ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY
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The future of renewable
energy is already here
From wind trees to solar flowers, innovation
continues to seek ways to harness nature’s power.
Today, applications for renewable energy
are rising in their diversity. But many
unknowns exist for new products coming
onto the marketplace, including uncertainty of
government subsidies and competitive pricing
from non-renewable energy. Some of the
most innovative applications and products are
emerging from overseas.
HEATING YOUR POOL WITH SOLAR POWER
Solar thermal power has continued to show
durability in the marketplace, particularly in
its use for heating pools. Rather than using
traditional electricity to keep a pool comfortably
warm, which can cost thousands of rands a
year, solar heating can maintain a comfortable
temperature at a much lower cost. “Solar
heating is for comfort more than economics,”
Nelson explains. While inexpensive natural gas
has eroded the demand for solar thermal’s use
in hot water heating, it may still be an attractive
option for a larger multi-family mid-rise
complex — at least for as long as government
incentives continue to be in place.
There are also industrial applications for solar
thermal hot water heating. Process water
heating is used in food processing, agriculture,
or other industrial applications that require
heated water. In some cases, solar thermal
is used to augment non-renewable energy
sources; solar raises the temperature several
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The Aeroleafs developed by New World Wind
are synchronous generators with permanent
magnets and axial flow. Designed in leaf form,
their aerodynamic profile has been studied
to be particularly sensitive to turbulent winds,
especially in urban areas.
degrees, lowering the burden and cost of
non-renewable power to bring the water to its
optimal temperature.
Demand for pure solar power to generate
electricity is a much more recent phenomenon.
“The only people that needed solar power,”
Nelson says, “were people who were
building houses off the electric grid.” For
these consumers, solar power became more
attractive, “once they found out that it would
cost something like USD100 000 to run five
miles of electric line.” Aside from satellite
technology, there were virtually no residential
or commercial applications for solar power until
government subsidies lowered the consumers’
installation costs.
HARNESSING THE WIND AND SUN
WITH FLOWERS AND TREES
In 2013, France’s New Wind installed the
first prototype of a Wind Tree. Unlike large
industrial wind-power turbines, which require
otherwise unused space and need to stand
up to five storeys tall, the Wind Trees are
smaller structures that can occupy an urban
plaza and, according to New Wind, require
as little wind as eight kilometres per hour to
generate power. Their design emulates natural
trees, integrating technology and nature into
an urban environment. Even more ambitious
Continued on page 21 >>
May 2018 Volume 24 I Number 3
Awareness and investments in ‘green’
technology are rising, but renewable energy
is nothing new in the United States. According
to Les Nelson, IAPMO’s vice-president of
Solar Heating and Cooling Programmes, solar
thermal power was the primary source of hot
water in states like California and Florida in
as early as the late 19th century. At that time,
solar thermal’s primacy as an energy source
was associated with hot water heating and
continued until the cost of natural gas and oil
fell to the point where they could dominate
the energy market.
By Matt Chapuran