a mes

NOTES ON RENUWABLE ENERGY FOR MINISTERS AND COMMITTEE MEMBERS TASKED WITH FULLFILLING A PROMISE.

This brief is meant only as a short general introduction to micro energy systems and has not been endorsed by the general scientific or engineering community. Nor have we approached the general electrical industry community for comment on it as yet.

This short paper represents some of the knowledge and understanding I have gained during a period of research into the industry as an electronic technician and electrical tradesmen.

I am currently completing an adult apprenticeship to gain accreditation/ licensing as an Electrician.

I have a vested interest in micro energy and I am gradually building contacts for that motive and raising community awareness with regard to its advantages. I am relocating from the ACT to Perth WA to establish a small business and learn about and train others in the installation and maintenance of micro energy systems.

Ms S. Skutz on the other hand, really has nothing very much to recommend her other than an indomitable will to live healthily and well and an interesting writing style.

The MICRO ENERGY SYSTEM’s (MES) discussed in this brief refer to point of use energy generation system’s, or user generated energy system’s. The most common forms of this type of system consist of Photovoltaic cells and /or small wind turbines generally with an ability to generate up to between 1kw and 12kw

The average suburban house hold currently demands a peak input of around 12kw if appliances such as reverse cycle air-conditioning and electric hot water systems are in use. This value is a function of current in amperes (size of a water pipe has been used as a metaphor for this value) and electromotive force or voltage measured in volts, (the metaphor here would be flow rate). Power in Kilowatts = Current in Amps multiplied by EMF in volts for this paper.

If you have an 80 amp main circuit breaker in your house for example, then it is designed to limit peak current draw to 80 amps or 19.2 Kilowatts. (this explanation is simplified and may not seem entirely accurate to the electrical engineering community)

Currently most photovoltaic installations for use in urban applications can supply a peak output of under 6kw. Combined wind turbine and photovoltaic systems are becoming more popular, especially along the coastal fringes. Again the systems generally generate a peak output under 6kw.

RAPS or remote area power systems are often larger and include battery storage; we will be touching on these types of systems only briefly.

The homes I have visited with a MES installed are generally designed and appointed to use a peak load demand under 6KW.

It is surprisingly easy to retro design energy saving features into badly designed dwellings and this should be part of any logistical and budgeting calculations for the application of a MES.

The more blinkered and conservative of those with a vested interest in the energy industry continuously make the infelicitous statement that solar and wind generation systems are not sensible alternatives for a base load application.

That statement is only partially correct.

As my dad used to say when choosing some smelly old crab bait ‘You don’t use a hat as a boot if you don’t have to’.

Renewable energy applications, solar and wind power specifically are ideally suited for micro energy applications. That is decentralised, point of use generation for small scale applications, domestic and commercial.

The existing industrial centralised base load power generation infrastructure, the incredible and huge transmition grid infrastructure which supports it and the resource sector which supplies it and incidentally underpins our National material wealth is. (yes that’s just ; ‘is’)

It is, because it, has evolved that way, just the way nature intended it to. In this instance a definite example of form following function.

It’s a base load system. That’s what it does, supply a base load.

The future which includes our collective growing awareness and concurrent concern for the natural environment which nurtures us so comfortably must include both.

Point of use micro energy generation and a centralised base load industry.

Unfortunately the big end of town has not evolved all of the correct responses to deal with this irrefutable requirement just yet.

Individually however, if you where to talk to the magnates, the engineers and yes even the investment professionals they will all (well the ones I have spoken to) agree that the correct responses include the application of small scale decentralised grid connect systems as a part of the evolution of the energy sector.

Industry professionals understand that the current system is needlessly dangerous and unwieldy when it comes to the point of use end.

Energy is currently transmitted using 11KV (11000 VOLTS), which is dropped to the 415Volts and 240Volts we use in our homes and work places. Just like a large river carrying the body of water and distributing via tributaries.

The high voltages are required to overcome the losses inherent with the transmition of energy over large distances. Especially relevant in the days when electricity was first applied in this manner as transmition infrastructure was even more primitive than it is now and losses where large. It has become much more efficient, but it is still in my opinion quiet primitive.

Consider that Electricity has only been available for general household consumption for the average life span of a western human being; there is much in the way of evolutionary change to come before it can be considered well designed.

Unfortunately the 240Volt end is still violent and dangerous, needlessly so.

There are no applications in our homes and most work places which cannot operate on a very safe and efficient extra low voltage, 12Volt – 50Volt. There is a school of thought which asserts that eventually all human interactive spaces will be supplied at that level.

Examples of extra low voltage systems can be found in mobile homes, marine technology, aircraft, space vehicles and the homes of switched on environmentalists.

A metaphor for a high voltage transmition system could be the nervous or pulmonary system in a human body. The Sciatic bundle carrying large signals back and forth from much smaller nerve endings and chemical / electrical cellular level signals. Or the Venus to capillary movement of blood around the body.

Not all of the inevitable steps have been made yet, the electrical generation and transmition industry is still a creature without the finer sensory feed back that humans enjoy.

Micro Energy Systems are the obvious next step toward the future of electrical energy use and distribution, allowing for a gradual fazing in of extra low voltage systems at the point of use end.

We can still envisage higher voltages up to the pole or main street level transformer, but consumers may end up with a further step down transformer located at that point or close to the house.

Any losses inherent within a further voltage step down system will be somewhat mitigated by an ability for energy suppliers to supply more residences with the same basic infrastructure.

Base load systems need to maintain an 80-90% steady load to continue to operate safely and efficiently. That is why we now use off peak switching and metering systems, to switch peak load demand on high current devices like hot water systems and climate control devices. The off peak switching allows for management of the high demand requirement such that a constant 80/90% load efficiency is achieved.

Off peak switching comes in two basic forms, timed and tone pulse input switching. Only the ACT utilizes the timed switching system. Elsewhere the peak demand can be switched on and off by the authority at will enabling a more effective response to transient demand and supply conditions.

The ACT will have to begin to phase in toned pulse off peak switching if it is going to participate in the coming evolution of the Australian Energy Industry.

That is not as difficult or expensive as some will have you believe.

If MES become more generally accepted by urban communities (for good reasons we have outlined further below) it is probable that effective grid management of multiples of decentralised energy inputs will require not only a separate metering and tariff system but also a mechanism similar to the remotely controllable off peak demand switching systems.

During the on going consultative processes with the Energy and Transmition industry we should acknowledge that the industry will require less emotive and passionate advocacy from environmentalists and a little more pragmatic negotiation underpinned by good research and correct verified information.

Be aware that the correct consultative management of actual energy inputs from MES may require that not all positive generation excesses will necessarily be accepted by the grid and tariffs may have to reflect ongoing management and infrastructure costs as well as predicted transient demand requirements I.e. it’s possible to tone switch decentralised daylight industry inputs on and off to balance centralised generation inputs with demand, to facilitate effective grid level energy management. However the costs to manage these inputs and to create the infrastructure to do so will be directly proportional to the time the industry is given to do so. And no entity is likely to be willing to pay for energy it does not use.

It is my opinion that the industry can and will rise to the challenge and be able to fulfil the targets set by the government which it is mandated to legislate for. However I would also expect the industry to demand that the horse is to be arranged in front of the cart, where tariffs reflect a sustainable development in MES technology and physical management infrastructure, not the natural greed of a middle class consumer.

It is entirely conceivable that if MES are allowed to become as popular as common sense tells us they should be, not only will we be able to fulfil a good proportion of the promised 20% by 2020 emissions cut promises with MES applications, but we will be able to provide the energy at a gradually decreasing cost to the consumer. This will make GDP and CPI and Inflation figures look very sympathetic to a government having to overcome the conservative fears of ‘the big end of town’.

The following is an edited excerpt from a previous paper by S. Skutz on this subject.

The thing about a micro energy system is that it could be seen as a small no risk equity generating business.

OK, you have a taxable income, say $45k plus in the household and have a little disposable income. Enough disposable to consider a lien on a new car or holiday for that fiscal year.

You think, ‘well I guess we could wait and have both, next year’. That’s a kind of savings goal and it makes obvious sense if you’re worried about your security.

But wait there could be more!

What if you could have a holiday and a new vehicle and a risk free equity generation stream and a large tax return to help off set the costs of a new car and a holiday in that 24 month period?

And a bit more future security.

The advantages of being able to operate a small business as well as having a stable income stream from regular employment are not just the self respect and satisfaction a self reliant occupation can provide a soul and the good nights sleep the lack of financial risk gives one, it is the compounding ability of the tax benefit positive (or ‘negative gearing’) accounting to stabilise a families financial foundations which provides a less obvious motive.

I am cynical enough however, to believe that it would be the most attractive motive to most of middle Australia best placed to create the move to the ‘green’ biased environmentally responsible and ultimately sensible energy industry which is a fundamental imperative for any kind of a secure and comfortable future.

So let’s make it more personal.

In my opinion, if you’re paying between 15 and 35cents in every dollar you earn to the collective bucket your paying somebody else too much to do something you should be personally responsible for.

Your extra tax dollars are just dumbing down and making inefficient your personal natural responses to a collective need.

Only you can effectively control and fine tune your own negative impacts on the future.

A few laws and policy decision with intestinal fortitude will encourage the irresponsible delinquents amongst us to help you do that, but in the end it’s your decision, your behaviour and your future. Just like the Anzac with the white feather stuck to his tin hat jumping out of a cesspit into a maelstrom, you have to confront the future weather (sic) you like it or not.

By installing a $35k grid connected micro energy system, creating a trading name and establishing some simple accounting practices you could earn equity in your property, offset taxable income with plant depreciation and capital expenditure, earn carbon neutral credits for whatever they are worth in real little people money terms, save heaps on your energy bills and if your really clever and are willing to adapt your habits to your environment rather than the other way around actually make money as a energy positive generator.

All the expenses involved in setting up and maintaining your micro energy plant and the small energy supply business it underpins are in one way or another tax deductible against your work a day income at the end of the year. Its true , test it.

If you can show that the method and/or the application are illegal or un Australian in ethos I would also challenge you to stop it from happening without becoming very unpopular.

The bottom line here is that there is a potential refund that gets you well on the way to a family with a future.

And if and when you decide to sell the property you can either sell your business and plant, just the plant, or you could lease it to the purchaser. Or you could sell your plant to and or business to a third party before you sell your property!

You may even end up selling cheap energy to your tenants!

Especially relevant if you’re a low income housing provider.

Or you could just run out of energy, fresh air and hope.

Think about it.

Now you might say to yourself, what if a really cynical and penny pinching government prohibits the establishment of small business which is not generally presumed to attempt to make a profit for its operators?

That same legislation in whatever guise will be simply rendered irrelevant by using your negative geared investment to offset the purchase of further local infrastructure and business improvements. For example low voltage lighting systems and appliances, retro designing for energy efficiency i.e. landscaping including north facing deciduous vines, and the grey water catchment and reticulation. infrastructure to support it, the upgrading of power hungry appliances to low voltage energy efficient alternatives; will also ultimately encourage the clever Australian developing and manufacturing that technology to create the income security net for a Nation over reliant on one nest of eggs held overconfidently in the bows of a drought scoured tree at the mercy of the international economic gale.

Remember if you are able in these times of the 3 minute attention span, the mid Great War depression.

Not relevant? Whose free balling economy is tied to the US prime and at the whim of deliberate Chinese devaluation?

For goodness sake even the purchase of your office equipment and a portion of your mortgage interest can be levied to increase the potential of your small business to actually realise a profit after the first few years.

Fabulous, tariffs have increased for green energy inputs and you have retro designed efficiencies into your home and lifestyle and have started to make a profit from your little MES. so now you have to pay tax on your investment income!

If at that time you are one of the enlightened 10 to 25% using only peak time base load and selling surplus energy to small manufacturers, government departments and other daylight industry you will have contributed to the only war that really matters, the fight to maintain the security of the environmental future. The goal is a worthy one.

You will also have contributed to the growth of an infant industry that will inevitably expand into Australia’s immediate international neighbourhood. Into regions where there is little hope for a big future in large scale industrial power generation systems and transmition infrastructure for reasons which include geological and geographical phenomena which prohibit systems the like of which Australia enjoys. Political and economic instability which prohibit the large scale expenditure of both time and capital needed for industrial sized projects.

Reasons which also include the prohibition on funding for carbon producing large scale energy infrastructure in developing nations. A prohibition applied by the wealthy nations which caused the problem in the first instance, whilst reaping the wealth of the poorer nations and now applying that stolen / borrowed wealth to pressurise world lending institutions and manipulate their policies.

Well bugger me another ironic twist!

This is a serious essay however and I cannot stress enough my belief that something as simple as a small scale clean green and sustainable energy generation system produced with Australian ingenuity and made available with an empathy and common sense approach to a future international trade ethos could not only improve the living conditions and life expectancy of some of our poorer neighbours but it will also go along way toward establishing the stability and hence ‘security’ of a what may become an unstable and hostile regional environment.

Consider the implications of a region beset with more extreme natural events, no access to fuel supplies to satiate the aspirations of a new and emerging demanding middle class and the growing awareness of the imbalance between the haves and have nots.

Consider how that might seem to be linked to religious, ethnic and cultural differences as well as National ones and you have just the right fertiliser for security technologists to thrive in.

The regions I am discussing include but are not limited to the vast economic and cultural mass of Malaysia and Indonesia, the resource rich and already unstable region of Melanesia, PNG and the complex regional interrelationships involved with the responsibility inherent within our claim for governing influence amongst our closer strategic island neighbourhood.

The industry is also relevant to applications in North Korea, rural China, Africa, Afghanistan and Iraq

To name but a few environments where sensible energy alternatives will assist in bringing peace, stability and healthier living conditions.

Let’s share with the rest of the world what we have before somebody makes them think that it was always theirs first by divine right and should be claimed regardless with whatever means are at their disposal.

Power and potential!

And in the spirit of a true blue democratic capitalist, why not profit from it?

We are currently discussing the raising of a paper outlining the possibilities of developing community energy storage facilities suitable for environments where MES is popular and prevalent and how that could impact on community ethos and energy industry responses generally

Thanks for your attention; I hope the above has been of some use to you.

In Collaboration with S. Skutz / ACT

25/11/2007