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Sustainability - the White Hat guide' |
Germany Sets Aside $130 Billion for Renewable
Energy
German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced on 30 May
that Germany, the world's fourth-largest economy and Europe's
biggest, would shutter all of its 17 nuclear power plants between
2015 and 2022, an extraordinary commitment, given that they
currently produce about 28 percent of the country's electricity.It
is by any yardstick an extraordinary (and expensive) commitment that
may well have the collateral benefit of unlocking similar funding
worldwide for renewable energy projects.
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The White Hat Guide to Concentrated Solar Power in AustraliaSolar concentrators use an array of mirrors to focus the incoming sunlight onto a small area. The resulting intense light can then be converted into electricity using a photovoltaic converter or the heat used in a solar thermal system. This approach has several advantages. Photovoltaic converters for intense light can be made up to 30 times more efficient than conventional solar panels and if they break down or a newer more efficient model becomes available there is only one small component to replace. On the other hand this is not yet a viable solution for the individual home. Its economies of scale work best for supplying a small suburb or country town through a mini-grid where it is claimed that it can produce solar energy at about 60% the cost of using conventional solar panels and with fewer of the sustainability issues. You can see an example of the solar concentrator array below which White Hat visited in January 2010 and which services the remote Northern Territory community of Hermannsburg 
Solar Concentrator Array - Hermannsburg
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| Page last updated: | 24 October, 2011 | | URL:
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