Archive for the 'Environment and Natural Resources' Category

FIT in Europe

Written by Announcement Author on Monday, October 26th, 2009 in Environment and Natural Resources.

The Feed-in Tariff (FIT) is an incentive invented to remunerate the production of renewable energy both by households and investors. Power companies are required to pay back, at rates higher than the market, power originated from renewable sources; such as wind, thermal solar, photovoltaic solar, biomass, hydro and geothermal. This tariff goes also under the name of Feed-in Law, Solar Premium, Renewable Tariff or Renewable Energy Payments. FIT helps make the production of renewable energy competitive. Usually governments pledge the tariff for up to 15, 20 or even 25 years from the date of the putting in place.

The progress of sources of renewable energy is deemed fundamental to preventing climate change. Producing renewable energy still costs more than the cost of producing energy from fossil fuels. FIT tries to counterbalance this difference, thus making more attractive renewable energy installations, asking the utility company to repurchase and reuse the power generated by renewable installations. The difference in cost is spread over all of the customers of the power company. FIT requires net metering regulation to account for power purchased from the grid and energy sold to the grid.

FIT is considered as more effective than quotas enforced on power companies, because it fulfills the morality of people. What follows is a simplified overview of FIT policies by some European countries.

COUNTRY BRACKET 1
(0 < 5 kWp)
BRACKET 2
(5 < 10 kWp)
BRACKET 3
(> 10 kWp)
YEARS NOTE
Austria 0.46 €/kWh 0.40 €/kWh 0.30 €/kWh - lower after 10 yrs
Belgium 1.09 €/kWh 0.82 €/kWh 0.54 €/kWh 15 lower after 10 yrs, < 250 kWp
Bulgaria 0.40 €/kWh 0.36 €/kWh 0.36 €/kWh - lower after 10 yrs, bracket 3 = bracket 2
Czech Republic 0.53 €/kWh 0.53 €/kWh 0.53 €/kWh 20 fixed
France 0.55 €/kWh 0.55 €/kWh 0.55 €/kWh 20 fixed, 0.30 €/kWh ground
Germany (0 < 30kWp) 0.43 (30 < 100 kWp) 0.41 €/kWh (100 < 1000) 0.40 €/kWh 20 > 1000 kWp 0.33 €/kWh
Greece (0 <100 kWp) 0.46 €/kWh (> 100 kWp) 0.40 €/kWh 10
Italy (0 < 3kWp) 0.49 €/kWh (3 < 20 kWp) 0.46 €/kWh (20 < ) 0.44 €/kWh 20
Luxenbourg (0 < 30kWp) 0.41 €/kWh (30 < 1000 kWp) 0.36 €/kWh 15
Netherlands (0.6 < 3kWp) 0.33 €/kWh 15
Portugal 0.55 €/kWh 0.40 €/kWh 5 max 50 MW buildings. 150 ground
Slovenia 0.39 €/kWh 0.39 €/kWh 0.39 €/kWh 10 fixed
Spain 0.33 €/kWh 0.33 €/kWh 0.33 €/kWh 25 fixed

 

 

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European Feed-In Tariffs

Written by Announcement Author on Monday, October 26th, 2009 in Environment and Natural Resources.

The Feed-in Tariff (FIT) is an bonus invented to reward the production of renewable energy both by households and investors. Power companies are asked to pay back, at rates higher than the market, power produced from renewable sources; such as wind, thermal solar, photovoltaic solar, biomass, hydro and geothermal. This tariff goes also under the name of Feed-in Law, Solar Premium, Renewable Tariff or Renewable Energy Payments. FIT helps make the production of renewable energy competitive. Usually governments warrant the tariff for up to 15, 20 or even 25 years from the date of the installation.

The development of sources of renewable energy is judged critical to preventing climate change. Production of energy from renewable sources keep beeing more expensive than the cost of producing energy from traditional supplies. FIT tries to balance this difference, thus making more attractive renewable energy installations, by requiring the power grid to buy back and redistribute the energy generated by renewable installations. The difference in cost is spread over all of the customers of the utility company. FIT requires net metering regulation to account for electricity purchased from the grid and energy sold to the grid.

FIT is regarded as more effective than quotas imposed to power companies, because it leverages the ethical motive of people. What follows is a simplified summary of FIT policies by some European countries.

COUNTRY BRACKET 1
(0 < 5 kWp)
BRACKET 2
(5 < 10 kWp)
BRACKET 3
(> 10 kWp)
YEARS NOTE
Austria 0.46 €/kWh 0.40 €/kWh 0.30 €/kWh - lower after 10 yrs
Belgium 1.09 €/kWh 0.82 €/kWh 0.54 €/kWh 15 lower after 10 yrs, < 250 kWp
Bulgaria 0.40 €/kWh 0.36 €/kWh 0.36 €/kWh - lower after 10 yrs, bracket 3 = bracket 2
Czech Republic 0.53 €/kWh 0.53 €/kWh 0.53 €/kWh 20 fixed
France 0.55 €/kWh 0.55 €/kWh 0.55 €/kWh 20 fixed, 0.30 €/kWh ground
Germany (0 < 30kWp) 0.43 (30 < 100 kWp) 0.41 €/kWh (100 < 1000) 0.40 €/kWh 20 > 1000 kWp 0.33 €/kWh
Greece (0 <100 kWp) 0.46 €/kWh (> 100 kWp) 0.40 €/kWh 10
Italy (0 < 3kWp) 0.49 €/kWh (3 < 20 kWp) 0.46 €/kWh (20 < ) 0.44 €/kWh 20
Luxenbourg (0 < 30kWp) 0.41 €/kWh (30 < 1000 kWp) 0.36 €/kWh 15
Netherlands (0.6 < 3kWp) 0.33 €/kWh 15
Portugal 0.55 €/kWh 0.40 €/kWh 5 max 50 MW buildings. 150 ground
Slovenia 0.39 €/kWh 0.39 €/kWh 0.39 €/kWh 10 fixed
Spain 0.33 €/kWh 0.33 €/kWh 0.33 €/kWh 25 fixed

 

 

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Going Green With Solar Energy

Written by Announcement Author on Monday, October 12th, 2009 in Environment and Natural Resources.

Solar energy for residential homes is nothing new.  It has just been relegated to the background in lieu of skyrocketing cost of real estate ; newer more sophisticated building materials, design and the limitation of resources. 

Since man started building houses, sunlight played a major influence in the design.  In fact, even in the more complicated urban planning methodology of the Ancient Chinese and Greeks, the orientation of the buildings is as much as possible steered towards where it could capture the most daylight. 

The ancients may not be as intellectually complicated then to use slogans as passive solar and thermal mass but when they build, they were building in compact proportion, employing overhangs, producing insulations and building in manners that direct the airflow within the structure and manufacturing well lit, well ventilated spaces using the relative position of the sun to the orientation of their structures. 

Lately, as the typical sources of energy became more expensive, homeowners were once again turning to the sun for energy needs. 

Since the 1950’s, harnessing the sun’s rays has been developing and today the solar cell technology has achieved extraordinarily efficient levels that modern ( so-called green house ) designs apply the sun’s power to provide energy for the home. 

While solar energy is free, the device which will convert it to run our appliances is not.  To provide solar energy for the home, solar cells called photovoltaic made of semi-conducting materials, are grouped into modules.  These solar panels are mounted on rooftops, yards or open spaces where it can capture the maximum amount of sunlight. 

Whenever possible, the panels will be installed facing south to get the maximum out of the daylight but tracking systems are also used to follow the direction of the sun.  The solar panels collect the energy from the sunlight.  The process essentially is that when the panels are exposed to sunlight, the electrons are separated form the atoms.  This movement of the electrons creates electricity. 

To store power, pumps are sometimes used – circulating water in the cells.  The water goes into a storage tank where the power is stored, ready to be used.  Occasionally, the utilization of gravity is employed if it’ll just the same store the heated water in to the tank. 

In spite of all of the development in solar energy though, the utilization of this technology isn’t enough to provide power to the whole house.  The best technique so far can only satisfy about 80% of a households power needs.  Using solar energy for the home will still need the utilization of the typical power distribution technique. 

Powering the houses by solar means will still, for a bit be augmented by a local power distribution agency.  To many, this is already a good kick off point.  House owners that feel that the high price of powering their houses thru solar power, is justified when put next to the price that is now being paid for traditional electrification strategy where horrendous amounts of CO2 are getting dumped into the atmosphere solely to generate a pitiful amount of electricity. 

However, due partly to the skyrocketing costs of energy, the technology for solar energy has been undergoing rapid phases of development.  Gurus are confident that within five years, powering the home through the solar methodology will be made generally available for people that prefer it as its sole energy source.

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Lots of people actually already have basic understanding about solar energy. Discussing about solar energy will be near to discuss how the sun can provide alternative energy. In fact, many people have used the sun’s power to heat water and air for various energy resources. Moreover, many people move to solar energy since it is the most viable and cleanest form of renewable energy.

Solar power captures the sun’s rays by using photovoltaic cell that alters the energy into electricity in order to supply electrical energy. In actual fact, electricity can be converted to the type 120-volt alternating current although the electricity produced is only 12-volt direct current.

Generally, power converter is used to wielding this energy by most household electrical appliances. In addition, the number appliances that operate on 120-vot direct current are increasing these days. They do work with solar energy although most of them were designed for portable use by being plugged into a vehicles 12-volt outlet.

Homes or business can safe the expenses of energy by using the solar energy. Since the present crop of solar cells, the grouping of photovoltaic cells that convert the energy into electricity only operates at about 15-percent efficiency, so many of them are required that it is expensive to install enough of them to give the power needs.

Return on Investment Provides Free Electricity

Although the present high initial cost, once a facility has been changed to solar energy they can use far less power from the utility grid. The more power that is converted from the sun the less electricity is required, putting a significant dent in the electric bills. It’s estimated that the initial charge of converting an usual home to solar energy will be recouped in about 15 to 18 years.

During that period, electric bills will be much lower and once the charge has been recovered, the payoff can be incredible. The investment is considered worthwhile with most of the components needed to activate a home on solar energy having a warranted life of 20 years. Though, not all appliances, such as electric heaters and those that use a large amount of power for operation, may still need more than the sun for their use.

Numerous houses that have turned to solar energy remain connected to the power grid. It commonly happens for the times that the sun is not shining strong enough. The power grid is used to power the solar cells and to have sufficient electric to power some of the more energy-hungry devices in the house.

Solar energy will help to obtain alternative energy that last very long. To get more information, you can explore this comprehensive site about solar energy.

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Using Solar Energy to Save Money

Written by Announcement Author on Saturday, March 14th, 2009 in Environment and Natural Resources.

Fuel crises are on the horizon, depletion of fossil fuel resources and the damaging effects of CO2 on climate change there has never been a better time to use clean alternative energy sources. A good solution is to build your own solar energy home kit. The best company for instructions on how to build your own home solar energy kit for very little outlay is earth4energy. No matter which company you choose for your solar energy home kit the basic components will remain the same. The benefits of solar power are that is naturally occurring limitless resource which can be used to generate electricity cleanly.

Earth4Energy Solar energy home kit: The Solar Panel

The solar panel is the main component of the solar energy home kit. With the large selection of various shape and sizes of solar panel available it is down to personal choice which best suits your needs. The construction of the solar panel is very intricate but you basically have a choice of two materials available either

  • Crystalline silicon solar panels
  • Amorphous silicon solar panels.

The solar panels function is to collect the energy of the suns rays. The energy of the suns rays is absorbed by the solar panel, which causes movement of electrons from the atoms which in turn generates a direct current flow. To convert the direct current produced into user friendly alternating current an invertor is used

Finding a location for your earth4energy solar energy kit

Pay particular attention to the location of the solar panels to ensure maximum efficiency from your solar energy home kit. The best location for your solar panel is a location that receives the most direct sunlight throughout the day. The quality of your solar panel will determine the overall efficiency of your solar energy home kit in terms of electricity production.

As you can see the solar energy home kit is a very simple construction. The earth4energy system explains clearly how to build your own solar energy home kit for under $200s. As well as the clear and precise instructions provided by earth4energy ebook you also receive a full series of step by step videos making the construction process a synch. To save 80% on your energy bills or eliminate your bills entirely with a solar energy home kit checkout our top 3 energy system reviews

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