Monthly Archives: October 2013
Your Questions About Renewable Energy Group
Michael asks…
an electrical engineering can work on renewable energy?
I want to know if electrical engineering is the right choose to work on renewable energy like bio-diesel.biomass or hybrid technology also I want to know if an electrical engineer could lose his job when he become older for instance computer science company hired younger people is the same with electrical careers? thanks
admin answers:
An engineering background would be quite useful for renewable energies, quite useful for most things in general. Most engineering programs have a general engineering requirement where the students spend one to two years studying all the engineering fields before specializing so an electrical engineer would have sufficient chemical and mechanical engineering background to be useful in bio-diesel and biomass as well as be suited for the electronic controls inherent in all modern processes. Naturally, a hybrid would have a large electrical component that the EE would be useful for.
It’s illegal for a company to age discriminate but it is true that as one gets older and better paid, one’s liquidity on the labour market is reduced. However, many companies value experience and for good reason. Without some experience in a group, one’s bound to constantly repeat the same mistakes over and over again.
The risk of loosing one’s job and then finding it difficult to be re-employed is common no matter what the field and often if a company wants to take a risk on a prospective employee that they have not worked with before, they might as well hedge their bet by hiring somebody inexpensive such as a fresh grad.
You can take measures to ensure you remain valuable in the job market, insist that the company pay for at least one professional association membership and at least one industry conference a year. Attend the tutorial sessions and pay the extra $10 for the CEU credits so that you have something to add to your portfolio.
Above all, build up a network of contacts in the industry. It all boils down to relationships and people.
You might want to start with an English course though.
David asks…
How do I go about starting a small business?
I have an excellent idea for a small business. Its a renewable energy business in an area where that hasn’t tapped into that aspect yet. I don’t how to make my ideas become reality, where do I get financing to start it up?
admin answers:
You need to find the Small Business Development Center or similar group for YOUR state. For example, this is the one for Delaware:
http://www.dsbtdc.org/
They tell you who to contact, how to do it, what you need, all that type of thing.
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Your Questions About Sustainable Energy Without The Hot Air
Ruth asks…
How to protect the environment?
what are some examples of sustainable practices and stewardship that can protect the environment?
admin answers:
In Your Home – Conserve Energy
Clean or replace air filters on your air conditioning unit at least once a month.
If you have central air conditioning, do not close vents in unused rooms.
Lower the thermostat on your water heater to 120.
Wrap your water heater in an insulated blanket.
Turn down or shut off your water heater when you will be away for extended periods.
Turn off unneeded lights even when leaving a room for a short time.
Set your refrigerator temperature at 36 to 38 and your freezer at 0 to 5 .
When using an oven, minimize door opening while it is in use; it reduces oven temperature by 25 to 30 every time you open the door.
Clean the lint filter in your dryer after every load so that it uses less energy.
Unplug seldom used appliances.
Use a microwave when- ever you can instead of a conventional oven or stove.
Wash clothes with warm or cold water instead of hot.
Reverse your indoor ceiling fans for summer and winter operations as recommended.
Turn off lights, computers and other appliances when not in use.
Purchase appliances and office equipment with the Energy Star Label; old refrigerators, for example, use up to 50 more electricity than newer models.
Only use electric appliances when you need them.
Use compact fluorescent light bulbs to save money and energy.
Keep your thermostat at 68 in winter and 78 in summer.
Keep your thermostat higher in summer and lower in winter when you are away
Insulate your home as best as you can.
Install weather stripping around all doors and windows.
Shut off electrical equipment in the evening when you leave work.
Plant trees to shade your home.
Shade outside air conditioning units by trees or other means.
Replace old windows with energy efficient ones.
Use cold water instead of warm or hot water when possible.
Connect your outdoor lights to a timer.
Buy green electricity – electricity produced by low – or even zero-pollution facilities (NC Green power for North Carolina – www.ncgreenpower.org). In your home-reduce toxicity.
In Your Home – Reduce Toxicity
Eliminate mercury from your home by purchasing items without mercury, and dispose of items containing mercury at an appropriate drop-off facility when necessary (e.g. Old thermometers).
Learn about alternatives to household cleaning items that do not use hazardous chemicals.
Buy the right amount of paint for the job.
Review labels of household cleaners you use. Consider alternatives like baking soda, scouring pads, water or a little more elbow grease.
When no good alternatives exist to a toxic item, find the least amount required for an effective, sanitary result.
If you have an older home, have paint in your home tested for lead. If you have lead-based paint, cover it with wall paper or other material instead of sanding it or burning it off.
Use traps instead of rat and mouse poisons and insect killers.
Have your home tested for radon.
Use cedar chips or aromatic herbs instead of mothballs.
Ways To Protect Our Air
Ask your employer to consider flexible work schedules or telecommuting.
Recycle printer cartridges.
Shut off electrical equipment in the evening when you leave work.
Report smoking vehicles to your local air agency.
Don’t use your wood stove or fireplace when air quality is poor.
Avoid slow-burning, smoldering fires. They produce the largest amount of pollution.
Burn seasoned wood – it burns cleaner than green wood.
Use solar power for home and water heating.
Use loco or water-based paints, stains, finishes and paint strippers.
Purchase radial tires and keep them properly inflated for your vehicle.
Paint with brushes or rollers instead of using spray paints to minimize harmful emissions.
Ignite charcoal barbecues with an electric probe or other alternative to lighter fluid.
If you use a wood stove, use one sold after 1990. They are required to meet federal emissions standards and are more efficient and cleaner burning.
Walk or ride your bike instead of driving, whenever possible.
Join a carpool or van pool to get to work.
Ways to Protect Our Water
Re vegetate or mulch disturbed soil as soon as possible.
Never dump anything down a storm drain.
Have your septic tank pumped and system inspected regularly.
Check your car for oil or other leaks, and recycle motor oil.
Take your car to a car wash instead of washing it in the driveway.
Learn about your watershed.
Maria asks…
what can i do for the environment?
I want to be greener,i need to know more things i can do. here is what i already do:
I do not leave the tap running when using my toothebrush
I use a toilet that has a smaller flush and a larger flush
I do not shower as often as my other family members
I dont know what else to do, i am only 15 so i cannot reduce a vehicles co2 or anything like that. Please suggest some things for me to try.
Thanks for your help.
admin answers:
Whatever you do but people will pollute it, so try to stop it.
Try these
1. Replace standard incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs
2. Choose energy efficient appliances – I’m documenting the power consumption of my computers
3. Wash clothes in cold(er) water – Colder than what? I suspect this is based on American machines that are controlled by mixer valves rather than using a thermostat.
4. Turn the thermostat of your hot water tank down to 50°C (125°F) – this is a good safety measure anyway
5. Install a programmable thermostat (or turn the heat down over night and when you’re out of the house)
6. Register with the [Canadian Marketing Association’s] Do Not Contact Service to reduce the amount of junk mail delivered to your house. – Substitute MPS.
7. Eat less meat (particularly feedlot beef) – For practical purposes I’m vegetarian, with occasional exceptions.
8. Walk, bike, carpool or take public transit as often as possible – I’m writing this on the tram
9. Make sure you know what can be recycled in your area, and try to recycle as much household waste as possible
10. Compost using an outdoor compost bin or an indoor vermicomposter
11. Clean or replace filters on your furnace and air conditioner
12. Buy local, organic or fair trade food where possible
13. Reduce air travel – pity that long-distance trains suck in Australia
14. Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket
15. Use a clothesline instead of a dryer whenever possible – don’t own a clothes dryer, hanging up clothes inside near a heater works on cold days
16. Plant a tree – pity my trees are dying because of the drought / climate change
17. Buy fresh foods instead of frozen
18. Keep your car tuned up and your tires inflated to their optimal pressure – also minimise driving. I drive about 5000Km per year.
19. Use biodegradable dishwashing liquid, laundry soap powder, etc.
20. Drink tap water (filtered if necessary) rather than buying bottled water – remember the Benzene incident…
21. Turn the tap off while brushing your teeth
22. Unplug seldom-used appliances and chargers for phones, cameras, etc., when you’re not using them – the power use is small so I only do this for rarely used chargers.
23. Plug air leeks and drafts around doors and windows with weatherstripping
24. Switch from disposable to reusable products: food and beverage containers, cups, plates, writing pens, razors, diapers, towels, shopping bags, etc – I’ve done this for most things, could improve though.
25. Consider garage sales, Freecycle, eBay, or borrowing from friends/family before buying a new tool or appliance – second-hand and refurbished computers are so powerful and so cheap that you don’t need to care about the environment to do this.
26. Reuse bathwater, maybe to flush the loo, water the garden, etc.
27. Make sure your roof is well-insulated. – I think it is, but as tenants it’s not really our choice.
28. Always wear a jumper/sweater and socks indoors unless it’s warm enough outdoors to go without both.
29. Run your vehicle on biofuel/sustainable fuels
Set up a grey water barrel to use when clean water isn’t necessary – grey water should never be stored. It contains chemicals that are used as food for bacteria.
30. Put grey water on your garden immediately without storing it.
31. Install tanks to collect rain-water from your roof for watering the garden, washing your car, etc.
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Jobs in Alternative Energy Fields
Many people who take jobs in the alternative energies research and development sector have to, at least in the beginning, take relatively low pay. Taking a job in this industry is thus not about or, not predominantly about making money, although that is needless to say important, as one who is not well-fed soon becomes one who is not productive at work, especially when we are considering the brain-work involved in the work of researching and developing technologies in the alternative energies sector. There are those who take a job just because they find it is a fulfilling task that they have undertaken something that is going to help mankind, or their society, or the Earth herself. But in truth, what most people dream of in terms of work is a position that they at once enjoy immensely while they also are receiving good money for their time and energy.
Positions in the alternative energy research and development industry often offer just such an opportunity.
The alternative energy field is in need of a vast array of different positions. Many people who get into this are the kind who would keep the power plants up and running (these include plant operators or mechanics), others are the developers of new alternative energies (engineers, scientists), and others make it all happen to start with by investing in alternative energy. So–not only do these people have the blessing of an exciting and fulfilling career, but these same people are making the world a better place.
The business of alternative energy is rapidly growing due to the fact that many governments are now supporting it. Investors have become excited about putting their financial backing into the alternative energy industry because they can see that it’s the wave of the future, out of both need and the fact of government support. Rising oil prices make alternative energies’ tantalization rise in the minds of investors. As investors become more interested, there is more money available for companies to start up or expand, and that leads (of course) to more job opportunities.
The US government is unquestionably involved in promoting the idea of new jobs as being readily available in the alternative energy sector. According to the President, in order to achieve greater use of homegrown, renewable fuels in the United States, advanced technologies need to be researched and developed so as to be able to make ethanol from plant fibers’ biomass, which at the present time is merely discarded as waste material. The President’s 2007 Federal Budget includes 150 million (a 59 million increase over the Federal Budget for 2006) to help with the development of biofuels derived from agricultural waste products such as wood chips, corn stalks, and switch grass. Researchers tell us that furthering the cause of research into cellulose-based ethanol could make the technology cost-competitive by 2012, while potentially displacing up to 30% of the nation’s current fuel consumption.
The President’s plan would additionally drive on next-generation research and development of battery technology for hybrid vehicles in addition to plug-in hybrid vehicles. A plug-in hybrid runs on either gasoline or electricity, depending upon an on-board computer calculation. Driving in a city setting consumes almost no gasoline over as much as a week’s time with these vehicles.
Your Questions About Renewable Energy World
Mark asks…
Where in the world is there undergraduate degrees in renewable energy and/or sustainability?
I’ve already found a few, such as the University of New South Wales – Photovoltaic/solar energy degree. However, I would like to fully know all my options for undergraduate degrees in solar energy/wind energy/renewable energy etc. Most other programs I’ve found have been standard engineering degrees, which lead to graduate work in the subject. Any university in the world is the scope, as I’m not committed to residing with the United States.
admin answers:
I think Slippery Rock University
George asks…
Can you make money by buying stocks of renewable energy companies?
since global warming and the need for more greener energy like wind power increases, is it really possible you can make lots of money by buying these companies now that are worth virtually nothing, and wait until the world gets the need of renewable energy? (buying shares of stocks). Thanks
admin answers:
Nobody can predict the movement of any stocks whether going up or coming down. Many of the market professionals use fundamental analysis of companies along with technical analysis like chartology, option movements and relative price strength of stocks.
There might be many people who think the same logic as yours and made investment in renewable energy companies. Consequently, some of these companies’ shares have gone up significantly where you might have to find a good spot to buy at certain time.
What you need to do is to study the company’s performance (revenues and earnings and their growth) in relation to the stock price. Also, look into the company’s financial condition (does it have a lot of debts?), market share of its products, product leadership, and earnings browth rates vs. Its competitors.
Since you will be investing your hard earned income, be very careful in doing the preliminary studies before investing. I recommend you also read a couple of books on investment.
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Investment into Alternative Energy Research and Development
The US government must continue to back the expansion of the role of alternative energy research and development and its implementation by companies and homeowners. Although this writer believes in the reign of the free market and that that government is best which governs least, our current system has companies and people expecting federal backing of major initiative with direct investment, in the form of tax breaks, rebate incentives, and even direct central bank investment into the alternative energy industry.
The US and its citizenry need to invest all of the time and energy that they can spare to the conversion from a fossil fuel burning society to one that is green for several different reasons. The green economy will not harm the environment or the quality of our air like fossil fuel burning does. We can become the energy independent nation that we need to be by cutting away our need to import oil, especially oil that is produced by anti-American nations such as Iran. Ultimately, renewable energies and extremely efficient energies like atomic energy are far less expensive than the continuous mining and drilling for fossil fuels. If we do not invest in our future now, catastrophe awaits us. We are going to need to consume more energy than ever in our history as we sail into the 21st century and beyond our dependency on foreigners for meeting these energy needs only leaves us open to sabotage while draining our coffers in order to fill other nations’.
It can be argued that federal, state, and local governments should work in conjunction on the issue of alternative energy research and development and implement mandatory programs for new home construction and all home remodeling that stipulate the installation of alternative energy power sources eventually over a certain period of years transforming into 100% installation of alternative energy sources for any new home or corporate building as well as backing a similar program to have all new vehicles produced in the nation be hybrid vehicles or hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles by the year 2020. All levels of government could also impose mandatory compliance laws on construction and utilities companies. The utility companies in all 50 states should be required to invest in alternative energy research and development while also being required to buy back, at fair rates, excess energy produced by homeowners through their use of alternative energy power sources. Strong financial incentives need to be in place for new companies to invest in developing renewable energies. This would not only make the US energy independent at the fastest possible rate, but it would stimulate the growth of the economy and provide tens of thousands of new, good-paying jobs for people.
Alternative energy generation in the forms of solar, wind, hydroelectric, biofuel, geothermal, and atomic alternative energy storage systems such as more efficient batteries and hydrogen fuel cells and alternative energy-furthering infrastructures with superior energy efficiency all need to be brought into the affordable price range through development. Government investment into these matters would surely help us along.
Your Questions About Sustainable Energy Systems
Helen asks…
Discuss the relevance and significance of sustainable /green site design and building practices in today’s env?
Discuss the relevance and significance of sustainable /green site design and building practices in today’s environment. What are some of the relevant LEED’s criteria for making a site “certified” green?
admin answers:
Any building element that will lead to energy savings or reduce CO2 emissions and increase the greenery , that is relevant to LEED , to be certified green you require the country requirements and it’s procedures, there are minimum requirements to be certified, some of the elements could be the heat transfer through walls and windows , waste management system, amount of green areas, ventilation system, minimize water consumptions , minimize power consumption , energy storage for AC system . These are some examples you may consider
Maria asks…
How do I make my home more environmentally sustainable?
especially in the area of energy consumption
admin answers:
Check the integrity of your insulation and replace it, if necessary. This will help control heat loss in the winter.
Replace all your regular incandescent bulbs with flourescent bulbs. You can purchase them to burn as brightly as 60, 75 even 100w bulbs, but they only USE around 14-20 watts of energy. This can be especially significant in fixtures that have multiple bulbs in them.
Make sure you have good windows that are properly sealed.
Landscape your exterior to help with summer heat absorption and winter heat loss issues. Plants can sometimes help quite a bit in this area, and it’s always nice to plant a tree. 🙂
Don’t know if this is even an option residentially, but I know that there are water conservation means becoming available that conserves water utilized in the sink/bathtub in a special resevoir and uses then THAT for flushing the toilet/irrigating the land instead of fresh water.
I have heard that radiant floor heating can save energy, but I don’t know from personal experience, so you might want to research it.
I DO know of some individuals with two-story homes who installed separate heating/cooling systems for each floor. It seems like a bit much, but they ultimately saved quite a bit, because they didn’t have one system chugging away to heat/cool a whole home(where all the heat is going to rise upstairs anyway with the downstairs staying too cold).
Setting your water heater to a slightly lower temperature will conserve a little energy.
Good window coverings can make a big difference, too, especially when used in layers. Trying to use a thicker more opaque layer of window coverings over a more translucent layer will help, technically, add layers of insulated air between the window and the room and will also help with light control/loss. Blocking the sun from shining into a room during a summer day can SIGNIFICANTLY affect how warm that room and, ultimately, the house gets.
These tidbits run the gammut, I know. And some are huge investments while others are pretty simple.
Hope you find at least some of it useful.
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Your Questions About Renewable Energy For Kids
Helen asks…
Why do people think that renewable energy is not viable or economical?
Think about how much it costs to pull stuff out of the ground, refine it and ship it all over the world? How about wind, solar, geothermal, tidal etc?
I am not saying don’t have oil for back up. I am saying it shouldn’t be used first and only.
Elmer going onto websites and acting tough just makes you look like a sissy.
Dez Pirate that is a great answer. Thanks.
admin answers:
Probably because of years of big oil propaganda. I know I look a conspiracy theory nut saying this, but just look at some of these answers. Its sad. If they worked better, we would be using them. We aren’t using them, therefore they must not be better?? Are you kidding me? Do you know how much money oil companies spend lobbying not to spend grants on renewable energy research, or other forms of energy in general? Car companies and other industries that rely on fossil fuels like coal, natural gas, etc… Do this as well. They make too much money as it is, of course they dont want change.
We could make a lot of progress on renewable energy sources and ways to package it/store it if our government (and corporations) cared at all about anything more than money. General it they constantly say it isn’t an issue, and that global warming is fake, and that there is no alternative. We are the US for Pete’s sake. If it doesnt exist yet, then we should be making it happen. But no. We are controlled by greedy fat bastards
Jenny asks…
I know fluorescent lighting is more energy efficient but how much energy is it saving?
What if all the fluorescent lights in a classroom were turned off, about how much money or energy would that actually save?
admin answers:
Hey Pink, Jerry is pretty close on the power usage. To answer your question as directly as possible, my son is in 5th grade, and his classroom has three strips of lights, each one made up of five fixtures. Each fixture is 4 feet long and has 2 – 48inch tubes inside. This type of fixture generally uses 72watts with both tubes running. The total wattage for the room is 72 X 15 = 1,080 watts when all the lights are on. Flourescent lighting is about 4 times as efficient as incandescent lighting. To light that same room with old fashioned light bulbs would require over 4000 watts, so the power of flourescent lights is pretty easy to see.
Most schools pay a slightly reduced rate for electrical power, but still the amount varies quite a bit from state to state. In our town, a school should pay around 9 cents per kilowatt hour. A kilowatthour, or KWH is 1000 watts running for one hour. Let’s say the school is open for 8 hours, but the kids are only in the room for 6 of them. If the lights were on for 6 hours, it would use 6.5 KWH, at a cost of about 60 cents. So if the lights were off all day, it would save the school 60 cents each day. If they were only on for 3 hours each day instead of 6, it would save 30 cents each day of school, or about $6.00 per month. Again, this will vary school to school, and town to town, but the idea is the same.
If you’re in the education business, here is something you might be interested in. Look online for a device called a, “Kill – A – Watt,” meter. They cost around $35. They look like a lamp timer, but are really a load meter. Plug it into the wall, then plug any device with a cord you have laying around into the meter. It will tell you how many watts your device is using at the moment, and how many KWH’s it has used over time. Some models even let you punch in your utility rate, and it spits out how much your device has used in dollars and cents for as long as you have it plugged in. Now take a lamp and put in a 40 watt light bulb and run it on the meter, it will tell you it is using 40 watts. Next, change the bulb to a 15 watt compact flourescent one, it will register 15 watts, but ask the kids in the room which one is brighter, turns out they are about the same. It’s really interesting to see the lights literally come on in the room when you do experiments like this.
We live in a home that is powered by the wind and sun, and over time we’ve had to learn a great deal about energy savings. From time to time, we get to run a solar power seminar for the kids in the schools in our area, and this is one of the experiments we do. It’s also interesting to plug other items into the meter, like a radio, or a game system, so the kids can see how much they are using at home. There is a great magazine out that covers all this stuff, it’s not very common on news racks, it’s called Home Power. I will include the link below, and some other places you can google to find out lots of interesting info on renewable energy and energy savings. Take care Pink, Rudydoo
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Investing in Alternative Energy Stocks
Alternative energy stock portfolios are a great part of a modern investor’s financial plan, due to the fact that there is so much upward potential. These make excellent long term growth investment vehicles, and the money put into them by you, the investor, serves to further the cause of implementing the alternative energy power sources that we need as we sail into the 21st century and beyond.
Analysts predict that by 2013, the alternative energy industry will be a 13 billion dollar industry in today’s dollars. This figure bespeaks an enormous return on investment. Indeed, if you were to invest in a start-up alternative energy company, you might find yourself having invested in the next Microsoft in terms of return on investment. People are fed up with the rising costs of gasoline while this alone is not sufficient understanding of the need for developing alternative energy sources, it is a factor which can act as a market maker meaning for you that investments in alternative energy companies makes a lot of financial sense.
However, this does not mean that you don’t first want to do some careful research into alternative energy stocks, perhaps with the help of a financial planner. A few alternative-energy companies are going after the right markets but that doesn’t mean you should go buy every name in the sector. Investors need to be cautious about chasing the stocks, says Sanjay Shrestha, who is an analyst at First Albany Capital. And if you are an investor, then you know that the problem in this sector is that nearly every single one of the major players in the alternative energy for profit game are start-ups or in the very early stages of growth. This means for you that they have relatively minuscule (even if rapidly growing) sales, and no expected profitability in the near term or history of earnings for you to be able to research. This can lead to some bubbling, as with what happened to the dot-com industry at the turn of the 21st century. Bubbling in the stock market is not a good thing for investors.
Analysts and financial planners can play a crucial role in helping you get it right with alternative energy investing. We don’t play around in the tiny cap stocks that have technology and not much revenue the ‘hope’ stocks. We invest in companies with clear cash-generation plans in place, are the words of Ben walker, who is a senior portfolio manager at the Gartmore Global Utilities fund out of London.
Still, the outlook is very positive overall and healthy. It is good to see that the number of renewable energy funds and the amount of money flowing into these funds is increasing, according to chief executive of UK alternative electricity supplier Good Energy Juliet Davenport. The renewable generation market is at an important stage in its development it needs the continued support of the consumer, investor and government to ensure that it reaches its potential and really starts to make a difference to climate change.
