The White Hat Environmental Sustainability Newsletter

Archived Newsletter - 16th February 2010

Contents

Sustainable energy
At Parliament House
Copenhagen – the good news
How Photovoltaic Solar Panels Work
The mainstream media
Solar panels are inefficient and unsustainable
The Cause
The Governor & The Politician
Cycling
Solar panel orientation
RCOTCWHUAS
Reader Feedback
The White Hat Puzzle
Excuses
Passive cooling
Wave energy
Tracking the sun
Solar Cities & Solar Parks
Previous Quiz
Solar concentrators
Sustainable Living Festival
Renewable energy & aesthetics
The Photo
The White Hat Quiz

Sustainable Energy

In the next few newsletters we plan to look at energy from renewable sources such as solar, wind power, hot rocks, tidal, wave and ocean current and other sources. Let’s get started in this newsletter by looking a little closer at photovoltaic solar power.

At Parliament House

“What’s the goss from the water cooler Gemma?”
“Well senator, the word is you’re going to be allocated a portfolio of your own.”
“I knew it would happen Gemma. You toe the party line, keep your head down and in the end you’re rewarded. Which portfolio?”
“Public transport.”
“Public transport!! Did they say what I’d done to deserve that?”
“They think it was your quip about the leader in the party room.”
“Well, nobody survives that portfolio Gemma. We’ll have to find a cause.”
“A cause?”
“Yes, something to distract their attention. And Gemma . .”
“Yes.” “Treat this with urgency. Imagine what it would be like being press secretary in the portfolio of Public Transport.”
“I see what you mean senator. I’ll have a cause on your desk tomorrow morning.”
“You’re a good girl Gemma.”

Copenhagen - the good news

The mainstream media reported widely on the failure of Copenhagen to produce international legally binding agreements. Unfortunately they gave much less prominence to the positive achievements. Numbers of working groups at the mid level left the conference with new partnerships formed and having agreed to co-operate on a number of initiatives to reduce carbon emissions.

A colleague who is both a scientist and a surgeon found the conference most worthwhile, but found it in danger of being swamped by lobbyists and activists. His description after two glasses of red wine (for medicinal purposes only) went something like this. “They were mainly well-meaning and we all go along to the football or the cricket and shout at the players about what they should be doing, but imagine if you ran your surgery that way with members of the public gathered around telling you what to do. Some of them seemed to feel that people only got a seat on the committee through corruption or nepotism. No. Do the training, get the experience, get the reputation and you will be invited in; then scrub up, put on your gloves and lend a hand.”

From what White Hat has heard and learned from the technical journals, it appears that numbers of such teams who had never met before, left Copenhagen and went back to their own countries armed with new knowledge and techniques to help make a significant difference.

How photovoltaic solar panels work

Many of us have solar panels on our roofs, but no matter how closely you look at them you can’t see how they work. That’s the trouble – you’re looking instead of listening. Put your ear close to the panel and you are likely to hear a conversation something like this.

“Watchya doin man?” “Just hanging out, you know.” [DOOF DOOF DOOF passes left to right] [yells] “Call yourself electrons and that heap of rubbish is the best you can do.” “What’s happened to Frankie? I haven’t seen him for yonks.” “Didn’t you hear man? He got hydrogened by a proton – you know – one electron one proton for life sort of thing. She just sits there and he runs round and round in circles and never gets to hang out with his mates.” “You’ll never catch me being hydrogened mate – free electrons for ever!” [high five] “Yeah man, free electrons for ever!” [right to left – DOOF DOOF DOOF]

“What’s down past the next intersection?” “There’s another crowd reckon they own that so it’s a sort of invisible barrier so we just hang out in this stretch. You need a pretty good reason to cross that barrier.” Fairly soon a good reason came along – a photon in a short skirt. This was enough to excite one of the free electrons to follow her down the street and across the boundary. Pretty soon there were enough photons to have a stream of electrons travelling in the one direction down the street and a current was happening. Now it should be pointed out that solar panels are designed to respond best to certain frequencies and once a photon passes the age of about 23 her ability to excite a free electron reduces dramatically.

Anyway, next time you’re on the roof, put your ear close to one off the panels and listen to the conversations. Just be aware that your neighbours may be watching.

The mainstream media

The mainstream media continue to have a chequered record when reporting on environmental issues. When they want an image showing industry giving off smoke they will often choose cooling towers giving off water vapour and so on. Recently they have kept saying that the public is having trouble with Emission Trading Schemes and Carbon Trading because “the public doesn’t understand it”. White Hat is prompted to ask how responsible the mainstream media is being in this issue. If two teams are about to play a major sporting event there will be a detailed six page spread analysing every aspect of the available options and comparing and contrasting possible different strategies. And in case the reader does not understand the significance of the anterior cruciate ligament, there will be diagrams, descriptions of surgical procedures and charts comparing recovery times.

But when it comes to things like Emission Trading Schemes it is “too difficult for the public” and apparently not the job of the mainstream media to explain it.

On the other hand there has also been some thorough investigative journalism examining in some detail the issues involved, with the best journalists often relegated to the business pages. The thorough and lengthy report in the business pages of The Age on February 6th by Ruth Williams and Matthew Murphy entitled ‘Green plan sunk by rorts and bungling’ was one such. We have not been able to track it down on The Age website. You might have better luck.

Solar panels are inefficient and unsustainable

Taking our lead from the mainstream media we have chosen a headline that is attention grabbing, that is only half true and is partially misleading. If it works for them it should work for us.

However we were prompted to use it by a recent expo we visited. We were greeted by an enthusiastic advocate whose t-shirt exclaimed “Solar panels – efficient sustainable energy!” He could not tell us the efficiency rating of the panels involved. We noted that the display involved the usual domestic solar setup with the DC current from the photovoltaic cells going through an inverter (with its consequent lack of efficiency) to produce the AC current for which most domestic appliances were designed. The area was lit by low voltage DC lights so the AC current had to be converted back to DC with a hefty transformer for each lamp giving off heat before going to the light globe which in turn gave off a lot of heat. The whole space was being cooled by an air conditioner. Excess energy was either stored in batteries or pumped into the grid with another attending loss of efficiency.

Solar panels have an efficiency rating which measures their maximum conversion rate of solar energy falling on them under optimum conditions into electrical energy. Most domestic solar panels in use in Australia are in the 10% to 15% range. Plus the average fixed solar panel is only in its optimal orientation at midday on two days of the year and the rest of the time they are operating at even lower efficiency.

There are other efficiency problems. Because the cells in a panel are connected in series, accidental shadowing (such as a leaf falling on it) of, say, one thirtieth of a solar panel may cut its output by up to 50% just like stepping on the small section a hose cuts the output at the far end. This is in contrast to solar thermal and solar concentrators which are not subject to this efficiency restriction.

Things are not looking real flash on the efficiency front. However we did say our heading was half true and partially misleading. Even if we only end up harvesting 5% of the available energy from the sun that is falling on our land or our building, that is a darned sight better than nothing, it is creating relatively little in the form of greenhouse gases, and the current low conversion efficiency allows enormous potential for improvement as technology advances.

So, what about the renewable and sustainable side? Solar panels use solar energy which seems renewable for some considerable time to come, but conventional solar panels heavily use copper and other minerals which are not renewable. White Hat was recently present at a discussion between several of Australia’s most respected engineers who agreed that to switch the world to solar power using conventional solar panels would exhaust the world’s known supplies of copper as well as certain other minerals. In other words, solar energy is a renewable resource but our means of harvesting it relies on non-renewable resources.

I wondered how that might be incorporated into our activist’s t-shirt, but could not come up with a snappy phrase. All I could thin of was H. L. Mencken’s advice that “For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong” and I thought that was unlikely to be helpful under the circumstances.

However, this again is partially misleading. Conventional solar panels will only form part of the mix of any sustainable energy future and technology is constantly improving. Solar panels are an off-the-shelf product that can help people reduce their greenhouse emissions straight away until more efficient and sustainable methods become available.

The Cause

“I’ve got a cause, senator.”
“That’s good Gemma. What is it?”
“Childhood obesity.”
“Childhood obesity – you mean fat kids? Are we for them or against them?”
|“We’re going to make them healthier senator and take a drain off society’s future health spending.”
“How are we going to do that Gemma?”
“Get them riding bicycles senator.”
“Fat kids on bikes. It doesn’t seem much of a photo op to me Gemma.”
“Ah, but wait for it senator. Are you sitting down because here is the headline. SENATOR & MICHELLE OBAMA JOIN FORCES TO TACKLE CHILDHOOD OBESITY. We might even be able to luck in a joint photograph but if we can’t we can always Photoshop something that links the two of you.”
“Gemma, you are really getting the hang of this. You have just saved us both from the Public Transport portfolio, but what about GLOBAL ACTION AGAINST OBESITY? That has a good strong sound.”
“Well not everyone across the globe gets enough food to be obese, but leave it with me senator and I’ll see what I can come up with.”
“You’re a good girl Gemma.”

The Governor & the Politician

Victoria’s Governor de Kretsa recently gave a speech which some may feel bordered on being undiplomatic. However, he obviously feels strongly enough about environmental issues to push some boundaries. You can find his speech on video here. The speech occurs about half way through the proceedings and you need to rest your cursor over the image to get access to the full controls which will allow you to move around.

Another speech of note came from a politician who does not seem to believe that the issues around carbon reduction are too difficult for the public. He recently gave a speech on the subject to an almost empty parliamentary chamber and neither of the major parties is interested in his views. If you haven’t heard or read his speech you can find it here.

No one reader is likely to agree with all of his politics or all of his conclusions but you can at least admire the fact that he is prepared to address the public as though they are adults who are capable of discussing important issues without them being dumbed down into simplistic slogans. Malcolm does need however to learn to be more concise. You will need to set aside half an hour to read his speech – that is after the two hours you have spent reading this newsletter.

Cycling

“How’s the cycling event coming Gemma?”
“Well, senator I’ve written your speech and I’ve got the camera angles mapped out.”
"It’s a long time since I sat on a bike Gemma but if you think it makes a good publicity shot. .”
“Well senator I didn’t envision you ON the bike and besides you know how particular you are about your hair and you would need to wear a helmet and – I’m not sure how to say this – but I think your days of wearing lycra are over.”
“As the actress said to bishop.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It’s an old saying, Gemma.”
“Well it sounds sexist to me.”
“Oh, we’ve come over all little-miss-prim now, have we? I’ll remind you it was my influence that got those photos of you at the Christmas party taken off Facebook.”
“Yes, and I appreciate that senator, but you do have to watch what words you use out there or we will end up in Public Transport,”

Solar panel orientation

This section of the newsletter can now be found at The White Hat Guide to Photovoltaic Solar Panels

RCOTCWHUAS

“Gemma, I’ve been thinking about this FKOB programme . .”
“FKOB?”
“Fat Kids On Bikes. The Michelle Obama angle is great but I’m not sure how many votes are in it. Cyclists are all going to vote for The Greens anyway.”
“Yes, many of them are senator but if you watch some of the ones competing on ‘friendly’ weekend rides by the bay, they’d be prepared to vote for Genghis Khan, and rather than FKOB I thought we might go with RCOTCWHUAS.”
“RCOTCWHUAS?”
“Reducing Childhood Obesity Through Cycling With Helmets Under Accredited Supervision. That’s was the shortest I could get it down to with the unions and the training bodies and we need them on side.”
“Yes Gemma, but we also need the press gallery on side and they have enough trouble remembering who paid for the last round of drinks let alone memorising RCOTCWHUAS. The only reason Genghis Khan was able to get things done was because he wasn’t distracted by press galleries and unions and opinion polls and elections.”
“That was two days of hard bargaining under pressure and I don’t think they will concede any more letters.”
“Gemma, Gemma, you are a dedicated worker and nobody appreciates that more than but me but RCOTCWHUAS is not going to capture the public imagination let alone the limited number of still-functioning neurons in the press gallery. When Aboriginal people burned vegetation it was called ‘fire farming’ and ‘responsible land management’ but when Genghis Khan did it, it was called ‘rape and pillage’. That’s because he didn’t have someone by his side as skilled with words as you Gemma. That’s why I hired you. Now see if you can come up with something snappier,”
“I’ll see what I can do senator.”
“You’re a good girl Gemma – and I still prefer FKOB.”

Reader Feedback

“Dear White Hat, What has happened?? I haven't been receiving the Newsletter and am positively at a loss!! Hope all is well in that wonderful newsroom of yours. Jenny W”

Thank you for your newsletter. It always gives me something new to think about as well as provoking me think about old things in a different way. George”

How offensive! The environment is too important [for a newsletter like yours to include] humour. Unsubscribe!! Green Warrior.”

The White Hat Puzzle

You want to install solar panels on your roof. Unfortunately you don’t have a north facing roof but you do have one that faces exactly north-east. You are a bit of a home handyperson so you are prepared to create a set of sawtooth racks to point them in the best direction. You know that any overshadowing significantly drops the efficiency of a solar panel so you want to avoid that. So here is your puzzle to revive some of your high school maths. Will a sawtooth arrangement without overshadowing allow you to use more or less solar panels and which configuration for a given section of roof – sawtooth or flat on the roof – will produce more power?

Excuses

“How’s the bicycle speech coming Gemma?”
“It’s getting there senator, but we need some solutions for this bicycle lane issue.”
“Solutions? We’re not in the solutions game Gemma – we’re in the excuses game.”
“What do you mean?”
"There’s no point going after the dedicated cyclists’ vote Gemma. They’ve already decided who they’ll vote for and we can’t change that. What we’re after are the ones who need excuses.”
“What sort of excuse?”
“Well remember how Julia from IT used to lecture us about being vegetarian? Well she now eats meat – not a lot and not when her colleagues are around – but her doctor told her she had an iron deficiency and needed to eat some meat for her sake and for the children.”
“Was it a bad iron deficiency?” “Who knows Gemma. That’s between her and her doctor. Who knows if she had one at all, but thanks to our public health system a doctor will prescribe you an excuse that no-one dare argue with and no harm has been done.”
“But I don’t see what this has to do with cycling.”
“Gemma, it’s all very well to use a bicycle while you’re a student or in a job with fixed hours and no additional responsibilities, but once these young people start moving into management roles with unpredictable hours and entertaining international colleagues and doing presentations on the other side of town with heavy equipment and taking the kids to ballet and hockey and birthday parties they need an excuse for not doing everything by bike, and that’s where we come in and that’s where we pick up a vote.”
“But how are we going to do that at a cycling event?”
“Dog-whistling Gemma.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“You’re a good girl Gemma.”

Passive Cooling

The most common system of cooling in buildings involves passing air through some sort of cooling system and then blowing it to where it is needed. All of this blowing uses a lot of energy. An alternative is so called ‘passive’ cooling. A typical installation will have a long flat cooled panel suspended from the ceiling. The warm air in the space naturally rises, comes in contact with the panel which cools it down and the cool air then naturally falls back towards the floor and living and working level. No pumping or blowing required. The description ‘passive’ might be slightly misleading because usually there is somewhere a refrigerator motor keeping those panels cool, but at least all that blowing energy has been removed. Next time you are in a commercial environment see if you can spot whether they are using passive cooling. One building where you can see it in action (can something passive be in action?) is at The Gauge in Melbourne Docklands.

An early and visionary example of passive cooling was created by Flynn Of The Inland in consultation with others in the design for the hospital at Alice Springs. Air is drawn into the basement through a curtain of wet hessian bags, The bags filter out most of the dust (highly desirable in the outback) and using the latent heat of evaporation cool the air in the same fashion as a Coolgardie Safe. Now, the cool air is not going to rise into the hospital of its own accord. It is just going to sit there in the basement. However, using the drawing power of a chimney Flynn constructed a large open lantern roof area where any passing breezes created the draft to draw the cool air from the basement into the hospital. You can see a photo of his hospital here.

By the way, when it comes to more conventional air conditioning did you know that an energy–efficient system based on the work of an Adelaide academic – Dr Shaw – has been recognised as a world leader in the area and is appropriately called Shaw Air Conditioning.

Wave Energy

Construction has been started on Western Australia’s first commercial wave energy project at Garden Island. The state government will contribute $12.5 million to Carnegie Corporation's $50 million project originally planned for Albany but later moved to Garden Island because it had better sized waves.

The Victorian Government has announced its approval for a wave energy project off Portland. This will be designed by an American company which was founded and is headed up by an Australian. The company has had some issues in the past with delivering on time and on budget but this is new technology and the company claim they have the most advanced working technology in the area of wave power in the world.

We will report on both in a future newsletter.

Tracking The Sun

This section of the newsletter can now be found at The White Hat Guide to Photovoltaic Solar Panels

Solar Cities & Solar Parks

The Federal Government’s Solar Cities program seems to be progressing more smoothly than its home insulation program. At state government level the Victorian Government has recently opened a solar park in Bendigo. We intend to visit the Bendigo and Ballarat installations soon and report back.

Previous Quiz

The first answers to our previous quiz on water came from Jenny who also revealed that she will be turning 92 tomorrow and is still working a 10 hour day.

Please note: This section of the newsletter has been removed as it forms part of a forthcoming publication or because it is forms part of our Questing activities. If you find yourself on a tour where the guide is White Hat Accredited they are likely to know the answer to many questions you may have in this area. All guides on White Hat Tours are White Hat Accredited.

Solar Concentrators

This section of the newsletter can now be found at The White Hat Guide to Concentrated Solar Power (CSP).

Sustainable Living Festival

This coming weekend (19th to 21st Feb) at Federation Square in Melbourne is the culmination of the annual Sustainable Living Festival.

Renewable Energy & Aesthetics

When Albert Prinz of Thurn and Taxis proposed to build the world’s largest solar farm on his land in Bavaria he ran into trouble with the locals. Their chief objection seemed to be on aesthetic grounds. Solar power is alright as long as it is hidden away. Of course there are more issues than that and you can read more here.

In Australia there have been similar problems. Dutch windmills are picturesque but the larger (often Danish designed) wind turbines are not according to many. Again there may be issues with low frequency sound that are still being investigated.

In Darwin, the developer (which is a joint venture with the Defence Department) of the new suburb of Lyons wants to force all houses to have their solar water tanks at ground level (and thus install pumps) because of the aesthetic issue of too much clutter on rooftops.

Then there are the competing issues of maintaining ‘neighbourhood character’ against sustainable town planning. Ask anybody and they will tell you they are concerned about the environment. Sometimes you have to delve deeper to find whether they mean ‘the’ environment or ‘my’ environment. These are the sorts of issues we discuss in the White Hat City Design Newsletter. If you have not already subscribed and would like to, send us an email.

The Photo

“Well, I thought yesterday’s event went pretty well Gemma. What was the press coverage like? Did they get any good photos?”
“They all ran with just the one, senator. Your Four Wheel Drive parked in the bike lane.”
“That’s not good, Gemma. Not good at all. You know what this means.”
Yes. I’ve got to find us another cause or we’ll both end up in the Public Transport portfolio.”

The White Hat Quiz

Introduced Animals

1. According to recorded history, who brought the first rabbits to Australia?
2. The almond industry and numbers of other food growing industries in Australia depends on an introduced animal – which one?
3. Some introduced animals have grown to such an extend that for several of them Australia has the largest population of wild animals of that species in the world. Name one?
4. Which was the first introduced animal to circumnavigate Australia?
5. One animal regarded as an Australian native was introduced only a few thousand years before the arrival of white man. Which one?
6. What introduced animal has transformed outdoor eating in Australia?
7. What Australian animal is declared a vermin in New Zealand?
8. In 1894 a pack of 12 mules escaped from a fledging settlement in Western Australia and started to breed with each other. At what size would you estimate that pack now?

No prizes – just glory and a warm inner glow.