Renewable energy technologies can help reduce your carbon emmissions and save you money!
The AONB Partnership believes that there is plenty of scope for harnessing the renewable energy resources of the area in a way that protects the area's landscape and its biodiversity. Use the links on the left to find out about some of the most appropriate ideas for home based energy production that offer lots of benefits both to the user and for the AONB.
There are now many technologies that can be used to generate energy, and the beauty of them is that even small-scale installations can produce worthwhile amounts of energy, with reasonable payback on investment and support from the feed-in tariffs that have been introduced by the Government.
These pages aim to get you thinking about some of the ways of delivering the energy we need without causing harm to the environment, contributing to Carbon emissions or emptying your bank account!
Solar Photo-voltaic
For electrical energy there are several renewable choices - some are old fashioned and some are just off the drawing board!
Solar Electricity:
Photovoltaic panels - high capital costs put people off, but costs are falling and efficiency is rising all the time. For a good summary of what solar power involves, look at the Ecocentre website. For more general information on this check the information on the Energy Saving Trust photovoltaics webpages.
The Bittern Countryside CIC has recently produced a fact sheet on installing photovoltaic panels. The leaflet, titled "Electricity from Sunshine" shares the experiences of some local residents who have already invested in the technology and the advice in the leaflet should help smooth progress for anyone unsure of if the technology will suit their homes.
Photovoltaic panels are usually a single panel array which mounts on a south facing roof (to be most efficient and economic). Even these could be visually intrusive in some situations, but alternatives are available which are manufactured as individual roof tiles or even imitation slate. These are fitted in the same way as a roof would be tiled, only the slater has to be an electrician too. Each slate or tile is connected to a main feed cable which adds all the output of the small tiles together such that they become one big array. With the advent of solar electricity feed-in tarrifs, improved efficiency and life-span and reducing costs of solar panels, they are now becoming more affordable.
Looking into the future....
On the horizon are super efficient panels that can harness infra-red energy rather than visble-light. These will revolutionise the generation of solarpower, as they will even work in the dark! They can take energy from any available heat source and will produce lots of electricity even on the cloudiest of days. Sadly this technology is still sitting in the MIT research laboratory awaiting the development of the ultra high frequency inverters that convert infra red wavelength energy into 50 Hz AC electricity.
Wind energy
Wind turbine generators use the wind's lift force to turn aerodynamic blades that turn a rotor connected to an alternator which creates electricity.
In the UK we have a high proportion of the available wind energy for Europe, with prevailing southwesterly winds blowing in uninterrupted across the Atlantic, making Britain one of the windiest countries in Europe. However we only make about 0.5% of our electricity by wind power. Individual turbines vary in size and power output from a few hundred watts to two or three megawatts (as a guide, a typical domestic system would be 2.5 - 6 kilowatts, depending on the location and size of the home).
Domestic turbines are generally small and relatively unobtrusive. Local community schemes can also be developed using a bigger single turbine which can still be sited carefully in the landscape to cause relatively little visual intrusion, with a financial payback going into the community as compensation for the limited disturbance and impact than does occur. However, within the AONB there is a clear presumption against large scale wind turbines and wind farms.
For more general information on the wind power check the information on the website of the Energy Saving Trust - small scale wind turbines.
Smallscale Hydro
The UK, particularly any of its upland areas has a big potential for developing much more electricity from water power than at present.
Even on lower lying ground, there is only a need to have a couple of metres of hydrostatic head before you can develop useful amounts of power from flowing water. Anywhere in the country that has good year-round river flows could be suitable for hydro-power. Small scale hydro can be unobtrusive and cause minimal environmental impact.
The AONB Sustainable Development Fund has already provided £25,000 of grant funding to the hydro-electric scheme development at Heron Corn Mill. where a Kaplan turbine has now been installed.
For more general information on the subject check the information on the Energy Saving Trust - hydro website
Heat Pumps
Heat Pumps work by moving heat about from one place to another, usually low grade heat available outside in the environment to deliver higher grade heat indoors.
It works like a scaled up version of a fridge really. The compressor in your fridge or freezer is merely moving heat from inside an insulated box and pumping it out into the air in your kitchen. A heat pump takes air from outside your home (the insulated box in this case) and pumps it to the inside of the building. There are two basic designs of Heat Pump - Air Source and Ground Source, one taking its low grade heat from the outside air and the other from the ground.
Click on this link for information from the Ground Source Heatpump Association What heatpumps are, how they work, how much heat they will deliver to heat your home, their efficiency, running costs, where to buy systems etc. can all be found on the webpages of this newly formed association.
Alternatively use the link to the Energy Saving Trust webpages on heat pumps.
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