Categorie: solar energy

Not a CO2 focus, but a Post-Fossil focus

The Quest in Egypt is actually quite simple: Not look for reductions of fossil, but how to live off the sun, and its derivatives, wind and water power. And where possible make things a little more effective with a little gravity and geothermal power. That’s it, in terms of energy…

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The ‘Solar Space’, per m2 of living area 2/2

Since we are in an energy transition , in which we completely switch to renewable energy, the energy at building level will mainly have to come from solar energy. We assume that, the more local energy the better, and a ‘0 energy house’, including compensation for material energy, to be…

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land (-potential) as the new money standard

Someone suggested recently to think about a new money standard. Well, thats a challenge, so I did. Since money is a virtual unit of trade, not based on any actual value. Not anymore, at least, since we left the barter economy and entered the money exchange economy, somewhere around 1600,…

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Solar panels are not the solution…

Before we hurry covering everything with solar panels, let’s reason a bit further, because since my first experiences with renewable energy, many new insights have emerged. Those first experiences I had when building a “Bicycle wheel windmill”, as described in the “Windwerkboek” of the time. [1] ( Wind Work Guide)….

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Solar panels: ≤ 1m2 PV per m2 floor …

As we want to get rid of fossil fuels, we will at least have to develop everything now without fossil fuels. And in any case the operational energy. In the case of new buildings this leads to “0-energy buildings”, which generate as much renewable energy as required, locally, and thus…

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Urban heat islands, a growing problem

Urban heating, or at least the increase thereof, has been in the spotlight for some time. And the basic effects were known to me. But after hearing a lecture by Math Santamouris during a recent Conference, a whole new world opened up for me. He gave a good overview of…

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m2 living per capita in Europe, and consequences

It sometimes seems that the built environment, and the adjustments to achieve a sustainable society, are of the same nature everywhere. But that is by no means the case when we zoom out, to Europe for example. There should be no less than 250 million homes become energy-neutral.* [1] A…

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Solar panels cause CO2 Emissions rising…EROI

Big headlines in Nature last week: [1]” Emissions are still rising: disaster up the cuts “And” Leaders at climate summit get bad news: CO2 emissions are rising again “. Astonishing that may not be, however: if the economy continues to grow, and therefore consumption, energy and material use will increase,…

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Building wind turbines to dry laundry…?

Do we really want a CO2-neutral society, or even a society with closed cycles? If yes, a lot will have to change and we will need to become extremely creative. And not directly with the input of a lot of ’technology’, in the sense of high tech, but back to…

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EROI versus CO2/kWh: energy supply under a 800 Gt scenario

While we are part of a energy transition globally, many calculations are made based on costs, in cts/kWh, and wind and solar now seem to become very cheap. Which is positive, but cost unfortunately do not say anything about he effectivity of those technologies. The financial calculations are pretty misty,…

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