Author Archives: blc5317

L3_What have we Learned_Branddun Casara

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One of the best policies the government could promote in order to increase efficiency would be to aim at reducing electrical loss and waste. The current electrical transmission systems use lines that have been in use for decades and are a very inefficient way to move electricity. Many of the current lines lose an average of about 7% of the transmitted kW in the form of heat and corona discharge. If the government were to subsidize the cost of a smart grid system especially in areas of higher electricity use the overall system would be immensely more efficient. Additionally for high usage areas subsidies could be promoted for local electricity generators which cuts loss down to negligible levels

Energy efficiency can be promoted by restricting heavy electrical usage to off peak hours. By using appliances like washing machine, dryers, charging of electric vehicles and other high energy use products between the hours of 8:00p.m. and 7:00a.m. it reduces the need of peak hour generators which tend to be coal or natural gas fired. During the peak hours of the day air conditioning and lighting keeps the mainline generators busy but at night many generators are offline. By creating a company that produces affordable timing devices so that a family can program their high electric appliances to start in the off peak hours this is especially true with the highest electrical need devices like electric vehicle charging. Widespread usage of timing devices in combination with smart grid technologies would drive efficiency towards realistically sustainable levels.

Casara– L2 Renewables

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  • Why are renewable energy projects failing to receive the same degree of support from the financial community and the government that nuclear does?

Nuclear energy is a proven source of great amounts of constant profitable energy albeit at times unstable as shown by the disasters in Fukushima, Three Mile Island and to a lesser extent Chernobyl. Wind turbines and solar energy technologies while renewable are less efficient and provide an uneven inconsistent source of energy although steps in the right direction have been made. Although it is hard to come to this realization nuclear energy benefited from war as much of the ground level research was funded by the military in the Manhattan project therefore nuclear energy has a large lead in the amount of fundamental knowledge available.

The reality according to Dawn Stover in her article “Nuclear vs. Renewables: Divided they fall” is that both contribute a very small amount to the national energy pool at about 8% each and are dwarfed by fossil fuels at 81% her argument is that perhaps instead of competing the against one another Nuclear and renewable advocates should lean on one another for support. Nuclear energy while not renewable is a clean energy in the sense that it produces little to no carbon dioxide gas although the question is what to do with the byproduct.

 

  • What niche opportunities do you see for entrepreneurs in the global development of renewable energy sources?

 

The most immediate niche market available is solar energy as the most impoverished areas of need are also usually the hottest and sunniest places on the planet. As solar panels becoming cheaper to manufacture individual units can be sold to entire village either through humanitarian aid or to local governments. Meanwhile in the European Union large scale government initiatives require certain level of renewable energy usage causing national governments to offer tax rebates and other purchase programs for solar panels.

Another option is small biogas generators that can be sold to farms or small villages that rely on work animals and other livestock. In the end the market globally is going to have to focus on locally produced power for either individual use or small communities.