Category Archives: Renewable Energy

Includes Solar, Wind, Geothermal, Waves, Tidal, Hydro, Nuclear and etc.

Mackay Sugar closer to providing renewable energy to Mackay region

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According to North Queensland Register

Mackay Sugar’s $120 million Cogeneration Project is fast taking shape, with preliminary site works already completed and civil works set to commence at Racecourse Mill next week.

Mackay Sugar CEO Quinton Hildebrand said the plant would produce enough clean renewable energy to provide one-third of the Mackay region’s electricity requirements and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 200,000 tonnes (t) equivalent carbon dioxide (CO2e) each year.

Had desperation to find alternative energy source pushed people into converting sugar into energy? Let’s examine the pros & cons of using sugar as alternative energy to fossil fuel.

Pros (as stated in the article)

  1. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 200,000 tonnes (t) equivalent carbon dioxide (CO2e) each year.
  2. Provide one-third of the Mackay region’s electricity requirements
  3. The plant will also generate significantly more income from the same sugarcane crop, delivering exceptional value to shareholders
  4. provide more than 250 jobs during construction, with construction contracts being awarded to local Mackay companies.
  5. take advantage of the untapped potential from Mackay Sugar’s cane supply

Cons

  1. Sudden surge in sugar prices for human consumption in the region
  2. Hyper-inflation in food prices that uses sugar
  3. High fluctuation of energy supply during a “bad” harvesting season due to natural disasters.
  4. Technically not 100% fossil fuel free as pesticides are oil based, fertilizers are natural gas, harvesters uses oil too.

Overall, sugar will eventually be just like oil and we will no longer have a normal fizzy drinks with sugar anymore or prepare to pay more for it…and there goes my sugar donut or my 3 in 1 coffee.

Sugar like oil can push inflation too causing more hardship in the global economy too, all that sounds like a bad idea but alternative energy need a balance of every possible energy sources. Hopefully, we can research more into a more abundant source of renewable energy.

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Media should promote renewable energy: IREDA

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According to Yahoo!News

New Delhi, June 1 (PTI) A government organisation dedicated to development of renewable energy today appealed the media to play a more meaningful role in promoting alternative source of energy.

“Today, our power sector is struggling and there is an urgent need to find an alternative source of energy. Renewable Energy can bridge this gap but it is unfortunate that it finds a very negligible coverage in the media. We need your (media) support,” IREDA chairman and managing director Debashish Majumdar said at ”Media Roundtable On Renewable Energy” conference here.

The only way I can think of to help the media understanding on renewable energy cost are to cut them off from electricity produced by fossil fuel for a day, that way they will finally understand the importance of renewable energy and the consequences of not focusing on it.

Fossil fuel is not forever available even thou there are many who promises that by saying there are many “alternative” to oil like Oil shale which are abundant in some countries however it’s more costly to extract oil from it than oil & natural gas because it’s from sediments (ROCKS).

Once oil sprayed out in high pressure from new oil wells like a geyser without any assistance or “cost” but once it’s being extracted, the pressure lowered & the oil industry need to pump huge amount of fresh water into the oil wells to “make the oil float” out of the oil wells.

Then the oil to water ratio decreases over time  until we have to abandon the wells that in the 1950′s are claimed to be “FOREVER LASTING”.

After that the heavy oil in soil call bitumen or Tar Sands are quoted to be the NEXT big thing in Canada because the cost of oil is so high and digging into tar sands seems to be cost effective.

Now, we are talking about oil shale…basically rocks instead of tar sands.

Nuclear had been proven again & again to be just a “time bomb” waiting to explode and many countries are unable to build it due to this reason.

So, the media industry need to understand that in the future…fossil fuel will no longer be the dominant energy that they can consume freely & cheaply.

Renewable energy is the only way out and people will need to know all this quickly or there will be a day when human will fight each other to the death just for the last barrel of fossil fuel.

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Demand for biofuels expected to rise 20%-30% annually

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According to ChannelNewsAsia:

SINGAPORE : This week, the European parliament voted for new rules that require lower emissions from commercial vehicles.

With governments globally continuing to set stiff targets for the use of “clean” energy, Biofuels Asia – a Singapore-based clean-energy company – is betting on Jatropha, a hardy plant that is a source of biodiesel.

Biofuels may be alternative fuel but by no means very “clean”, however it’s much “renewable” then fossil fuel.

What I mean it’s not clean because of the following.

  1. Fertilizers (Natural gas)
  2. Pesticides (Oil)
  3. Huge Mechanized Harvesters/seeders/plough (Oil)
  4. Water pumps for irrigation (electricity – probably by oil powered generator)

After all the fossil fuel being consumed to get the biofuels, the high cost may means if one day the oil price collapsed again after some kind of major economic crisis (maybe due to high oil prices -> hyper inflation -> banking & subprime or other kinds of crisis) MAY also means that the biofuel may be NET Loss in “cost” & “energy”.

EROEI – Energy Return over Energy Invested must be higher then fossil fuel to get a net gain, if the world blindly goes “green” just because of the carbon tax reduction it will not be a long term solution but a rather short term one.

Personally I still believe in true “renewable” energy from the Sun, Wind, Hydro, geothermal, wave, and other harvest-able natural energy from the environment.

However, due to unstable environmental circumstances in different countries may means some renewable energy cannot be “cost” effective to be utilized.

Nuclear is one way to go for some countries but it may pose risk of major disaster issues but it’s a medium term solution until a new & better way to harvest the natural energy “efficiently” & less cost intensive to maintain the system.

Biofuels is at best a temporary solution but it’s better then no solution so the best system may be a balance of all solutions to make up a way to counter the PEAK OIL crisis that may had already started.

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Drive for green HDB homes (Singapore)

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THE next generation of homes is set to get greener for Singapore residents. The Housing Board (HDB) is looking into rolling out further initiatives to green new and existing homes, said HDB Building Research Institute managing director Lau Joo Ming on Tuesday.

Click to continue reading “Drive for green HDB homes (Singapore)”

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Gentleman lives on floating plastic bottle island home

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Mr. “Rishi” Sowa lives on an floating island. That he made. From empty plastic bottles and a few mangrove plants. In Mexico.

This guy is obviously been doing this for a very long time but he probably still need think of a way to build his island to withstand hurricane & other natural disasters.

Click to continue reading “Gentleman lives on floating plastic bottle island home”

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Communicating after EMP attack, Solar Flare/Storm, Magnetic Pole Shift

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There are a serious news about the coming Solar Storm that may cause world wide black out, check out the news articles.

  1. Nasa solar flare space storm warning: a British scientist writes
  2. Nasa’s 2013 solar flare warning: how much do we need to worry?

I like to discuss about the preparation methods to communicate after a major solar flare event, the preparation method must be simple to follow & easily understood by the masses.

I found a great forum at God Like Production and they discuss at length ways to communicate after all the electronics get overloaded by induced electricity shock from the Solar Storm.

Various methods from the simplest to the complicated are discussed and I have a few of myself too so Let’s list them all below.

  1. Pencil & Pen method – Since before the arrival of internet we had been sending snail mails everywhere in the globe but this time round there will be no mail vans but horseback mail instead. Leave a written note at home before going out may serve as a communication as well.
  2. CB Radio or UHF Radio – These radio can be preemptively protected using a simple Faraday cage so that they can be used AFTER the solar storm passed.
  3. Internet –  Many may also argue that you won’t get internet once the Internet service provider goes down after the solar storm, I will debate that the service provider can and possibly will restore their services very quickly if they know what to protect against the solar storm now. Keep your favorite internet laptops, tablets, smart phones protected with a faraday cages in case you can use it to send email or video calls to seek help.
  4. Renewable Energy - do not wait for the government to provide electricity to the individual, get a renewable energy source for your self as soon as possible. It may be solar panels, wind mill, bicycle generator, hand crank or even DIY methods of energy production from reflected sun lights to a steam engine power generator. Anything is possible if you have the will power & time to invest.

I may not be 100% prepared myself as there are so many things to prepare! Let’s list down the items that require some kind of preparation.

  • Food –  in times where everywhere are closed due to lacking of electronically powered gadgets like vehicles, computers & refrigerators we must prepare food storage in event there are no electronics around to help us.
  • Water – water pump from city water supply may get disabled during the solar storm as most of them are computer controlled, get a big water tank or fish tank that can give you some water to filter to drink during crisis. Filtration is important & remember to boil before drinking.
  • Protect gadgets of priority – protect your electronics with faradays cages if possible so that no EMP can get through, that may means spare electronics to be kept in faraday cages. For me it may be a spare landline telephone, iPad, CB radio (not yet buy), portable hard disk, video camera and more. Check this link for instructions!

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Royal Dutch Shell Shell dumps wind, solar and hydro power in favour of biofuels

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According to Guardian:

Shell will no longer invest in renewable technologies such as wind, solar and hydro power because they are not economic, the Anglo-Dutch oil company said today. It plans to invest more in biofuels which environmental groups blame for driving up food prices and deforestation.

Executives at its annual strategy presentation said Shell, already the world’s largest buyer and blender of crop-based biofuels, would also invest an unspecified amount in developing a new generat­ion of biofuels which do not use food-based crops and are less harmful to the environment.

Read the full article at Guardian:

- The world is going to hell by abandoning free energy from nature by pushing towards greed instead of sustainability, unfortunate big corporation that depends on fossil fuels will always “discourage” renewable energies as a failure and make more people to give up on their sustainability dreams.

Shell = Hell?

Shell = Hell?

They cannot do it because they cannot profit on it but on the individual basis, or a small village…it’s almost no brainier to go renewable instead of using fossil fuels.

The Government who have the “future” in their minds is more “corporation” building more offices & unsustainable cities…it’s time for them to face the truth and understand $$$ does not means you live…it’s just means you live today…tomorrow…the same apple going to cost you more $ due to hyperinflation caused by more bail out money printed out of thin air by private bank(s) (Central Bank).

The world is just beginning to realize the problem that the rich CEO cannot survive if the domino effect of “bank run” starts to ruined the public confidence.

I guess the world can’t get enough of money and fossil fuel…pray hard that the retribution don’t come so quickly.

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Extreme Solar Distillation (No. 03)

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Today’s update will be a basic setup of my copper pipes to condense the steam and a clearer explanation on how the steam may be sucked into the pipe :)

The Fresnel Lens is up and ready to use the sun as ‘Death Ray’ against anything in it’s path and that includes instantaneously vaporizing water into steam!

The above video was taken just now after like 2 hours of pipe works and brainstorming on how to place the pipes.

I believe in improving the project as time passes so that I can solve any kinds of problems possible to achieve the result of getting distilled water faster than any other solar distillation projects.

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[Food] Hydroponic recirculating solar powered system

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Found this gem on solar powered hydroponic recirculating system that you can basically farm easily provided you have a small sun filled area.

This compared to conventional farm is the simplicity, let me list out the benefits.

  1. No Electricity cost since it’s using solar panel to pump the water.
  2. No messy soil
  3. No need to worry about infertile land.
  4. No need to worry about buried cables, pipes and sewage system.
  5. Cost Effective or Cheap.

The cons are there too.

  1. Need a sun filled area, clearly not for apartment buildings that don’t have a uncovered balcony or small garden.
  2. If the water pump goes down, need to replace it immediately or face mosquito breeding hazard.
  3. Only small plants can be grown in small pots however it should be able to scale up.
  4. Need a more stable system to avoid being blown down by strong winds.

Overall, this is a very very possible D.I.Y. method of cheap farming method for vegetables & fruits.

I recommend small chili, lady finger and tomato if weather permits.

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A homemade hybrid (Electric) car

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According to Berkshireeagle.com:

GREAT BARRINGTON — Robert Kelly smiles when you call him a tinkerer. The evidence is plain to see.

Inside the kitchen of Kelly’s home, a converted school house built in the late 18th century, is a large island with a granite countertop that is located in the middle of the room.

“That was last year’s project,” Kelly says.

Outside his house are large piles of wood, fuel for the wood stove he plans to install. Walk over to the garage, and you’ll see Kelly’s latest project, one that took all summer.

An electric car…..Home-made

Read the full article at Berkshireeagle.com:

- This guy D.I.Y. himself an ELECTRIC Car!! How cool is that!? This is another example of great project for people to look forward to…

Electric car is great for countries that have cheap electricity or uses renewable energy…many people may be thinking of it but dare not start this project.

It’s about time someone shows how simple it is to convert a gas powered car to electric car….too bad this news don’t show the step by step instructions….on how to do it

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