The Alternative Energy blog – green renewable alternative energy

Venture capitalists in the USA are heading back into the alternative energy sector. Investments in the sector have increaesed by 73 percent in the last 3 months. A report issued today by Ernst & Young LLP says venture capital investment in the clean-technology sector totaled about $572 million from April to June. That's still far less than the money invested during the second quarter of 2008, a big year for alternative energy, but suggests that the worst may be over for solar, wind geothermal Read more [...]

To heat your swimming pool, you can use a combination of solar pool collectors and thermal arrays. Thermal arrays can be used to heat water tanks,. These panels collect the sun's heat. The heat is then run through a piping system inside that's filled with water or antifreeze. Thermal pool covers or solar collector are made of special solar rings that can heat the pool's temperature five degrees. Solar collectors pump the pool water through a piping system like that of the thermal array. The Read more [...]

Marine turbines are a great hope for renewable green power. One of the most promising marine energy technologies is the tidal turbine, which was advocated in Manchester by Peter Fraenkel of Marine Current Turbines (MCT). These devices act like underwater windmills, with blades that rotate as the tide flows through them. Tidal turbines create large amounts of power in those countries with very fast-flowing tidal streams – such as the UK and Canada – and in the future similar devices could be Read more [...]

An extra £8m is to be invested developing wave power at Orkney’s marine energy centre. It is part of the UK government’s plan to cut carbon emissions and generate more renewable energy over the next ten years. The announcement was made at Edinburgh based Pelamis wave power by Jim Murphy, the secretary of state for Scotland.

This is a great book that tells  you how to build your own solar panels and save thousands on your home energy costs. Build your own solar panels. solar panels, DIY, alternative home energy Read more [...]

UK: The CBI has called on the UK government to scale back on “overambitious” wind power and boost the role of atomic energy and coal.

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Concentrating solar power (CSP) involves using arrays of mirrors to focus large amounts of sunlight onto a small area. This creates extremely high levels of heat, which can be converted into electricity using a steam turbine or Stirling engine – or stored in tanks of molten salt to provide power at night or on cloudy days. The mirrors can be parabolic troughs or giant dishes. Alternatively, a large number of sun-tracking flat mirrors can direct sunlight to the top of a so-called "power tower". According Read more [...]

Great article in the UK's Guardian newspaper proving that even in rainy Britain home solar panels are a great investment. The Rewards of Solar Panels by Ashley Seager We live in an old terraced house on a cloudy, rainy island. Yet the solar photovoltaic (PV) panels on our roof, put up two years ago, are supplying around 90% of all the electricity used by my family. The initial cost is high, but don't let that put you off. Two key developments in recent months have made it worth considering Read more [...]