Choosing a Home-sized Wind Generator

So, maybe you're intrigued with the idea of a home-sized wind generator. Although it's probably a larger home-improvement project than many of us would want to tackle, if you have the inclination (and space), here's some more information. Wisonsin's Focus on Energy website has a nice 17 page guide, "Choosing a Home-sized Wind Generator." Although it's a few years old it should serve as a good primer on the subject, covering background, sizing constraints, rated outputs, manufacturers and models, etc.

The Home Power Magazine website has a more recent guide that I think illustrates and explains the concepts a bit better.

Integrated Wind Power

Two twin skyscrapers in Bahrain have become the first building-integrated wind power, according to TreeHugger.com. Three 29-meter turbines are supported on bridges spanning the two buildings. The wind turbines are expected to generate approximately 11 - 15% of the buildings' power needs.
Now, granted this is a huge commercial application of alternative energy, but in my mind it exemplifies how, with a little forethought and planning, we can incorporate our power generation needs into our buildings and houses.
For people living in relatively windy locations, residential wind turbines might be worth checking out. The American Wind Energy Association has a web page with questions and answers about what you need to know to purchase a residential wind turbine. In the next few blog entries I'll add some additional information and links about residential wind power.

Make Your Own Biofuel

Tired of relying on big oil companies to make your fuel? Want to make your own biofuel? Check out the BioPro 150 Biodiesel processor from SSI Energy. Accorinding to their website, you "simply add vegetable oil (new or used), methanol, and small amounts of sulfuric acid and lye, and start the automated process. In about 60 hours you will have 40 gallons of clean, smooth-running biodiesel." The $5,000 price is a bit steep for most people, but you gotta love the idea of being able to bypass the oil industry and brew your own.

Solar Powered Air Conditioning

Spring is here and warmer temperatures won't be far behind. Perfect timing to start thinking about how to stay cool during the upcoming spring and summer. If you're in the market for a new air conditioner, check out this solar powered air conditioner from SolCool. The Millenia version available in April will be able to run off of a set of solar panels, batteries or regular electrical outlet.

Home Energy Ideas

Looking to do some remodeling this spring and summer? The Building Energy 07 Conference just wrapped up this week and there were some pretty cool home alternative energy products on display.

Wind energy is one option that many homeowners and small business might not consider. When most people think of wind energy they probably think of large wind farms. But, several start-ups are taking advantage of the potential of distributed consumer-based energy and developing small-scall wind turbines that fit on the top of buildings.

Check out some of these cool home energy products displayed at the conference:

Wind turbine from Pfister Energy

Hot-air solar panel

Evacuated-tube solar collectors, which are used to heat water

Mid-size wind turbine

Phantom Engergy & Vampire Power

One of the reasons I'm interested in alternative energy-powered gadgets is that many of the electronic gadgets we use everyday continually suck energy even when they're off or not in use. The phantom energy lost by these so called "vampires" such as cell phone chargers, TVs, stereos and other electronic appliances and gadgets accounts for 5% of the electricity used by a person around the home according to an article by the Union of Concerned Scientists on the TreeHugger blog.

More Solar Power Packs

I found a new blog today that has some very similar content as this one, GreatGreenGadgets.com. I initially found them by googling for portable solar power and found their blog article on this cool portable solar power generator. Similar concepts as the build-it-yourself solar generator I blogged about a few days ago but much more elegant. The look like a great idea for various chores around the yard where you might otherwise have to string a long extension cord.

Portable Solar Power

Here's another example of a solar-powered generator. Unlike the one in my first post, this one is portable but is also a DIY project. In his blog, Pat gives detailed instructions for building a fairly compact little solar generator for $180 for powering his laptop.

If you're not into building things yourself, there are a lot of portable solar power options out here. EarthTechProducts has dozens of solar powered devices for powering your portable electronic gadgets. For instance, check out the Soldius iPod & Cell Phone charger. A similar little gadget is available at the Solio website.

For slightly larger charging needs, there are a bunch of solar-powered backpacks and bags on the market.

Now the obvious question that comes to my mind is, how long will it take the various gadget manufacturers to start including solar-powered chargers with the products they cell. Seems like an opportunity for the Nokias and the Apples and the Sonys of the electronics world to start offering solar charging units with their electronic devices rather than just the standard plug ins.

It would be interesting to see some numbers on the total energy consumption of charging portable electronics like cell phones, iPods, cameras, etc. I'm sure it's insignificant compared to home appliances, heating, air conditioning etc. but powering these little gadgets with solar power is an easy and affordable options for consumers to pursue if they're looking at reducing their carbon footprint.

Energy 2.0 Launch

Welcome to the Energy 2.0 blog. As you can see in the description above, this blog is about promoting and reporting on affordable alternative energy products and solutions for consumers.

My motiviation for this blog is simple. I live in Hawaii on the island of Maui. I find it amazing that living in the tropics with abundant solar and wind energy, that we are still so heavily dependent on oil to generate our electricity here. Maui has two diesel genereating plants that generate 79% of the energy on Maui. The recent addition of a wind farm that generates approximately 9% of our energy needs is a step in the right direction. Bio-mass accounts for the remaining 12%. But we're an island chain in the middle of the Pacific. We should be 100% self-sustaining in our energy needs!

A frustration I feel, is that despite all the talk and rhetoric of government acknowledging the need to become less dependent on oil, the red tape and long-lead times to plan and build large-scale alternative energy facilities just drags on and on while we remain hostage to oil. So, I think it's up to the power of the consumer masses and creative small businesses to step in and lead the way. How?

Just as PCs revolutionized the computer industry by bringing the power of affordable computers to consumer masses, and the Internet has democratized publishing, so too, small and/or affordable alternative energy consumer products and devices can bring the power of affordable small-scale energy self-dependent products to consumers all over the world. With increasing availability of alternative energy-powered consumer products, consumers, businesses and homeowners can increasingly take ownership for at least small portions of their own energy production. In the 1950s and 1960s the thought of ordinary consumers owning their own computers was unthinkable. Computers were something that only large companies and government could afford. I suspect that just as PCs transformed the global computing industry, so too can alternative energy products on a small distributed scale transform the world's energy use.

My first notion of this possibility came several years ago when I was surfing the web for solar energy products. I stumbled on a website about how to make a solar powered generator. How cool. This is something that most homeowners could very easily build and use not only for a backup generator during power outages, but also use on a daily basis and cut their electric load ever so slightly. So, I thought, wouldn't it be cool if hundreds or thousands of households throughout Hawaii had one or two of these. Small-scale power production to the masses! Power to the people and FROM the people.

Since that day a few years ago when I discoved that website, the environmental crisis has come center stage to the collective concious of Americans and so-called "green-tech" is all the latest rage in business. Entrepreneurs, small business and big businessses alike are dreaming and scheming of all kinds of alternative energy products, many of them small and affordable products that everyday consumers can purchase and use and take back the responsibility for their own energy needs. So, that's what this blog is about, promoting and reporting on alternative energy products that we as consumers can use and do a small part in relieving our dependence on oil and other carbon-based means of energy production.

I like to think of this revolution as Energy 2.0. About a year ago, the term Web 2.0 was coined to describe the increasingly collaborative nature of the Web. Little did I know at the time that the term Energy 2.0 had already been coined in association with an energy conference at MIT. Their view of what Energy 2.0 represents is slightly different than mine since they don't seem to capture the collaborative, democratized aspect of power generation (at least that I can tell).

What can you expect from this blog? I'm not sure yet. That's still evolving. In the short term, I'll mostly be reporting on links to news articles and reports on the web of products, people and businesses that seem to jive with this notion of mine. And in the spirit of collaboration, I welcome all relevant input I can get on the subject.