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The Micropower Thread


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MicroPower is Coming...

 

solar.jpg

 

The subject may interest some.

 

I am looking for investment ideas in this sector.

 

On the surface it isnt easy to find them. Solar seems most appealing, since the other areas are intermittant or can be messy. But the capital cost of solar is high:

 

Years to Repay capital:

Micro-wind power : 10-12 years

Micro-CHP............ : 12 years

Solar Power........ : 50 years

 

So I have begun to develop this from another angle. There is more than just energy gathering to think about, since any any micro-energy system requires:

Energy gathering, energy storage, and system control

 

COMPONENTS of a Micro-ppwer System:

upowersystem.gif

 

Sectors : Energy gathering, energy storage, energy system controls

 

So storage and control also represent opportunities

 

= = = = =

LINKS:

Alt-energy Stocks & News : http://www.altenergystocks.com/

Micropower co.uk site..... : http://www.micropower.co.uk/ : members

Renew Online Forum...... : http://www-tec.open.ac.uk/eeru/natta/renew...e/rol30/16.html

 

. . . . . .

Similar thread on HPC: http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/ind...0&gopid=280009&

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  • 2 weeks later...

Didnt see it. Thnx

EXCERPT:

 

MILLIONS of homes, schools and other public buildings could be turned into micro power stations under proposals to promote renewable energy that will be announced this week.

 

The scheme would see householders, schools and businesses offered grants to install wind turbines, solar panels, “ground source heat pumps” (devices that can extract energy from under lawns and flower beds)and other systems to generate their own electricity and export it to the National Grid.

 

For some the scheme could even herald an end to electricity bills, because if they generated more power than they consumed then power companies would have to pay them for it.

 

Malcolm Wicks, the energy minister, will give details of the scheme when he launches the “microgeneration strategy”.

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DID ANY OF YOU KNOW, that the DTI has a Micropower Strategy?

================

 

Microgeneration Strategy

In 2004 there were approximately 82,000 microgeneration installations in the UK. Yet a study commissioned by the DTI from the Energy Saving Trust suggested that by 2050, microgeneration could provide 30–40% of the UK's electricity needs and help reduce household carbon emissions by 15% per annum.

 

The objective of this strategy is to create conditions under which microgeneration becomes a realistic alternative or supplementary energy generation source for the householder, for the community and for small businesses.

 

You can download either the complete strategy or each individual chapter by following the links in the table below.

 

The publication may be obtained from DTI publications, Orderline, Admail 528, London, SW1W 8YT, tel. 0845 015 0010, Fax 0845 015 0020, E-mail: publications@dti.gsi.gov.uk. The URN reference for the document is 06/993

 

...MORE: http://www2.dti.gov.uk/energy/environment/...ion/index.shtml

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  • 1 month later...

Similar to my response in the wind power thread, I have been chatting with a Scottish company called Ecoliving who represent the largest GSHP/Heat Recovery system manufacturer in Sweden, Nibe. As to cost efficiency, who knows -- depends on individual situations. Still a great alternative to traditional gas boilers:

www.ecoliving.info

www.nibe.com

For people who are interested in green building/living alternatives, there is a great forum on the Green Building Forum:

http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/forum/

Lots of great info for the Eco-sustainably minded!

Cheers,

SubT

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  • 4 weeks later...

Has anyone seen this Micro CHP install ?

 

Powergen Micro CHP

 

It's a stirling engine based unit that according to their site works with a "variety of fuels including diesel, kerosene, natural gas or LPG."

 

So I expect it could be adapted for Biofuels, as I understand it they have been about for ages but the difficulty is working out how to get the unit to feed back into the National Grid when excess supply is being produced.

 

Hi Everyone too, thought the first post should really be serious, I don't sell these either before anyone asks!

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Welcome, t-corp.

 

Interesting item:

"A WhisperGen Micro CHP unit acts likes a normal high efficiency gas boiler, providing heat and hot water, but ingeniously it also drives a generator to produce electricity generating an average saving in household energy bills about £150 per year*."

 

I wondr what they cost? A £150 pa savings should justify an expenditure of £1500 or so, I suppose

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The Micropower route is a great idea and one part of the jigsaw puzzle that will be required to move away from dependency on fossil fuels. However, I can't help but think that the government isn't really interested in pushing this concept. There just isn't enough information readily available to the general public (e.g I din't know there was a DTI strategy for this). I know grants are sometimes available to assist with installation costs but ask anyone in the street about PV cells and roof mountable turbines and reckon most will know very little about it. Whatever happened to public service broadcasts on the Beeb?

 

Anybody know about the environmental impact of producing PV cells on the scale required to cover every rooftop in the UK? I have heard that the production process produces plenty of contaminating waste.

 

Now if you couple this microgeneration with earth sheltered housing (or at least very high levels of insulation in conventional houses) you can drastically (and in some cases eliminate) the need to heat a house at all.

Apologies if this is getting a bit off topic and there's no investment slant on it, but it's interesting stuff, check this link if you're not already familiar with the concept http://www.earthship.org/

and for one in Brighton http://www.lowcarbon.co.uk/eb.html

 

One of the main sources of building material for earthships is used tyres, which make great building blocks, although possibly a bit "out there" to be considered mainstream. Sadly, I think the EU has just put the kybosh on using old tyres as building material, by recently banning their burial. So we'll just have to use good old fashioned concrete instead :)

 

Of course all this is pie in the sky cos I'm priced out of the property market, and being a tenant, I can't do any of this cool stuff, but I'll save the rest of that rant for another well known forum :)

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