The Alternative Energy blog – green renewable alternative energy

Installing solar panels or a wind turbine can be a very good investment in the UK thanks to the feed in tariffs which pay householders a tax-free, index linked income for the energy they produce, providing over a 10% annual return.

The tariffs pay up to 41.3p for every 1kWh of electricity produced using solar panels and an extra 3p per unit on top for any surplus electricity sold back to the grid.

The average cost of home solar panel installation is £14,000.

From this outlay, Ownenergy, a company that advises consumers on renewable energy, suggest that averge 3 or 4 bedroom hosue can expect a return of approx £950 per year.

Given that the income is tax free the return is equivalent to 12.9% for a 50% taxpayer and 10.3% for  a 40% taxpayer, with the investment being recouped in as little as 7 years.

Electricity feed in tariffs were introduced by the UK government in April 2010 as a means of encouraging householders to install solar panels or wind turbines.

One of the largest offshore windfarms in the world, is to be built off the coast of Wales in the UK.

The £2bn Gwynt y Mor windfarm will have 160 wind turbines around 10 miles off the north Wales coast near Colwyn Bay and Llandudno.

Gwynt y Mor will be Wales’ largest wind farm, capable of powering around 400,000 homes, and preventing the release of 1.7m tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.

The RWE Innogy-led project is expected to be completed in 2014.

It is claimed some 1,000 jobs could be created in relation to construction and the supply of components.

Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan said: “This is excellent news. Gwynt y Mor will be one of the single biggest private investment projects ever seen in Wales, creating up to 1,000 quality jobs and contributing many millions of pounds to the regional economy of north Wales.

“It will also become one of the largest offshore windfarm projects in Europe, able to provide enough clean, green electricity to power the equivalent of around 400,000 homes.

“In Wales we are ideally located to embrace the economic benefits of green technologies.

“Surrounded by wind, wave and tidal resources, we are in a prime position to be able to benefit from investment in the green economy whilst making a significant contribution to the [UK] government’s carbon reduction targets through safe, clean renewable means.”

TAKE a trip around emerging Asia these days and you won’t just see skyscrapers and coal-fired power plants growing out of places where there were once nothing but fields. Wind turbines, solar energy plants, incinerator manufacturers, water treatment plants and microirrigation developments are just as likely to spring up before your eyes.

There is now recognition in the region that sustainable growth requires tackling the environmental issues such as water scarcity and climate change that have arisen as a result of rapid population growth.

Fund managers looking for strong growth opportunities are increasingly targeting environmental and sustainable industries. Khiem Le, a manager of the Axa WF Framlington Global Environment Fund, says the opportunities in the sector mean it will enjoy plenty of demand from institutional investors, unlike other industries such as auto, media or even finance. Firms across the region such as Chinese smart meter provider Wasion, Indian microirrigation firm Jain Irrigation and Manila Water in the Philippines are benefiting as a result.

While the Axa fund is global, some funds are targeting the Asia-Pacific area specifically. Impax Asset Management launched its Asian Environmental Markets closed-end investment trust last October to do just that and Jupiter followed suit in mid-December with its China Sustainable Growth fund.

The Impax investment trust has a total fund size of £122.6m and its net asset value (NAV) has grown by 10.3 per cent since its launch. The four-month-old Jupiter open-ended fund is gently building up assets under management – it currently has around £19m.

These funds seek long-term returns, making them ideal for pension funds – the second biggest declared shareholder in Impax’s Asian Environmental Markets trust is the London Pension Fund Authority. The biggest shareholder is Invesco Perpetual, which is gaining from Impax’s environmental expertise and network in both the region and the sector. Both funds are looking to get in early and capitalise on emerging Asia’s long-term growth prospects.

Policy is also shifting, says Bruce Jenkyn-Jones, who manages the Impax fund: “We detected a sea-change in the approach of governments in the region to the [environmental] sector and the propensity to launch budgets and policies to support it.” For example, the past few years have seen Chinese wind turbine manufacturers becoming competitive with US producers, thanks in part to government support.

Fund managers looking at growing their exposure to Asian environmental markets should not try to find the perfect company. Philip Ehrmann, manager of the Jupiter China Sustainable Growth fund, says that in an environment which is so young and where there is so much change, you won’t find them. “We are seeking companies which make money as a result of becoming leaders in their fields and contributing towards sustainable growth,” he explains. “As they make progress, so do you and you can increase your exposure.”

Wind energy is both green and fun, so the idea of building one’s own wind turbine is a good one. The following will give you an idea of what is involved.

Wind energy on a large scale is now competitive with other sources of electricity on a commercial scale. However, small domestic-sized wind turbines have not yet reached this point. The wind is free, but small wind turbines are expensive in relation to what they produce, and cannot realistically compete with mains electricity. Building your own machine saves some of the cost, but please do not underestimate the difficulty of the task. If it were easy to save money by using small wind turbines, then they would be a major feature of the landscape by now.

Most residential locations are not suitable for windpower as trees and buildings break the force of the wind, and create turbulent gusts which can be very destructive. Open hilltop sites or coastal situations with unobstructed views may be suitable for siting a wind turbine. A very tall tower is helpful, but these are not always appreciated by your neighbours.

What size of wind turbine do I need?

Wind turbines work with thin air, so they need to be large in relation to the power they produce. To power a modern home on a good site, the blades would need to span about 5 metres from tip to tip. This is known as the rotor diameter. With careful conservation of energy a smaller machine may suffice. A rotor diameter of 2 metres might yield about 500 kWh of electricity per year, compared with an average annual household consumption of roughly 4,500 kWh.

What sort of generator should I use?

Most small wind turbines are used for charging batteries, to provide a reliable stand-alone power source where grid power is not available. The obvious choice of generator for self-build is the car alternator. However this has major drawbacks. It must be driven at a high shaft speed (over 2000 rpm) to give full output, so you will need to gear it up or modify it in some way to drive it with rotor blades, which typically only manage a few hundred rpm. This reduces the efficiency. In low windspeeds there is very little power available in the wind, and you need a highly efficient generator to capture it. Most, if not all of the power in light winds will be used up energising the magnetic field in the alternator, so the results are disappointing. Nearly all small commercial wind turbines use purpose-built permanent magnet generators for this reason. The DIY enthusiast can make one too, but this is not simple to do. Or you can reuse a permanent magnet motor as a generator. The generator is the key to success or failure of the project, and by far the hardest part to get right.

Can I make my own blades?

The good news is that yes, many beginners have made very useful wind turbine blades, often carved from wood. Or there are sources where you can buy them ready made. If you plan on making your own, it is well worth doing some research and finding out all you can about it in advance. Not only will this save you from ‘reinventing the wheel’ but it will also be safer. Safety is an important issue even with the smallest wind turbines. Never underestimate the destructive power of a runaway windmill rotor in a high wind. Make sure that you have built-in protection against all eventualities. Control systems are as important as any other part of the wind turbine.

Its not easy building your own wind turbine but with skill and dedication it can be very satisfying.

China is rushing forward with its wind energy plans with the pace surpassing even the most optimistic projections.

After setting an original goal of 30 gigawatts of installed wind power by 2020, the government recently said that could be raised to 100 gigawatts as installed capacity has doubled each of the last four years.

From almost nothing a few years ago, China had 12.2 gigawatts of installed wind power by the end of 2008 as power companies have rushed to meet government mandates to raise the proportion of energy they produce from renewable sources.

The wind energy industry has vigorously rejected new research from the US suggesting some residents living close to wind farms are susceptible to a collection of health risks dubbed “Wind Turbine Syndrome”.

Dr Nina Pierpont, a New York paediatrician, claimed this week that the noise and vibrations caused by wind turbines could impact the health of nearby residents. But the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) accused the study of being based on an “unscientific” sample and running counter to wider-ranging research that suggests wind turbines do not pose health risks.

Dr Pierpoint said there was “no doubt” that her research showed that Wind Turbine Syndrome exists and that the infrasonic to ultrasonic noise and vibrations emitted by wind turbines caused about 12 different symptoms, including abnormal heart beats, sleep disturbance, headaches, tinnitus, nausea, visual blurring, panic attacks and general irritability.

However, according to a draft copy of the section of the book intended for non-clinicians that is available on Dr Pierpont’s web site, much of the research appears to be based on interviews with just 10 families living near wind turbines ranging in size from 1.5MW to 3MW, resulting in a sample of 38 people.

A spokesman for the BWEA said that the size of the sample group and the methodology for the study “simply does not stack up scientifically”. “This is research based on the symptoms of 38 unspecified people in a small number of unspecified locations,” he argued, adding that a recent, more extensive study by acousticians at Salford University had concluded that there were no health risks arising from the noise from wind turbines.

A New York paediatrician has warned that living too close to wind turbines can cause heart disease, tinnitus, vertigo, panic attacks, migraines and sleep deprivation in groundbreaking research due to be published later this year.

Following studies of people living near wind turbines in the US, UK, Italy, Ireland and Canada for the past five years, Dr Nina Pierpoint has identified a new health risk called wind turbine syndrome (WTS).

She says the disruption of the inner ear’s vestibular system by low-frequency noise from the turbines is causing problems ranging from internal pulsation and quivering to nervousness, fear, a compulsion to flee, chest tightness and increased heart rate.

To date, wind companies have denied any health risks associated with powerful noise and vibration produced by wind turbines, backed by recent research by acousticians at Salford University, who argue that earlier claims by Dr Pierpont are “imaginary”.

Scientific orthodoxy has been overturned by the discovery that like fish, humans are affected by vibrations through their ear bones, Dr Pierpont claimed.

“It has been gospel among acousticians for years that if a person can’t hear a sound, it’s too weak for it to be detected or registered by any other part of the body. But this is no longer true,” she said.

“Humans can hear through the bones. This is amazing. It would be heretical if it hadn’t been shown in a well-conducted experiment.”