Renew helps Indigenous community in WA go solar

Part of the solar system at Kurrawang (Source: Renew)

A solar project jointly set up by Renew and an Indigenous community in Western Australia three years ago is benefiting households and cutting greenhouse emissions. The 139-panel solar system is set up on a workshop and machinery shed at the Kurrawang Aboriginal Christian Community near Kalgoorlie. Renew is a not-for-profit organisation which aids and inspires sustainable living.

Renew member, Robin Gardner, said “The savings are averaging, since start up, at 4550 kilowatt hours a month. The system generally supplies almost all the power needs of the community during the middle of the day for the 25 houses, school and workshop, and returns less than 5% to the grid.”

“To the 6th of December, the system had generated 145,584 kilowatt hours of electricity, which has resulted in the saving of 145 tonnes of carbon dioxide or the equivalent of removing 42 cars from the road for a year.”

Read more: Kurrawang: solar success. Renew, January 31, 2019.

“Melbourne becomes first city with all council infrastructure powered by renewables”

Source: Nyarea

“Melbourne has become the first city in Australia to have all of its council-owned infrastructure powered by renewable energy.

The City of Melbourne switched all its operations to renewable energy on 1 January. The power is supplied by the Crowlands wind farm near Ararat in western Victoria, which was funded through a power purchase agreement with the City of Melbourne and 13 other Melbourne councils and institutions.

The transition means that council libraries, gyms, childcare centres and buildings are now fully powered by renewable energy, as are all of the city’s street lights.” (The Guardian)

Continue reading: Melbourne becomes first city with all council infrastructure powered by renewables. The Guardian (Australia) January 17, 2019.

Caterpillar produces a 26 ton all-electric excavator with a giant battery.

Source: Electrek

“Caterpillar, along with Pon Equipment, has unveiled an all-electric 26-ton excavator with a giant 300 kWh battery pack in an effort to electrify construction equipment. They built a prototype in Gjelleråsen, Norway for construction company Veidekke who plan to use 8 of them. The company expects that the machine will result in a better experience for its employee by reducing air and noise pollution at construction sites”...........

“It is equipped with a giant 300 kWh battery pack, which they design to withstand a lot of rough movements. The result is a fairly heavy pack at 3.4 tons. They believe that the battery capacity can enable between five and seven hours of use before needing to charge, which can be done overnight.” (Electrek)

Continue reading at: Caterpillar unveils an all-electric 26-ton excavator with a giant 300 kWh battery pack. Electrek, January 29, 2019.

ClearVue, Perth, has installed solar glass at a shopping centre

Source: ClearVue

ClearVue has installed its transparent solar glass in an atrium at a shopping centre in Perth. The solar atrium at the Warwick Grove Shopping Centre, made out of ClearVue’s transparent solar glass, would be used alongside battery storage to power lighting, signage and a display screen at the retail outlet.

The patented technology allows visible light to pass through a pane of glass, while the invisible wavelengths of light are deflected to the edges of the glass by nanoparticles where they are converted into electricity by solar panels. The electricity is stored in batteries so it can be used when needed. (For more information on how this works see ClearVue’s website).

These transparent solar glass panels have many potential applications to power a range of buildings from glasshouses to skyscrapers. Our sun can power the whole world in a clean and sustainable way. There's enough solar energy hitting the surface of the Earth to satisfy our energy requirements many times over. These glass panels could have the ability to harness much more of the sun’s power. Currently with solar panels we are only providing 0.2% of the world’s energy requirements (cited at ClearVue’s website).

References:
- ClearVue: http://www.clearvuepv.com/.
- RenewEconomy: ClearVue solar glass notches first commercial setting - a shopping centre atrium. February 6, 2019.
Postscript:
- Australian solar PV integrated window technology gains US approval. RenewEconomy, November 29, 2019.

China and the USA lead the world with electric car numbers

Source: The Driven

The top 10 countries for electric car numbers to date are as follows: 1- China (1.28 million), 2- USA (762,000), 3- Japan (205,000), 4- Norway, 5- U.K., 6- The Netherlands, 7- France, 8- Germany, 9- Sweden, 10- Belgium.

The numbers of electric cars per capita are different: 1- Norway 3.3%, 2- The Netherlands 0.7%, 3- Sweden 0.4%, 4- Belgium 0.3%. 5- USA 0.3%, 6- U.K., 7- France, 8- Japan, 9- Germany. 10- China <0.1%.

The figures are again different for electric car percentage of total car numbers: 1- Norway 6.5%, 2- The Netherlands 1.46%, 3- Sweden 0.9%, 4 & 5- Belgium & China 0.5%, 6 & 7- France & U.K. 0.4%, 8 & 9- USA & Japan 0.3%, 10- Germany 0.2%.

For more information see US has the world’s second highest electric-car population. Green Car Reports, January 29 2019.