Energy conservation Archives - Page 3 of 7

Solar Tips for Battery Based Hybrid System: JPS is your backup power

November 26, 2015 Webmaster

As we approach the fall and winter seasons it is important for solar clients to be aware that they will experience shorter days which means less sunlight. Less sunlight means less solar production for solar systems. So in order to avoid using too much back‐up power which is most likely JPS, it is very important to be conscious of your energy usage during these next few months, even more so with our delayed rainy season upon on us adding cloudiness to limited sun hours.

A solar system produces more energy in the summer months due to the sun being higher in the sky. In these winter months clients need to focus on demand shaping which means to use heavy energy appliances more in the day than night. Using these appliances while the sun is out allows the batteries to be recharged while providing power for equipment. Therefore scheduling activities such as washing, ironing, fridge cooling and electric oven usage during the peak sun period of 10a‐2p is crucial for allowing batteries to receive enough charge for night usage.

Solar owners need to be mindful of ways to maximize the limited electricity generation that comes during this time of year. Clients need to be stingy with consumption. The nights are cooler so a fan might be sufficient instead of the AC or turn the temperature up a couple degrees on the AC unit. Change the most used outside/inside lights to LEDs where possible especially the ones left on for over four hours at a time. Owning a solar system makes you your own power company so it is crucial to plan out energy usage for the family, otherwise as consumption goes up so will the JPS bill. A solar system can only offset what it was designed to offset so if your night time consumption increases then the system will switch to JPS earlier than predicted.

Solar Tips for the shorter sunlight time of year:

During the day use heavy energy consuming appliances in the course of peak sun hours of 10a‐2p.

During the night make sure you only use the necessary loads that are required. Turn off excessive lighting when not needed.

Adjust temperature on air conditions higher a couple degrees.

Disconnect ghost loads that consume power even when off as long as they are plugged in. A perfect example is that of a Television. Over a period of 24 hours, a plugged in TV consumes the same power as when it is ON for thirty minutes.

Replace all the high wattage bulbs with energy efficient ones such as LED in areas where these lights are used daily and/or nightly.

Jason Robinson
Chief Executive Officer
Solar Buzz Jamaica

Alternative Energy Electricity Energy Saving News Solar Energy

Apple will run all its operations in Singapore on Solar Power

November 19, 2015 Webmaster

Apple will power all its operations in Singapore—including its first retail location in there–with renewable energy. The iPhone maker confirmed to Reuters on Sunday (Nov. 15) that Singapore-based solar developer Sunseap Group will provide it with 100% renewable electricity from solar energy systems built atop more than 800 buildings.
The systems will generate 50 megawatts of solar energy, enough to power the equivalent of 9,000 homes. Apple will receive 33 MW of the new project’s capacity, according to Reuters.
The news is the latest in a string of Apple announcements about renewable energy. In October it announced it would build 200 MW of solar power in China and push suppliers to make similar commitments. That came on top of two previously announced solar farms in the country producing a combined 4 MW of power.
Earlier this year Apple said it was partnering with First Solar to build a massive farm of solar panels to power its upcoming “Campus 2” headquarters in California. The “spaceship campus” will be powered entirely by renewable energy sources, the company has said.

“We’re doing this because it’s right to do,” Tim Cook said at the time to an audience at a Goldman Sachs event. “But you may also be interested to know that it’s good financially to do it.”
In any case, Apple can afford to make investments in renewable energy, however long they take to pay off.

Surprisingly, Apple does not yet have a retail store in Singapore, a major shopping hub in Southeast Asia. The city-state gets hordes of shoppers from nearby countries, especially Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous nation. This year, Jakarta alone will send Singapore some 1.7 million visitors, who will spend about $2.7 billion, according to the MasterCard 2015 Global Destination Cities Index.
Apple products in Singapore are currently sold through third-party retailers, mobile carriers, and its online store. The company did not disclose the exact location of the upcoming store, but the Straits Times reported last month on a fitness chain moving out of a prime spot on Orchard Road—Singapore’s leafy, mall-lined shopping mecca—to “make way for Singapore’s first Apple store in 2016.”

Quartz

News

Jamaicans walk for the climate

November 4, 2015 Webmaster

MORE than 1,500 people joined Environmental Solutions Limited on October 24 — the International Day of Climate Action– when it staged Jamaica’s Climate Walk in Kingston under the theme Walk for Health Stand for Earth.

Participants trekked from Emancipation Park up Knutsford Boulevard, onto Trafalgar Road, down Hope Road, down Half-Way-Tree Road, and back to Emancipation Park via Oxford Road. The intention was to heighten public awareness about the impact of climate change, as well as mitigation and adaptation measures. For those of you who missed it, here are some shots by ace photographer Michael Gordon.

The Observer

Alternative Energy Electricity Government Jobs News Solar Energy

CaPRI to present country report on renewable energy options in Barbados

November 2, 2015 Webmaster

CO-EXECUTIVE director of The Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CaPRI), Dr Christopher Tufton, will this week travel to Barbados to chair a workshop on Barbados’ country report on renewable energy options at the Caribbean Development Bank Conference Centre in St Michael.

With funding from the European Union (EU) under its Energy Facility II programme, CaPRI has been implementing the ‘Frameworks, Policies and Instruments for Mobilising Renewable Energy in the Caribbean’ project over the past two and a half years.

The overall objective of the project is to empower both the public and private sectors and other energy consumers in the Caribbean to make informed decisions on renewable energy investments, and to provide input to policymaking in order to create an enabling environment to accelerate such investment.

The workshop will present the country report which included analyses of renewable energy technology options as well as a number of tools aimed at the public and private sector, including:

*Technology assessment tool — an online calculator which will enable Caribbean businesses and energy consumers to size and cost renewable energy systems to meet their energy needs;

* Renewable energy financing database — a searchable database of local and international financing schemes to allow energy consumers, businesses and project developers to identify appropriate financing for their renewable energy projects, large and small;

* Policies and incentives database — a complete database of incentives available for renewable energy investments in the Caribbean;

*Cost benefit analysis tool.

According to Tufton, the workshop will also include a practical session using the cost benefit tool, and an opportunity for participants to provide feedback on its usefulness. So far CaPRI has presented country reports in Haiti, St Kitts and Nevis, Grenada, and Jamaica with Barbados and Guyana left.

This CaPRI EU programme is valued at approximately 500,000 Euros over four years and represents the most in-depth database on renewable energy in the Caribbean.

CaPRI is hopeful that this database will be used by policymakers, the private sector and the general public to increase the use of renewables in the region, Tufton said.

The Observer

Alternative Energy Case Study Confrence Energy Saving Government LPG News Research Solar Energy

UTech to unveil findings of cooking with hydrogen study

October 30, 2015 Webmaster

University of Technology Jamaica (UTech) File Photo

THE findings of a University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech)-led research project focusing on the sustainable production of hydrogen as a fuel for domestic cooking will form the basis of presentations and discussions at an International Hydrogen Conference and Exhibition being hosted by UTech at its Papine campus, November 3 – 4, 2015. The conference is first of its kind in the Caribbean region.

In 2012, UTech, along with research partners from Brunel University, United Kingdom; University of the West Indies; Bureau of Standards Jamaica; and the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy, and Mining began a research project on ‘The Application of Solar-Powered Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) Electrolysers for the Sustainable Production of Hydrogen Gas as Fuel for Domestic Cooking’. The project is co-funded by the European Union under the ACP Caribbean & Pacific Research Programme for Sustainable Development.

Dr Ruth Potopsingh, Associate Vice- President, Caribbean Sustainable Energy & Innovation Institute in the School of Graduate Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship at UTech, and coordinator of the conference, explains that the issue of hydrogen as a sustainable energy source is particularly relevant to Jamaica at this time.

“The use of hydrogen, whether for cooking at the household or commercial level, clean transportation fuel or utility scale applications, such as power to gas, are options which the Caribbean region needs to further examine,” she said.

Conference presentations by local and international research experts will highlight global trends in hydrogen as a key enabling pathway for renewable energy applications. Thematic areas to be examined include hydrogen from renewable resources, environmental issues and climate change, hydrogen as a transportation fuel, the future of hydrogen technology, hydrogen storage systems, education and public awareness for using hydrogen as a domestic fuel, and case studies on successful hydrogen projects.

Keynote speakers will be:

* Phillip Paulwell, minister of Science, Technology, Energy, and Mining (MSTEM)

* Paola Amadei, ambassador, head of delegation of the European Union in Jamaica

* Prof Maria Kolokotroni, Professor / theme leader for Resource Efficient Future Cities at Brunel University

* Dr Andrei Tchouvelev, Chairman of ISO’s primary technical committee on hydrogen technologies based in Canada.

Other presenters include the project research team led by Dr Earle Wilson, lecturer, School of Engineering, UTech; Dr Zahir Dehouche, Brunel University; Dr Kurt Edward, UWI; Omar Alcock, MSTEM; and Hunstan Hunter, Bureau of Standards, Jamaica. Presentations will also be delivered by representatives from industry and the European Union ACP Research Programme for Sustainable Development.

The international hydrogen conference will also include an exhibition featuring faculty and student research as well as innovations and service providers from the local energy sector. It will be free and open to the public, but participants are being asked to register owing to limited capacity. The public exhibition opens to the public from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm on each day. Further information is available at http://www.solarhydrogen.utechsapna.com or via email CSEII@Utech.edu.jm.

The Observer

Alternative Energy Electricity Energy Saving Government News Solar Energy

France Declares All New Rooftops Must Be Topped With Plants Or Solar Panels

October 21, 2015 Webmaster

A new law recently passed in France mandates that all new buildings that are built in commercial zones in France must be partially covered in either plants or solar panels.

Green roofs, as they are called, have an isolating effect which helps to reduce the amount of energy needed to heat a building during the winter or cool it in the summer. They are capable of retaining rainwater and reducing problems with runoff, and also offer birds a place to call home in the urban jungle.

French environmental activists originally wanted to pass a law that would make the green roofs cover the entire surface of all new roofs.

However, partially covered roofs make for a great start, and are still a huge step in the right direction.

Some say the law that was passed is actually better, as it gives the business owners a chance to install solar panels to help provide the buildings with renewable energy, thereby leaving even less of a footprint.

Green roofs are already very popular in Germany and Australia, as well as Canada’s city of Toronto! This by-law was adopted in 2009, by the city of Toronto which mandated green roofs on all new industrial and residential buildings.

Benefits of Green Roofs

There are so many benefits to green roofs. Here are just a few:

Adding natural beauty and major aesthetic improvement to buildings, which in turn increases the investment opportunity.
Helping contribute to landfill diversion by prolonging the life of waterproofing membranes, using recycled materials, and prolonging the service of heating, ventilation, and HVAC systems through decreased use.
Green roofs assist with storm water management because water is stored by the substrate, then taken up by plants, and thus returned to the atmosphere through transpiration and evaporation. They also retain rainwater and moderate the temperature of the water and act as natural filters for the water that does run off. They delay the time at which runoff occurs, which results in decreased stress on sewer systems during peak periods.
The plants on green roofs do a great job of capturing airborne pollutants and other atmospheric deposition. They can also filter noxious gasses.
They open up new areas for community gardens, commercial and recreational space in busy cities where this space is generally quite limited.

France is definitely on the right track, but it should be a mandate that all new buildings being built in North America, and even worldwide, adopt this amazing idea to reap all of the potential benefits.

CS Globe

Alternative Energy News

Utility-Scale Solar in Hawaii, Batteries Included

September 26, 2015 Webmaster

Solar power, even after the sun goes down? A new utility-scale solar project with battery storage will supply power to the island of Kauai, Hawaii in the evening hours of 5-10 p.m., helping to meet peak demand after sunset while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2016, SolarCity will construct a 17-megawatt photovoltaic solar array on 50 acres adjacent to an existing power plant owned by Kauai Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC). The installation will include a 52-megawatt-hour battery system. SolarCity will sell power from the project to KIUC under a 20-year power-purchase agreement.

“The most interesting thing about this project is that it’s firm solar power,” said Peter Rive, founder and CTO of SolarCity. “That’s a new and important class of utility-scale solar power system. The batteries will store all the energy produced by the solar array, and then dispatch it to the grid as needed.”

Under the agreement, KIUC will purchase power for 14.5 cents per kilowatt-hour — considerably less than the utility currently pays for comparable diesel generator capacity. Furthermore, KIUC noted that this is “only slightly more than the cost of energy from KIUC’s two existing 12-megawatt solar arrays, whose output is available only during the day.”

Rive explained that KIUC will commit to drawing a certain amount of power from the battery, but that the utility will be billed only at the time it draws power.

“KIUC has been investigating energy storage options for more than two years, and price has always been the biggest challenge,” said David Bissell, president and CEO of KIUC. “This is a breakthrough project on technology and on price that enables us to move solar energy to the peak demand hours in the evening and reduce the amount of fossil fuel we’re using.”

The cost of battery storage has been dropping steadily in recent years, but it’s still fairly pricey. Hawaii has the nation’s highest power costs, so that improves the economics of large-scale battery storage there. But Rive notes, “SolarCity is not subsidizing the cost of this system. We’re making good enough money on this, and it’s also a good deal for KIUC.”

The clock is ticking, however. At the end of 2016, the federal solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC) drops from 30 percent to 10 percent. To qualify for the ITC, construction work must begin by April 2016 and the project must be producing power by December 31, 2016. KIUC has requested accelerated approval from the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission, and SolarCity confirmed that the battery storage system and solar array will be eligible for the credit.

Siting the solar project next to an existing KIUC power plant will greatly reduce the cost and complexity of grid interconnection, Rive said. “So much of the fixed gear is already there, and we won’t have to build long transmission lines.”

Serving a large amount of load from batteries is expected to provide power quality advantages, particularly frequency support. This can be a considerable benefit for a co-op that serves a widely dispersed and largely rural customer base.

The manufacturer of the battery has not yet been selected, but Rive says Tesla is a leading contender. “We think their technology is ahead of the pack for this kind of application.”

This is the second utility-scale solar project that SolarCity has built for KIUC. A year ago, the utility commenced operation of a 12-megawatt solar farm on Kauai, which supplies about 5 percent of the island’s annual electricity needs.

Utility-scale solar farms with battery storage might help Kauai avoid some of the problems that the neighboring island of Oahu has experienced due to the surge in rooftop solar deployment. Recently, the stability of Oahu’s distribution grid has been challenged by solar, as 13 percent of residents there have PV systems installed on their homes.

Greentech Media

Alternative Energy Electricity JPS Solar Energy

Wisynco To Commission Solar Farm

September 23, 2015 Webmaster

Wisynco Group is to commission its one-megawatt solar energy system on Thursday.

The facility was developed on five acres of land adjoining the company’s warehouse and distribution outlet in Spanish Town, St Catherine, said chairman William Mahfood.

A quarter of the solar panels are mounted on the roof of the distribution building, while some are deployed on the ground,” said Mahfood.

The $200 million project is to be done in two phases, he said, the second of which will quadruple the capacity of the current system.

“It will basically allow us to supplement the energy that we now get from Jamaica Public Service, to lower our energy cost, as well as become more environmentally friendly using a sustainable type of energy,” the beverage maker said.

The company touts the facility as the first solar to high-voltage application and the largest solar farm in Jamaica.

The Gleaner

Alternative Energy Energy Saving

Schooled on energy

August 21, 2015 Webmaster

THE Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and University of Technology (UTech) recently collaborated on a one-day workshop designed to teach non-technical professionals about the energy sector and how it affects their lives and businesses.

Billed ‘Demystifying the Energy Industry’, the event targeted business people, entrepreneurs, banking and insurance executives, among others. It zeroed in such areas as energy costs and renewable alternatives to fossil fuels.

IDB Country Representative Therese Turner-Jones noted that “because energy is a complex and technical topic, discussions are often dominated by energy sector professionals”.

But the workshop, she said, would help non-technical professionals “navigate discussions involving issues like petroleum-derived fuel products, natural gas, wind, solar, waste-to-energy, biofuels and energy efficiency”.

Dr Ruth Potopsingh, associate vice-president of Sustainable Energy at UTech noted that “knowledge of the energy sector can better equip us all to make sound business decisions”.

IDB Consultant Dr Earl Green presented the results of the IDB/DBJ Energy Efficiency Pilot Projects for Small & Medium Enterprises and a video called Success Stories in Energy Efficiency in Jamaica.

Lumas Kendrick Jr, senior energy specialist, IDB, moderated a panel discussion on Finding Solutions for Jamaica’s Energy Sector Challenges, which included panellists Fitzroy Vidal, director of energy, Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy & Mining; Christopher Brown, business development manager, Development Bank of Jamaica; Dr Ruth Potopsingh, associate vice-president-Sustainable Energy, UTech; and IDB/DBJ Grant recipients Yorkin Waltes, owner, Triple Seven Farms and Pauline Wilson, general manager, Pioneer Meats.

Jamaica Observer

Alternative Energy Electricity Energy Saving News Solar Energy Videos

This cool new Google Maps feature has nothing to do with navigation

August 18, 2015 Webmaster

Google Maps is already one of the most popular apps used on on smartphones thanks to its sophisticated navigation powers. But Google has figured out an even cooler use for the service and it that doesn’t even involve getting directions – meet Google’s brand new Project Sunroof.

Using the immense map data that’s behind Google Maps, the company’s new Google Maps feature will help you decide the best way to install solar panels on your roof. What Google can do for you is use the knowledge it collects about your home’s location to tell you how much sunlight you’re getting each day, how much electricity that can generate and how much it’ll cost you to install the solar panels.

Basically, Google’s service will be ready to answer some of your most pressing questions related to installing solar panels on your roof. So all you need to do is jot down the data and get ready to invest in solar panels for your roof. We should note, of course, that solar power might not be a good investment for everyone so make sure installing them will be financially worthwhile before making the switch.

Project Sunroof will debut in Boston, San Francisco and Fresno, but should expand to other markets in the future. A video explaining the cool Google Maps tech behind it follows below – more details about the project are available on Google’s special site for it at this link.

BGR

1 2 3 4 5 … 7