last updated 18th November 05
By 4ecotips

New technologies to beat climate change

With really high oil prices and natural gas reserves dwindling, new technologies are coming along to help us beat climate change, which is being brought about by too many carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into Earth's atmosphere.

Whilst we can't yet put fossil fuels behind us entirely, we are gradually being weaned onto "renewable" energy sources - these include sun, wind, water and biomass materials such as wood pellets and straw. All are replaceable, hence the term "renewable", and none of them emit the environmentally harmful CO2 gas.

Also, the world's major motor companies are all starting to produce hybrid vehicles that don't depend solely on petrol or diesel for fuel but involve other technologies such as hydrogen-powered engines.

Once only of interest to committed 'greens', renewable energy technologies are now an increasingly familiar source of energy in housing, and there are government grants available to help with installation costs.

In fact, thousands of householders have already fitted solar panels and other technologies to their homes, And many local authorities and housing associations have also taken advantage of grants to fit renewable technologies to new and existing housing.

Basically there are two ways for you to harness the sun's power and help save energy and reduce heating and hot water costs. For example, solar thermal panels are relatively economical to install on your roof and will, very effectively, help to produce domestic hot water.

There are some sceptics who say the British climate doesn't lend itself to this technology all-year-round. But some solar panels are now so well advanced that they can turn even the most miniscule of sun/daylight to advantage.

The other system that uses the sun is photovoltaic or PV panels. These need only daylight, not sunlight, to generate electricity and so work in overcast or cloudy conditions, in all parts of the UK. The downside is, they are expensive.

Wind turbine power is now a really viable method for producing domestic electricity. There are already smallscale wind units on the market ranging from 600 watts up to 15 kilowatts. Generally they are pole-mounted in back gardens, but roof-mounted models are in the pipeline.

For a modest house a 2.5 kilowatt system will deliver, at a wind speed of 5m per second, around 4,200 kilowatt hours per year (average house is said to use 4,700kilowatt hours per year).

The cost of a small-scale wind turbine is in the region of £1000, excluding fitting and commissioning. The estimated payback is around five years although new developments in the technology may shorten this period.

You can obtain further information on solar heating and wind turbines respectively from the Solar Trade Association (www.greenenergy.org.uk/) and the British Wind Energy Association (www.bwea.com/). And there are for details of Clear Skies grants try www.clear-skies.org/. And a very good general source of information on all of these technologies and other energy efficiency topics is www.4ecotips.com.