RePower Alberta

 

I am getting numerous requests from readers wanting very specific guidance on how to install their own solar electric systems. Many have already found that this process is a little like trying to build an automobile by purchasing parts from a NAPA dealer. For example, you can buy a brake drum, wheel bearing, and oil filter, but since your car does not yet exist, how do you know what parts you need, what parts will fit with other parts, and how should these parts be wired together.


During the next few issues, I will take you through the “basics” of solar system design and installation, and answer your specific questions as we go along. This course will continue on the Backwoods Home Magazine website (www.backwoodshome.com) under their new Home Energy Information (www.homeenergy.info) section. You will be able to e-mail your installation questions and offer suggestions for future home energy saving articles.

Before I can help you design your own solar power system, you have to understand that there are actually many different types of solar power systems, for many different applications.
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Sick of our fossil fuel addiction? Kick It is funny, irreverent - but hard-hitting and informative video.

Here's Tom Rand - engineer, philosopher, author and venture capitalist - telling you how we can "Kick the Fossil Fuel Habit".

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Designed for domestic and corporate use, the Vortex Wind Funnel Copyright 2009 converts more wind at lower speeds into clean electricity. It is the evolution of wind turbine design,user-friendly, comprehensive wind generator designed to provide up to THREE times more energy annually then conventional three blade units.

With a rated capacity of 1 kW to 1.5 kW, the Master Flo Vortex wind Funnel (VTF) should be able to provide anywhere from 40%-90% of a household’s or small business’s total energy requirments. And because it projected to operates at even lower RPM at lower heights , the VTF will not require the current heavy duty tower installation or cost.

 The VFD development team has already been relocated to the Master Flo head office and the Vortex wind funnel dot com website will be re-launched in the spring 2010 under the Master Flo Wind Division. Master Flo estimates the customer ready versions will be available no later than June 2010. Power production sizes will include 1 to 1.5 kw unit, 5 to 8 kw unit and a 10 to 15 kw unit. These units are predicted to be three times more efficient then the current industry standard three blade turbine.

Read more about this Canadian made cost effective design here.
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  The Drake Landing Solar Community (DLSC) is a master planned neighbourhood in the Town of Okotoks, Alberta, Canada that has successfully integrated Canadian energy efficient technologies with a renewable, unlimited energy source - the sun. The first of its kind in North America, DLSC is heated by a district system designed to store abundant solar energy underground during the summer months and distribute the energy to each home for space heating needs during winter months. The system is unprecedented in the World, fulfilling ninety percent of each home’s space heating requirements from solar energy and resulting in less dependency on limited fossil fuels.

Off-Grid Home near Silver Islet, Ontario (1.3 kW turbine)

Silver Islet is a summer cottage community with a small number of year-round residents, approximately 100 km from the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario. The Ontario Hydro grid is several miles away and most cottagers use woodstoves, propane appliances, kerosene lanterns, and gas generators when they need electricity.

The Thunder Bay area is typically a good solar regime. Even in winter when days are short, the skies are typically clear and the sun bright. This particular location on the shore of Lake Superior is also ideal for wind energy. Read more »

Off-Grid Cottage near Georgian Bay, Canada (1.5 kW turbine) When Gard Shelley and his wife visit their cottage in the 30,000 Islands area of Georgian Bay, they are able to enjoy the comforts of home thanks to a combination of wind and solar power. Stretching for a hundred miles along the northeastern side of Lake Huron, Georgian Bay is ringed with small islands, a landscape of pink granite and trees. But it costs a lot for Toronto Hydroelectric to run cables to the outer islands. Shelley estimates that he would have had to pay a $60,000 (US) installation fee just to connect to the utility's electric grid, which would have required running a cable about a mile underwater from the mainland. By contrast, his Southwest Windpower H1500 cost only about $10,000 to purchase in 1996.

Off-Grid Farm in Southern Alberta, Canada (10 kW turbine) A small stand-alone system installed in southern Alberta allows a farm to operate independently of the grid. The farm had been connected to the grid, but the owner wished to have autonomous power and to reduce the environmental impact of his farm and home energy use. The farm’s wind energy system supplies power to a residence for a family of four, a machine shop, a water well and yard lights.

Off-grid Farm in Central Alberta, Canada (10 kW turbine) The rolling prairie of Alberta, between Calgary and Red Deer, is one of the most productive agricultural areas in western Canada. With few trees, deep soils, and a hint of mountain view to the west, this northern end of the Great Plains is a dramatic place. It breeds independence and honours a pioneering spirit. In 1989, a wheat farmer who wanted independence from the electric utility, purchased a 10-kilowatt wind turbine to supply all his power requirements, including a residence for a family of four, a machine shop, a water well, and yard lights.  The Trochu Wheat Farm was already connected to power, but the farmer’s goal was a stand-alone system that would survive inflation and have less environmental impact than the coal used to produce electricity for the grid.