-20 hours per day to generate enough green electricity to supply 1000 homes. This is four times greater than any other tidal stream project has produced in the world so far.

Hope the dolphins keep away from those blades!!

Marine Current Turbines Ltd was established in 2000 and is based in Bristol, England. SeaFlow was the world’s first off-shore tidal stream generator which was installed in 2003 off the north Devon coast. Now another first is SeaGen, the world’s largest grid-connected tidal stream system.

www.marineturbines.com


Good luck to this brave experimental effort!!


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Solar Cell New Efficiency Record

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New Efficiency Record
in
Thin-Film Solar Cells

Adapted from a Press Release of NREL - 24th March 2008

Workers at NREL have recently made “copper indium gallium diselenide” (CIGS) thin-film PV solar cells with an efficiency of 19.9% this is AFAIK a new world record for this type of Photo Cell.

This is yet another step closer to arriving at a viable cost per watt for this type of cell. The CIGS cell is cheap and easy to make as it is printed in a continuous process using relatively cheap materials compared to silicon.

One possible application of this type of cell is the manufacture of PV cell roof tiles to replace existing ones. Or it could be used on cladding to put on barns, sheds etc.

The gains have been made due to improvements in the quality of the materials used.


http://www.nrel.gov/news/press/2008/574.html



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Ranting and Reality

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Ranting and Reality

I had an e-mail to my blog from a “friend” (need to define that a bit – the linguistic skills are not brilliant) - saying that I was slipping into the “Cynical Old Bastard Ranting” syndrome again on the ESB and Valcent stories.

Cynical – YES!!

I have to defend myself here. I admit the “Cynical” bit totally and fully. Anyone with their eyes open today would have to be cynical about politics and business. Irish politics has seen recently two Prime Ministers with dodgy financial and tax affairs, the top people in the country are not Kosher - so how much then would you trust politicians in general to act totally honestly, transparently and selflessly??? Like would you pet a months wages on it??

Second question, would you trust what the publicity jargon of any corporation or company says? – would you bet a month’s wages on it being TOTALLY honest, transparent and fully up front??

Old Bastard – YES!!

Yes - I have to admit also to being both “old” and a bit of a “bastard”. Bastard in the sense of not being too kind at times, my parentage is not in question!!

Ranting!!

OK I admit it – I love to have a bit of a rant – it’s my therapy – I am somewhat addicted - it’s the price I charge for my services to this blog.

End Word

I simply don't trust poicitcal or business hype, and every day that goes by adds justification to my point of view.


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Valcent and Algae Oil

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Valcent on Algal Oil

It has been pointed out to me that Valcent published a Press Release on March 13th last outlining some production estimates etc. - with the implication that I didn't bother to look it up or read it.

Frankly - I find the "Business Speak and "Legalese" that most of these type of publicity blurbs are published in - to be beyond my linguistic skills. I simply am unable to decode the language properly.

Here is a quote from the press release that caught my eye:

"The research and development team of Valcent Products Inc. has now completed twelve months of the algae vertical bioreactor development program. During a 90-day continual production test, algae was being harvested at an average of one gram (dry weight) per liter. This equates to algae bio mass production of 276 tons of algae per acre per year. Achieving the same biomass production rate with an algal species having 50% lipids (oil) content would therefore deliver approximately 33,000 gallons of algae oil per acre per year."

Now is that saying that they actually bottled 33,000 divided by 4 = 8,250 gallons of oil for each and every acre for the 90 day run?? I think not!!! But I could be wrong!

To be totally clear on the wording used I think you might have to ask a judge or a barrister to decode the language.

Wouldn't it be a great world if everyone would simply use straight talk - and call a spade a spade.



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Valcent - Vertigro - Algal Farming Questions

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Valcent Open or Closed?

On my post of the 27th March last I gave a fair bit of publicity to "Valcent's Vertigo" algae farming system. On their web site they cordially invite questions so I sent them the following bunch of questions:

Hi Guys - I write a blog on sustainable energy and have posted a piece featuring your ideas. There have been operational units in production now for perhaps 6 months or longer??, - long enough to have some sort of audit of the actual returns from the system.

The questions I would love to be able to address in my blog are:

Q1. What is the actual consistent return of oil per acre of the units.
Q2. What are the total production cost per gallon.
Q3. What is the maintenance cost per acre per annum?
Q4 What is the actual audited percentage yield of oil form the raw algae.
Q5 How many more units have been built since the originals.

Surprise me with an answer!!!!
Regards,
Tony McGinley

So far, I have not been surprised by any answers from Valcent - but I will keep checking my In-Box for a reply and will let you know if or when I get one.



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Algae How Much Oil?

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How Much Oil
from
Algae?

I recently got myself all excited about Valcent’s “Vertigro” algae system and other algae start-ups. I was doing a bit of research, regarding oil yield for different crops, when I came upon Keith Addison’s excellent site: JourneyToForever http://journeytoforever.org

I noticed that Keith did not have much by way of reference to algae and its oil yield on his site which was otherwise extensive in its information, so I wrote to him. Keith's rapid reply somewhat burst the bubble of my enthusiasm about algae, and brought in a firm and balancing realism to my thinking. I want to share this with you so here is our correspondence:

Hi Keith - I found your site on a Google search for oil crop yields.
It is great so see such an amount of information and interest packed
into your pages. I could find little on algae as a source of lipids.
One of the most exciting areas I have been exploring is in algae oil
production. The latest figures suggest yields as high as 100,000 gal
per acre per year for vertical closed systems. That is just amazing
given that this crop can be grown just about anywhere.

Cheers, Tony

Keith's reply:

Hello Tony

Thank you, but there is no such thing as oil from algae or biodiesel
from algae outside of a few lab experiments, nor is there likely to
be any time soon, and if there is it will be industrial-scale stuff,
not Appropriate Technology.

http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/msg70264.html
[Biofuel] Algal Biodiesel: Fact or Fiction? - John Benemann
Sat, 16 Jun 2007

A thorough analysis:
http://biopact.com/2007/01/in-depth-look-at-biofuels-from-algae.html
An in-depth look at biofuels from algae

http://biopact.com/2007/07/scientist-skeptical-of-algae-to.html
Scientist skeptical of algae-to-biofuels potential - interview

Best wishes
Keith Addison
Journey to Forever
KYOTO Pref., Japan
http://journeytoforever.org/



With my bubbble somewhat burst I replied:


Thanks for that Keith,

You have me thinking in a different plane now - I guess I was taking
too much of the news and hype on algae farming as gospel. Your input
has started me of with a bit of balance reading.

Cheers,
Tony



Keith's comforting words:


Hi Tony

Sorry to be such a wet blanket!

I think a lot of the problem is that people want a replacement for
petroleum use, and there isn't one. You might find this interesting:

"How much fuel can we grow? How much land will it take?"
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html#howmuch

Appropriate Technology biofuels are fine, small-scale, local projects
making biodiesel and ethanol for local use, mostly from wastes. But
the bigger they get the less appropriate they become. And there is
indeed a LOT of hype (not only about algae).

All best
Keith



I would not be rushing out to invest in Algal Oil just yet. I would like to see some real return figures first.


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ESB to invest €22 Billion in Renewable Energy

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ESB to Invest €22 Billion
in Renewable Energy

Very loosly adapted from an ESB press release

The ESB has just announced that it is to invest €22 billion in Sustainable Energy systems. My guess the exercise is mainly about cutting carbon emissions and avoiding EU sanctions as such. The investment will include the installation of so called “Smart Meters” and “Smart Networks”. I wonder if this will include buying back capacity from domestic micro-generation?

By 2020 the ESB hopes to be delivering one-third of its electricity from renewable generation about 1,400 megawatts in all from wind, wave, tidal and biomass generation systems. The other two thirds will come from where??? Oil at $500 a barrel or coal or what??

Their publicity blurb says that “ESB will drive substantial cost reductions in overheads across all its businesses in order to meet its new financial challenges” – to which I say “Yea Right”. More like they will double their pay packets and squeeze the customers for bulk of it!

The blurb goes on: “Strong financial performance and continuing rigorous funding will underpin the investment plan while achieving shareholder and customer value”. What tune does one sing this hymn to?? And - where are the violins?


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