I am doing some research on the costs of PV solar. Is there a scenario where solar PV becomes very very cheap? As cheap as say glass or wood. Could we get to a stage where solar is ‘dirt cheap’ and everyone starts fitting it to their houses?
What would happen then? The price of houses [...]

That’s right, the sun can heat and cool your home and reduce its energy use. More importantly, the energy from the sun can make your home comfortable year round.
There are two types of solar design systems -passive and active.
Homes constructed as passive solar design use the natural movement of heat and air to maintain comfortable [...]

Here in he UK lots of people either burn wood or have the potential to burn wood to heat their homes. As oil and gas prices rise I expect the demand for wood to increase and if the laws of economics apply then the price will start to rise. This will be a great shame. [...]

Biomass fuel briquette production, environmental conservation and income generation for sustainable development.

Chopping, threshing and mashing of the materials for briquetting has always been limited to either a laborious hand pounding or very expensive 5 or 10 Kw hammer milling machines. Legacy has developed over the past year, a unique combination machine, the TMC-1, which threshes, [...]

Are we getting back to the 1970s when the high energy prices started the alternative energy movement? I think it was then that people started making their own energy devices again - wind, solar and biomass. The innovation was wonderful. Too often we see high priced products that just won’t pay and are difficult to [...]

This is the wind speed at which the wind generator begins producing. For all practical purposes, wind speeds below about 6 to 7 mph (3 m/s) provide little or no usable energy, even though the blades may be spinning. At best, this minimal output only overcomes the power losses caused by a long wire run [...]

One of the first scales to estimate wind speeds and the effects was created by Britain’s Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort (1774-1857). He developed the scale in 1805 to help sailors estimate the winds via visual observations. The scale starts with 0 and goes to a force of 12. The Beaufort scale is still used [...]

Not for the home generator but the energy contained in ocean waves can potentially provide an unlimited source of renewable energy.
Wind generated waves on the ocean surface of the world have a total (estimated) power of 90 million GW. Because of the direction of the prevailing winds and the size of the Atlantic Ocean, the [...]

A windmill takes energy from the wind (fluid) and produces power. The maximum theoretical power is 16/27 of the wind’s power this is known as the “Betz limit”. The wind’s energy, because it is moving, is in the form of kinetic energy and if all the energy was captured by the propeller or rotor there would not be an airflow consequently it can be said that the “lost” energy is used to keep the air flowing.

The wind has been used to power machines capable of grinding corn, pumping water and producing electricity for hundreds years. There are records of Persian and Japanese wind machines as long ago as 200 BC. Wind power probably has its origin in the ancient civilisations of China, Tibet, India, Afghanistan, and Persia.

In principle, a fuel cell operates like a battery. Unlike a battery, a fuel cell does not run down or require recharging. It will produce energy in the form of electricity and heat as long as fuel is supplied.
A fuel cell consists of two electrodes sandwiched around an electrolyte. Oxygen passes over one electrode and [...]