Getting off the energy grid

One of the greatest contributors to pollution is due to commercial buildings. A good chunk of this pollution is in the form of energy consumption of which a large majority of utilities are employing coal as a source of power. Although many states have adopted requirements for utilities to provide some of the energy they produce through renewable resources like wind and solar, utilities only do so under the threat of legal action or financial penalties. It is far easier for them to continue business as usual than it is to invest in newer sources of energy.

For years, the cost of solar has been prohibitive for home owners and businesses. Thanks to investments by private firms and educational powerhouses like MIT, the cost of solar is becoming cheaper due to advances in efficiencies of solar panels. Solar panels by nature are not very efficient; in fact, only about 15% of the sun's energy can be converted into useful electrical power by solar panels and until recent advancements the panels had to be optimally placed to cash in on the sun's rays.

But because of some advances in understanding in nanotechnologies, carbon-nanotubes and restructuring of how a solar panel captures the light that it is exposed to, in the next few years solar panels will be far more efficient and capable of making the ROI of any solar project more feasible.

Imagine the roof of any commercial building. Nearly all of that area is wasted space with only the occasional vent or A/C unit. Yet the roofs of buildings are exposed nearly every day to the sun. By using the roof of a commercial building as a solar farm, a company can actually not only capture enough solar energy to power their business on any given day, but can potentially be capturing and generating enough electricity to sell back to the utility company they were once slaves to. Combine a solar farm with a solar heating system and suddenly you're generating electricity as well as providing hot water for your building, even in the dead of winter.

There are areas of the U.S. where this approach may not work as well due to persistent or consistent cloud cover. Despite this, solar panels can still gather enough energy to at least power 75-85% of an office building's power needs. There are alternatives to solar, however; wind.

These days when we think wind power, we automatically think of large wind farms out on the plains churning away in the breeze, or out at sea on floating wind platforms capturing the ocean breeze. These work well for uninhabited areas, but the problem is that our electric grid was designed around early 20th century power needs and it isn't up to the task of long-distance transmission of energy. At the same time, many larger towns and cities don't want a large wind turbine on the outskirts of the town because of the large footprint these units occupy, not to mention the danger of bird impacts or potential aircraft accidents.

Thankfully, there is a potential solution that is far smaller, is far less dangerous to animal life, and can be used by either home or business. A company called Clarian (www.clariantechnologies.com) has been working on developing the Jellyfish Wind Appliance. Small enough to fit on a roof of a home or business, the company claims that one unit can generate up to 40kW of power a month and can be plugged directly into an outlet to deliver the energy it generates. By installing many units at once, much like the White House that will install 14 units later this year, your home or business can easily reduce or eliminate the amount of energy you rely on utilities for. As an added incentive, the cost is much lower than solar at around $400 a unit once they're available to the public in 2010.

Of course, with all of this energy generation, there is still the question of how to store it. Unless you're using electricity at full capacity 24 hours a day, you will have low demand times where the solar or wind units you've installed are generating electricity even when there isn't a demand. Up until this point, lead-acid companies such as Trojan Battery or U.S. Battery have provided a solution in the form of deep-discharge 6V or 12V batteries that can be wired in series to store a fair bit of energy. However, these types of batteries only last on average of 3 - 4 years before needing replacing. But compared to some of the other alternatives, such as Li-Ion batteries, the cost of replacement is relatively low and still seems like the best option available.

There are signs of change, however. These come in the form of some novel storage ideas. One idea being tested currently involves compressed air that is compressed by a generator when excess energy is available. When electric demand is higher but the source of power, like solar panels at night, are no longer viable, the compressed air then powers a turbine which in turn creates electricity until the original power source, wind or solar, is once again producing energy.

Another idea being floated (no pun intended) is the idea of using electricity generated by the solar or wind appliances to split water into hydrogen and oxygen and then storing them. Once needed, the oxygen and hydrogen would be recombined and the energy that they generate could then be used to power the system.

A final idea that might prove to be popular is the ultra-capacitor. Those that are familiar with computers recognize that capacitors store energy quickly and release it as needed when called for. With an ultra-capacitor, this process can be brought to a macro scale instead of a micro scale. Unlike the capacitors that live on silicon boards inside of your computer and are measured in microvolts, ultra-capacitors can store and generate power on the scale of a 120 V or 210 V power system such as those found in homes and businesses.

Further, these ultra-capacitors have the added advantage of getting charged very quickly, on the order of minutes instead of hours like lead-acid batteries (and even Li-Ion batteries) require. Several firms, like Maxwell Technologies (www.maxwell.com) and EEStor (no website available at time of press) are researching novel ways to make ultra-capacitors more useful in everyday settings. Many expect these new nano-driven technologies to be widely available to the public and industry within the next few years.

Unlike a few years ago, there are alternatives out there that companies can invest in that involve some cost for implementation but a relatively short term ROI that can justify the cost. With the added potential benefit of generating enough power to sell back to the utility (and in the process, get paid for excess energy generation) a company can quickly re-coup any up front costs that may be involved with installing alternative sources of energy on their premises.

Finally, just keep in mind that there are a lot of incentives for companies and individuals out there. Many localities, utility companies, states and even the Federal government will provide tax incentives or refunds to customers that install these types of devices. It may not be enough to cover the entire cost of install, but it does make the idea easier to accept for the cost-conscious CEOs and COOs of the world.