Home-Scale Renewables - A Flawed Idea?
I found an interesting article in a recent New Scientist magazine issue (Vol 191 No.2571) - written by George Monbiot, author of the new book “Heat: How to stop the planet burning”.
It provides a somewhat unexpected argument - essentially the idea that home-based power generation is a waste of time.
Monbiot makes the claim that home power generation is a concept that has been hugely over-hyped, and just ISN’T the way to go if we want to prevent some of the serious repercussions of Global Warming. He refers to a brochure (released by environmental architect Bill Dunster last year) which made claims that as much as 50% of a household’s annual energy can be provided with a home-scale wind turbine (1.75 meter diameter). He then points to an article published in Building for Future Magazine several months later which offered 5% as a more likely figure.
In response to the ‘every little bit counts’ argument the author makes the claim that not only will such projects not create more environmentally-conscious people, but it will have the opposite effect as numerous people become enraged when their alt-power systems aren’t producing remotely the amount of energy that was claimed.
So what is George Monbiot’s solution? Offshore wind farms - he cites a recent UK government report which suggests that England and Wales have a potential offshore resource worth 3200 TWh.
All in all I found it to be a very interesting read! While I do tend to prefer a more optimistic approach (and don’t necessarily agree with all his arguments), I know full-well that the ‘negative nellys” of the world have the important task of keeping everyone on their toes! Regardless of what side of the fence you happen to be on, its always important to closely examine the facts, and not let the ‘happy-shiny-people-holding-hands’ mentality get the better of you. 
Anyway, here is an online preview of the article at New Scientist: Small-scale renewable power - low-wattage thinking?
Technorati Tags: solar power, wind power, solar panels, wind turbine, home power generation, George Monbiot, global warming, renewable energy, New Scientist
Written by Bentley on October 23rd, 2006 with
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