Renewable Energy: 5 Ways You Can Make It On-Site

In many cities in Europe, and other countries, the development administrators have been placing ever more stringent requirements on those planning new developments to ensure that future properties will use less power. Now things are being taken a step further, and we are beginning to see governments add requirements that a proportion of the power consumed must be from renewable sources, or created on-site to meet a set proportion of the demand.

One of the cities bringing in new regulations of this sort this year is London. Within London from this year (2007) the developers will provide renewable energy sources) to power part of their building's requirements, generally from sources which are available on each site.

Due to this, we think that this review of the top ways to make sustainable power on-site is very timely.

The best 5 technologies which can lead the way to buildings supplying part of their own renewable power and reducing the environmental footprint of large cities,are as follows:-

Solar Panels

Most of us have by now seen solar cells on building roofs. They are quite expensive to first install, but maintenance costs are low, so they will appeal in the long-term. As the market for them grows the cost per unit will continue to fall.

Wind Power

We have nearly all of us seen large wind farms, and now there will be the possibility of their small cousins being seen much more frequently in our cities. However, a windmill can only provide enough power to pay for its initial cost and upkeep if there is enough wind, and for many low and medium rise developments there simply will not be enough wind.

Energy from Waste

It is often forgotten the rubbish can be burnt, or 'combusted' to create energy. There are a wide variety of ways in which this can be done, including by fermentation to produce methane. This will be used by some developers. For example the big supermarket chains (such as Tesco's), in the UK are gearing up to install small Anaerobic Digestors in many of their stores.

Exchange the Discarded Heat Otherwise Lost

This does not avoid having to heat the incoming air but at least by using the warmth of a radiator through which the outgoing air flows to warm the incoming cold air. Simplicity and low initial and running costs make the a front-runner for implementation, although some would call this more of an energy efficiency measure than a renewable power source.

This technique need not be applied solely to the outgoing warm air. The same principle may be applied to the water discharges for renewable energy inputs/ energy savings, and this works best for hotels with many showers and baths.

Water Distribution System Regeneration

It seems strange, and is hard to explain, but energy (electric power) can actually be won back from a water mains any distribution system at pressure reduction valve points in the water mains.

So there it is. Our description, in short, of the 5 techniques we think best for the provision of the required percentage of renewable energy to offset the energy demands of new property developments, energy demands which would otherwise have to be met by the use fossil fuel.

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