Alternate Energy Secrets

Just saw an episode of “How Things Are Made” on the Discovery channel. They did a profile on a company that makes an inexpensive wind power generator. The components are rather simple, low tech, but it wouldn’t take much for a home owner with the right location to create a wind power company for their neighbours. This system can easily be paired with a solar system to create a “solar wind power” solution. And because the solution is coming Canada, the price is cheaper than buying in the US. I think the Wind Power Canada solution runs around $1,200 Canadian. On the companies site they even have a little diagram to… Read the rest of this entry »

I had heard of the idea of using the momentum of the waves as they come in and out of the shoreline to drive a turbine above the water level, but using the Tide and ocean current is really a cool idea. Most of the structure is below water level, and theere is a very small footprint on the ocean floor. From above water the structure appears as if it was a buoy or channel marker, but underwater, there are two turbines that look like a wind turbine.

Another rather interesting aspect is that this is more than an idea. This news story is actually about an International study that has identified 16 plausable sites on the Canadian East Coast. There would be enough Read the rest of this entry »

This is just too cool! A Canadian agricultural college has setup a program to use BioDiesel in the teaching environment, and the dividend will be paid as the students take this technology to their own farms. This was reported in the Edmonton Journal. Read the rest of this entry »