Biofuels have been around as long as cars have.

A biofuel is a fuel that contains energy from geologically recent carbon fixation. These fuels are produced from living organisms.

Generating Electricity from Wing Waves.

Wind turbines, like windmills, are mounted on a tower to capture the most energy. At 100 feet (30 meters) or more aboveground, they can take advantage of the faster and less turbulent wind.

Producing electricity from solar energy.

Solar energy is a free, inexhaustible resource, yet harnessing it is a relatively new idea. The ability to use solar power for heat was the first discovery.

Turbines catch the wind's energy with their propeller-like blades.

A blade acts much like an airplane wing. When the wind blows, a pocket of low-pressure air forms on the downwind side of the blade.

Solar energy may have had great potential

Solar technology advanced to roughly its present design in 1908 when William J. Bailey of the Carnegie Steel Company invented a collector with an insulated box and copper coils.

We have been harnessing the wind's energy for hundreds of years.

For utility-scale sources of wind energy, a large number of wind turbines are usually built close together to form awind plant.

Biofuels are produced from living organisms.

In order to be considered a biofuel the fuel must contain over 80 percent renewable materials.

Geothermal energy is the heat from the Earth.

Resources of geothermal energy range from the shallow ground to hot water and hot rock found a few miles beneath the Earth's surface, and down even deeper to the extremely high temperatures of molten rock called magma.

Geothermal heat pumps can tap into this resource to heat and cool buildings.

A geothermal heat pump system consists of a heat pump, an air delivery system (ductwork), and a heat exchanger-a system of pipes buried in the shallow ground near the building.

In the future, civilization will be forced to research and develop alternative energy sources.

Possession of surplus energy is, of course, a requisite for any kind of civilization, for if man possesses merely the energy of his own muscles, he must expend all his strength - mental and physical - to obtain the bare necessities of life.

Showing posts with label milwaukee public television. Show all posts
Showing posts with label milwaukee public television. Show all posts

Thursday, 11 September 2008

Matc Big Solar Farm Will Double As Training Center

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Matc Big Solar Farm Will Double As Training Center
Nick Matthes and Ed Stoll of Pieper Electric (who will be installing the PV), flank Rich Hinkelman of Solar Systems Inc (who build the racking for the system). All are MREA supporters and Energy Fair exhibitors!

"From a post on Tom Content's blog on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel site:"

Leaders at Milwaukee Area Technical College kicked off the construction of the largest solar project in the state with a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday afternoon north of Capitol Drive.

The solar project -- dubbed the Photovoltaic Educational Farm -- will be developed on a former landfill along the Milwaukee River, underneath the television tower for MPTV, Milwaukee Public Television.

The project will feature nearly 2,600 solar panels from four different manufacturers, in eight different configurations. It's scheduled to be completed in August.

The aim of the project is to showcase a variety of renewable energy technologies, as well as provide training in solar field to students at MATC as well as Milwaukee's three engineering schools, said Brad Bateman of Johnson Controls.

"This will be a testing and training platform unlike any other in the country," he said.

The project is projected to generate enough power to make the TV transmitter for MPTV the first of any public television station in the country to be powered with renewable energy. MPTV projects energy savings of at least 70,000 in its first year of operation.

The project will employ 150 people, said Sargent.

Johnson Controls Inc. is the technical college's partner and general contractor on the project, which includes 14 other firms -- 13 of them from Wisconsin.

Reference: www.garvindirect.com
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