Solar Slab Using large super-insulated water tanks to inter-seasonally store solar hot water is popularly known as the Sonnenhaus concept in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The water tanks vary in size from 40,000 litres for a standard house to up to 200,000 litres for apartment buildings and usually cost between £1.50-£2.00/litre. Sonnenhause owners boast heating bills 50% lower than the occupants of Passive Houses. The Solar panels and Water tank can be a costly addition to the construction budget and they can take up quite a bit of room. In order to explore this concept a super-insulated 10,000L Hydro Thermal Energy Store (below) was connected to 24m2 of Solar tubes in Cork in 2008, this reduced the clients heating/hot water bill by 65%. 24m2 of drain-back solar thermal tubes heat the water in the tank which reaches over 90 degrees most summers. A 12V PV powered pump fills the drain-back solar tubes with water when the sun shines, so there is no need to use antifreeze. Solar Slab Passive Slab
Wind Power Breaks Records In Spain -- Produces More Electricity Than Any Other Source For 3 Months, & Breaks 6 TWh in January Clean Power Published on February 6th, 2013 | by Zachary Shahan Denmark, the US, and Germany aren’t the only countries breaking wind power records these days. Spain is also a notable leader seeing strong wind power growth. In fact, it just saw its wind farms produce more electricity than any other source for a 3-month time period, for the first time ever. “Since Nov. 1, wind has been the top technology in the electrical system,” the Spanish Wind Energy Association (SWEA) was quoted as writing on its blog. Additionally, data from grid operator Red Electrica de Espana concluded that 6 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity had been generated from wind in January, another first for the country. In total, SWEA noted that 6 TWh of electricity was enough to power “enough to cover the electricity consumption of the majority of Spanish households” and that it “could cover the annual electricity consumption of countries like Honduras and Bolivia.” About the Author
cairns.ladyneedsatradie.com.au/naked-energy-cairns.html Naked Energy has a lipstick rating of 3 out of 5 Service Areas: Cairns Naked Energy is a Cairns based company that specialises in supply and installation of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficient Products. The mission of the company, is to provide energy efficient and sustainable solutions with integrity and value; to research and develop new technologies, and educate Australians in raising awareness on the causes of, and way to, reduce our carbon footprint. Our Solar Suppliers are: Trinasolar LG Life's Good Bosch SMA Power One Samil Power With Naked Energy you are getting integrity. Solar Panel Cleaning | Naked Energy You are here: Naked Energy » Solar Panel Cleaning Keep Energy Output at 100% Naked Energy’s cost-cutting solar panel photovoltaic systems with highly efficient solar inverters start paying for themselves from Day One! The only maintenance they require is professional cleaning twice a year and we recommend our sister company, Discount Solar Cleaners, to carry out the necessary cleaning and inspection every 6 months. Dust and debris on solar panel photovoltaic systems can cut power output by 25% Professional cleaning Owing to how solar panels work, it is vital to ensure that nothing prevents daylight entering the power cells to produce AC electricity through the solar inverter. After a few months, an accumulation of dust, mould, dead leaves and airborne pollutants will reduce the efficiency of any solar panel photovoltaic system. Expert cleaning of photovoltaic solar panels costs less than you would expect and actually pays for itself by returning your solar inverter system to full 100% output.
Save Energy with Green Thumb | Your Say Cairns The following links reload the page with different content below. Showing Open Discussions | See all by CRC Sustainability 13 May 2013, 9:38am | 103 views by CRC Sustainability 2 May 2013, 9:48am | 90 views by CRC Sustainability 2 May 2013, 9:49am | 21 views by CRC Sustainability 2 May 2013, 9:51am | 51 views What type of hot water system is best suited to the tropics? With so many variations on the humble hot water system, what system is most effective (in terms of low running costs, low greenhouse gas emissions and loads of hot water) in Far North Queensland. Is it the heat pump?
All-solid lithium-sulfur battery stores four times the energy of lithium-ions Researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have come up with a promising design for a lithium-sulfur rechargeable battery that is considerably cheaper and more energy-dense than standard lithium-ions. Using a solid electrolyte rather than a liquid one, the battery is also testing much safer and more durable than previous designs. Lithium-sulfur batteries are seen by some as the successors of lithium-ions because they are extremely light (they are often used for solar-powered flight), they can reach an impressive energy density, and they are cheaper to produce. But the technology isn't quite mature yet, and as it turns out, the two major limitations with Li-S batteries have to do with the electrolyte. In previous Li-S battery designs, the electrolyte used was liquid in nature. But now, researchers may have found a way around these problems. "Our technology overcomes the capacity fade and safety issues of Li-S technology," Dr. Update 06.10.13: Gizmag wrote back to Dr.
Naked Energy touts hybrid solar panel in tube design (Phys.org) -- A British company, Guildford-based Naked Energy, has come up with a “hybrid” solar panel that has generated much interest in the past weeks because of its design, function, and test results, comparing favorably to traditional solar panels. The solar panel is of the “hybrid” variety because it does two jobs at the same time. The product, called Virtu, can generate both electricity and hot water simultaneously. The company believes that with Virtu they have invented the right design and process to achieve an effective thermal transfer system. The panel is in a vacuum tube configuration, The tubes have low thermal losses and will produce energy regardless of the climate they operate in, hot or cold, according to the company. “The annual yield depends on the application, local climatic conditions and quantity of panels installed. Naked Energy is prepared for more turning points. Explore further: Going nuts? More information: www.nakedenergy.co.uk/
Naked Energy The Virtu module is a game-changing solar product providing a compact very high efficiency solar solution for domestic and commercial applications. – Peter Childs Professorial Lead In Engineering Design, Department of Mechanical Engineering Naked Energy Ltd formed a couple of years ago to develop a suite of solar technologies and won early acclaim recognised through a Shell Award. It was through this that they were introduced to Imperial. One of their products, Virtu, is a hybrid PVT solar device that produces both electrical and thermal power from a single module. Work has been funded directly by Naked Energy but as the relationship has developed a few bids to funding agencies have been successful enabling supplementary funding for the on-going activities. Naked Energy is now taking one of their designs towards production for pilot projects with Sainsbury’s and British gas