Green power
Heat Recovery Ventilation - HRV System
The upstairs areas of our home have proved to be difficult to heat and cool because the rooms are compartmentalised and open onto a big open lobby area that spans two stories.
From Pro to No... How I learnt to start worrying and hate the bomb.
What better way to avert the imminent disaster of global warming than to switch to nuclear power? I’d rather have a teensy bit of plutonium buried underground than to let Frankston be submerged by the rising sea levels caused by CO2 emissions.
I know that admitting I like Frankston is perhaps not doing wonders for my credibility but some parts of Frankston are really quite pretty, moccasins are no longer considered fashionable attire and if you were to play the ‘count the number of g-strings that are on display’ game in Frankston now, you’d be disappointed. At any rate even if you don’t like Frankston, forget all plans of buying that investment property along the peninsula because it ain’t gonna be worth much if the only way you can get to it is by scuba diving.
So coming back to our need of emission free, efficient power, nuclear seems like a viable option doesn’t it? I mean most of Australia is a desert anyway, a perfect place to bury that little bit of naughty plutonium- or so I thought.
The Buzz in the Beer
And you always thought beer just dimmed the ole lightbulb...
In an exciting innovation, Foster's will be creating electricity from its brewing.
A Little Ray of Sunshine
Affordable solar power? An oxymoron you say? Synonymous with broken promises and shattered dreams? Well, wait no longer. Hang on to your seats folks because it is HERE! Well here: www.greenandgoldenergy.com.au
If we look beyond the dinky website and the uninspiring logo, we can behold the window to our wildest dreams: saving the planet whilst saving on our electricity bill. Ok so it’s not as exciting as dreaming you had sex with Brad Pitt whilst Angelina was off adopting yet another child from yet another impoverished country but it’s a realistic, achievable and affordable goal.
Thanks to the ingenuity of Greg Watson, shown in this photo: Photo of Greg (what a dish), we can have more efficient solar power with the SunCube than with flat panels thus reducing the cost as well as supporting our local economy as the SunCubes are being manufactured in sunny Adelaide.
How does it work?
The SunCube™ Solar Appliance uses 35% efficiency triple junction solar cells normally only used in space. Its 2 axis tracker constantly monitors which position would give the maximum energy output and once its moved to that position, it uses an optical acrylic Fresnel lens to capture the light from an area 500 times that of the solar cell and focus it onto the triple junction solar cell. This lens costs a lot less than using silicon solar cells to cover the same area. Even though you have such a concentrated amount of sunlight, the system does not overheat as the triple junction cells are specially designed to handle this amount of light whereas normal silicon solar cells are not. The solar cells are mounted on a massive heat spreader which transfers the heat into the SunCube’s aluminium heat radiator. This heat radiator is larger than the solar collection area, is always in the shade and cooled by passing winds much more easily than flat panels so there is no chance of overheating the system. This is why there is no dependence on pumped cooling liquid to stop the cells from being damaged and/or melted into expensive glass unlike other concentrator solar cell designs.
Just how affordable is it?
For example, our household of two uses 2,300kWh so we will need to purchase five sun cubes which are guaranteed to last for 25 years at the price of $7500 (including tax at 10%) minus rebates of $4000, which comes to the grand total of $3,500. Hell that’s a tenth of my HECS debt! However there is an installation cost, as it has to be fitted by an accredited electrician. But try it for yourself- go to Green and Gold Energy’s website and punch in your household details in their convoluted calculator- half the fun is trying to decipher where you enter what.
When does this product qualify for rebates?
Due to the continuing non-support of the Liberal Government, there is a lot of red tape surrounding the rebate debate because there is currently no standard for concentrator solar cells and its unlikely to be rushed through as the government have continued to ignore solar power as a viable alternative to fossil fuels. They have actually decreased solar rebates rather than increasing them.
So we can’t actually afford solar power just yet ☹
Until the Solar Cube is approved for rebates, solar power is still quite pricey but we can make a difference and petition our local members to approve the SunCube so that we can get on with our emission free lives.
Deceit and self-interest - brought to you by mining.
An excellent campaign has been given a leg-up this week when the NSW mining council heavied the host of a anti-mining website to take it down.
Of course, now it is the talk of the web and everyone is going to have a look - miningnsw.com.au.
Nuclear is uNclear - and this is 2 for 1!
A wave power station is powering 500 homes in Kembla, near Sydney, NSW - and desalinating 2,000 litres of water a day as it does it!
A solution to the drought?
Some RMIT scientists have come up with a way to make fresh water out of salt water by using solar heat, without any greenhouse emissions.
Desalination is usually pretty expensive and takes a lot of power to run, but these guys have come up with a way that doesn't emit greenhouse gas, and costs about a dollar per one thousand litres.
