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Green homes that give back to the grid | Inman News
Green homes that give back to the grid
Net-zero-energy real estate on the rise
By Paul Hagey, Monday, March 5, 2012.
Green home image via Shutterstock.
A rising trend of super-efficient, solar-powered new homes allows homeowners to combat rising energy costs by giving back to the power grid. Some owners are even realizing a small profit from their home’s power-generating capacity.
Intelligent house layout and design, and home features such as dual-pane windows, air-tight ductwork and high-caliber wall and attic insulation, are curbing energy consumption. And when coupled with solar energy, captured through photovoltaic panels, these homes are becoming their own mini power plants that feed electricity to the grid.
In 2009, U.S. homeowners paid an average $2,200 for energy use in their homes, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. A growing number of homeowners have the opportunity to erase that cost.
via inman.com
What about net metering is it the solution to America’s energy dilemma? Be sure and sign up for Provision University’s FREE “learn-Off-The-Grid-Living.com”
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WHAT GRIDS ARE YOU TIED TO?
THE GRIDS YOU ARE TIED TO?
FOOD GRID? 
ELECTRIC GRID?
HIGHWAY GRID?
HOW ABOUT NATURAL GAS, GASOLINE, FINANCIAL?
COMING SOON!
PROVISION UNIVERSITY IS OFFERING FREE TRAINING
LEARN OFF THE GRID LIVING COMING LATER THIS
YEAR.
DON’T MISS OUT
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How Wind Turbines Work
The image of a wind turbine is pretty familiar—it’s basically a massive three-bladed pinwheel on top of a huge stalk (in most cases). I’ve seen dozens of clusters while driving south through Illinois, and I’m sure most people have similar experiences. The blades turn (slowly) as the wind blows, generating electricity.
The Visible Bits
The pole supporting the moving parts of the wind turbine is called the “tower” (surprise, surprise). Directly on top of the tower is the nacelle, which is the housing for all the parts of the wind turbine that aren’t the giant blades.
Outside the nacelle is the most recognizable part of a wind turbine, the three blades attached to the hub in the middle. In slightly more technical terms, this assembly is called a rotor. Pitch motors in the hub allow the angle of the blades to be changed so that they can meet the wind.
Also outside the nacelle are the anemometers (wind vanes), which tell the turbine control system how fast the wind is and in what direction it’s blowing (no use in being able to adjust the blades if something isn’t telling them how to be adjusted).
The Inside Parts
Inside the tower are ladders for (relatively) easy access, and cables to export the electricity. Since the height of a wind turbine can range anywhere from 315’ to 540’, that’s not a ladder I’d want to climb (although better the ladder than attempting to scale the outside of the tower).
Inside the nacelle, the main shaft of the hub connects to a gearbox and a brake. Since rotor speeds are usually around 10-20rpm, which is utterly useless for generating any kind of power, the gearbox is responsible for converting that speed to something like 1,500rpm—much, much better for generating electricity.
The final component inside the nacelle is the generator, which is connected to the gearbox and the brake. It takes the 1,500rpm rotational energy and converts it into electrical power. The power is then sent out of the turbine through the cables running down the length of the tower.
It All Comes Together
A wind turbine can start producing power at wind speeds of 7-11 mph, but it reaches its full output at wind speeds of around 29mph. If it’s been appropriately placed, the turbine will generate over 40% of its maximum capacity over the course of each year it’s operational.
Wind is a wonderful source of alternative energy but are we just replacing on centralized energy for another. Would we not be far better off having 1000 small wind generators than 1 big giant?
4 Best Methods for Off-the-Grid Food Production | TruthTheory
For most of us producing all of our own food is just a fantasy. It evokes visions of multiple acres of fertile land, long work days, and expensive machinery. However, none of these are necessary to achieve self-sufficient food production.
There are many gardening techniques that can produce an abundance of food for you and your family without requiring a lot of space, money or equipment. What each of these methods will require is your time, but not the dawn-to-dusk work hours associated with farming.
Rather, you will need time to study and practice these methods and other food preparation skills such as learning to mill your own wheat or corn flour to make breads, tortillas, pastas from scratch, or learning to can, pickle, or preserve food in all its forms.
Your diet should also be considered when planning for the best self-sufficient food production method. Do you need meat and dairy products? How much grains do you require? Yes, in order fully produce all of your food off-the-grid, you may have to make changes to your current diet if your resources are limited. Some may view these as dietary sacrifices, yet the folks that can claim a high level of food self-reliance will all claim their diet is far healthier than the average American.
With dedication and proper planning, everyone has the ability to survive the looming food crisis by producing their own food. None of the following methods should necessarily be considered by itself. Each offers unique techniques that can be mixed and matched for the best results. Their optimal application depends on calculations of your property size, climate zone, or your budget and time constraints.
via truththeory.com
Truly some exciting ideals for learning off the grid living. For is one of our most basic needs that Big Corporations have tried to take over. Here are four great methods for getting off the food grid. Provision University wants to honor those who are making such contributions to the world and to their communities by awarding the George Washington Carver American Innovation Award. If you know of anyone that is living off the grid and helping others with their needs why don’t you dominate them for this pertious award. Email you entry to GWCaward@provisionu.com along with a summonary of how this person is making a contribution to helping others in need by practicing off the grid living.
Global Technology Forum – OriginOil: diesel and gasoline could be made from algae and waste for US$2.28/gallon
OriginOil announces a new company study that suggests algae producers can produce finished fuels in a cost-effective manner with existing technology.
OriginOil, developer of a breakthrough technology to convert algae into renewable crude oil, today announced a new company study indicating for the first time that algae producers worldwide can now make transportation fuels cost-effectively themselves.
The company’s analysis points to a potential production cost as low as US$2.28/gallon (US$0.60/litre) for gasoline or diesel using a blend of algae and waste feedstocks, using the latest growth, harvesting and fuel conversion technologies from OriginOil and other innovators.
“In his recent energy address, President Obama cast an unconditional vote for US energy security using algae to replace up to 17% of our imported oil,” says Riggs Eckelberry, OriginOil’s CEO. “This is no pipe dream: we now know that any algae producer can make gasoline and diesel right at the point of production, and compete with petroleum.
“The Administration’s policy commitment, combined with the US Defense Department’s long-term commitment to include biofuels in its operations, will help bring about the wide adoption of algae-based fuel in this decade,” adds Eckelberry.
The company cautions that this is a first look at the impact of these new technologies which is subject to large-scale revision. OriginOil will make the model available to algae producers at no charge for their business planning and intends to solicit private input from the algae industry to improve it continuously.
“Yesterday President Obama spoke about the potential of algae biomass to displace 17% of our current consumption of petroleum,” says OriginOil’s scientific adviser, Thomas H. Ulrich, previously an advisory scientist at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL).
“This is not unreasonable given recent improvements in biomass harvesting and collection efficiencies and other technology enhancements being made by companies like OriginOil in partnership with the INL for further developing and validating these technologies.”
OriginOil’s comprehensive model analyses the entire algae production process at scale, integrating the latest advances in growth, harvesting and fuel conversion. In the lowest-cost scenario, algae harvested using OriginOil’s Algae Appliance is blended with waste feedstocks and converted onsite to achieve a modelled production cost of US$2.28 per gallon for gasoline or diesel. This cost roughly doubles to US$5.44/gallon ($1.44/litre) when using pure algae feedstocks. The model assumes a production footprint of at least 50 hectares (124 acres).
Low cost and ready availability of waste products are behind US plans to implement a blending strategy that includes algae for its high energy content and petrochemical profile. In December 2011, the Defense Logistics Agency announced the single largest purchase of biofuel in US history, using a blend of algae and waste cooking oil.
Ulrich, a key contributor to developing the Blendable Feedstock Standard in which OriginOil is collaborating with the Department of Energy, says: “The lowering of these costs is the result of integrating harvesting and collection pre-processing strategies that can benefit from the blending of the physical and chemical properties of different combinations of biomass feedstocks and other waste products.”
“What we need now are well-funded and co-ordinated efforts by industry and government to integrate and test the best of these diverse technology enhancements. It is very important to validate these promising technologies at the pilot as well as at the commercial production scales. Government support of such scaled projects is appropriate and critical to our nation’s energy independence,” adds Ulrich.
In addition to providing local job development and environmental and balance of trade benefits, the domestic production of renewable liquid transport fuels is a strategic focus for US defense planning as a method to mitigate the effects of a possible loss of foreign petroleum supplies.
via gtforum.com
What are we waiting for? The possibilities for algae oil are so immense it is hard to come up with a good list of negatives. Four years ago we were saying the same thing. It really makes a good argument for the school of thought that if you want to slow down a good thing—then give out government grants.
What would happen if we were able to produce diesel from algae, economically on the small scale? Another reason that small is better than Big.
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NREL and New Energy produce biggest ever transparent OPV solar cell
Window gazers of the future may soon find themselves looking right through an energy-producing transparent glass solar panel, if the folks at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory are on the right track. Working with the company New Energy Technologies, Inc., the lab has produced a transparent photovoltaic module that is 14 times bigger than its last attempt.
Windows that double as solar panels
At 170 square centimeters (about 26 square inches), the new module is about the size of a small window. If the technology can be ramped up to a more useful scale, practically any glass window could double as a clean energy generator, with the embedded photovoltaic cell all but invisible.
The largest device of its kind produced at NREL, the new module represents a breakthrough in organic photovoltaic cell (OPV) technology according to a statement by Dr. David S. Ginley of NREL, who said that integrating solar technology into window glass represents a “promising avenue for OPV deployment.”
Organic photovoltaic technology set to rise
In contrast to conventional solar technology based on silicon, OPV cells can be made from a variety of inexpensive polymers (plastics), which can be produced in liquid form and sprayed onto a substrate, or applied using a high volume, inexpensive roll-to-roll manufacturing process.
The two sticking main sticking points so far have been increasing the size of the solar module, and increasing its efficiency. The solar energy conversion efficiency of other solar technologies has been trending up in the double digits but OPV efficiency is currently stuck around eight percent according to NREL.
Though OPV is starting from a lowly place on the conversion efficiency totem pole, its potential for building-integrated usage puts it in a strong position in the solar industry. The relatively low conversion rate could be counterbalanced by the potential for extremely low installation costs compared to other solar technologies. See-through glass solar panels could simply be substituted for conventional window glass at a marginal increase in cost, rather than being treated as an expensive add-on.
What doors could this breakthrough open? If every window were a electric generator what difference could this make? It could mean that electrical energy readily available everywhere. Provision University’s upcoming “learn-off-the-grid-living” is challenging participants to actually build working solar units. Sign up today!
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Why mobile is driving off-grid solar in the developing world — Cleantech News and Analysis
When we think about off-the-grid solar, we tend to picture environmentally conscious homeowners and corporations trying to make an incremental difference in greenhouse gas emissions by installing PV panels on rooftops. But for the 1.4 billion people on the globe who don’t have access to electricity, solar’s potential is less about fighting global warming than it is about accessing electricity where there isn’t even an electric grid to be “off of.”
via gigaom.com
Off the grid living is taking on a new look in the third world countries because it’s the only option. When it is too costly or otherwise not practical to bring the grid to remote areas. Off the Grid living becomes automatic.
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Rocket Stove Good For Living Off Grid Also
The Rocket Stove has proved to be a star in the third world countries. It has improved air quality in small huts and provided an idea cook stove. It uses less wood, smokes less, and heats faster. The stove is simple that can be build without high tech tools and is inexpensive. The rocket stove has shown many other applications for home heating and hot water. This Video shows it in action
FREE plans available from Provision University for anyone wanting to build or test one.
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The Pantone Reactor Does it work?
If the pantone reactor were powering a generator in every home it would make off the grid living a lot more easy. The French seem to have really taken hold and many small units have been in use for years. Americans have not awaken to it’s possibilities. Provision University would like to recruit volunteers to experiment with building and testing these. This video gives an idea how it is to work:
Plans are free for anyone brave enough to try.
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An Alternative Fuel for Cars joins the Army
Living off the grid could take a total turn IF the hydrogen fuel cell were here for good. This report from CNN Money brings us back to the Hydrogen Fuel Cell. There have been so many high hopes on the Fuel in the past but if the Army is recruiting it could it be different this time?
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The United States Army is looking at hydrogen fuel cell vehicles hoping that sometime in the near future they’ll play some important military roles, maybe even on the battlefield.
The military has been looking at alternative fuels like this because the difficulty, expense and danger of securing oil and gasoline supplies among other reasons.
Hydrogen fuel cells, in particular, seem promising because of their design flexibility, said Major General Roger Matthews, Deputy Commanding General of the U.S. Army Pacific.
Unlike an ordinary car’s engine and transmission, fuel cells and batteries can take various shapes and be arranged inside the vehicle in a number of different ways.
That allows for vehicles to be better designed for different roles, whether for carrying people, cargo or other duties, he said.
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