Alternative Energy
By saying alternative energy, this often indicate usable energy other then fossil and nuclear, particularly Renewable Energy that do little harm to the nature.

Solar Energy
"Only 0.1% of land mass needed to power the entire human civilisation."
Abundance, intense, and nearly infinity source of energy - Sun. Since aeons mankind has worshipped Solar as god. And today, technology to harness the power of Sun has been developed, and some of the technology allow for storage of solar energy which can be made available at night or cloudy days.

Wind Energy
"The wind energy from just three states of America can power the whole country."
Nearly every corner of the Earth has wind. And with a wind turbine, which construct of simple technology: blades, gearbox and a small generator, we are able to harness the unlimited, renewable and free. Wind Energy is the fastest growing alternative energy in the world, as many has realised the benefit of wind. Wind turbine is something that can work silently and passively at your neighbourhood by merely taking even less space then some advertisement banner.

Hydroelectric Energy
The power of water, easily stored, easily managed, easily available at any possible time, hydroelectric power has already became one of the main source of energy. How far can this go? How possible can we do this without interfering too much on nature? Hydroelectric Power doesn't always means massive concrete block and sinking several eco system under a lake, micro hydro, a smaller of hydro power, can supply electricity to a community and has much lesser ecological influence.

Post will be updated occasionally.

Old post below


This post has been edited by rexis: Aug 26 2009, 05:35 PM

The term "Alternative Energy" indicate an unconventional source of energy. As the term indicate, it is alternative ways of doing the same thing of generating power, and sort of give impression like cannot be used as the primary solution.

And this stage of development, there isn't any example of countries with primary source/base load as alternative/renewable energy, most of them serve as compliment to the base load which usually relying on fossil fuel.

However, base load renewable energy is completely possible, perhaps the incurred cost will be higher, but there are already some prototypes which relying mainly on renewable energy. For example, solar tower. It made of a series of mirrors which deflect sunlight and focus them on a single point, sort of like what a converging lens do, and the focus point will generate intense high temperature which is utilized to heat steam and spin turbine. It has an energy storage system consist of hot molten salt which enable energy supply at night.

We have a sunny sky and hence plenty of solar energy, but the possibility to install a large arrays of mirrors is small and might be better to utilize our averagely green and fertile soil into agriculture. Installing solar panel on every roof top might not justify the cost as our resources are rather limited it is not a good way to spend our tax payers money, and we are not ready to pay a premium for expensive solar energy either. Small scale solar facility might be workable but it will be far from contributing a significant amount to our national needs.

Finland is a world leader in wind energy, they have the highest wind energy usage in the world. According to them, a base load energy source from an unpredictable source like wind energy can be completely possible. They have went far into developing wind energy, one of the latest wind farm they started is floating wind farm, a series of floating wind tunnel located off shore, eliminated the need to allocate lands for wind farms. Wind energy is the fastest developing alternative energy in the world.

But be it whatever kind of alternative we might look into, the most important thing to do now is to minimize waste of electricity, as we all aware of, TNB is buying electricity from IPP, and the contract work like TNB has to purchase all the agreed electricity generated, regardless of whether there is a demand or not, this result in wasting of precious energy fuel and must be properly managed. IPP will continue to squeeze TNB to purchase more electricity for their own profit, rather than to meet the demand. That is why we should tackle this problem first before we seriously look into alternative energy, otherwise, any extra source is just some more wastage.

Perhaps I have spent too much time in RWI, but it is undeniable fact that government is the one to decide whether certain alternative energy will kick start.

Rather then relying on one single source of alternative, it is recommended to make them compliment each other. And when all has failed, we still can kick in our diesel generators.

Perhaps it is not wise to follow blindly what others have, we should develop a technology that fits ourself most. Wave energy is 24/7 and is unlimited, with the long sea shore we have, but there isn't any working model just yet to generate power with it. Biomass however, is something that considered something that is quite accessible.

With the intense agriculture activity we have, and the warm climate we live in, we only have the problem to dispose biomass rather then acquire it. Each and every palm oil mill we have is potentially a net power producer, some by burning empty fruit branch, while some construct bio digester for their waste and collection of methane, to meet their energy demand, and often with a surplus.

Of course, at the rate nowadays we are consuming energy, biomass can never meet most of our demand, but it work as a compliment to our national grid.

I read some article about an interesting comparison of nuclear energy and solar. That all our river water and sea water contain some tiny bit if dissolved uranium originate from the earth crust. If we filter the river water before the flow into sea for dissolved uranium as reactor fuel, it would be more then enough to power up the entire planet, and it will last longer then our sun. And since river water is renewable, so uranium can be considered as sort of renewable as well.

Most importantly, nuclear power is massive enough to satisfy our power hungry needs. It can function as base load, as well as peak load alone.

But then, one of the weakness of nuclear energy is that it is being too massive. Any slight error will render the entire city inhabitable for the next 10000 years and pollution to the entire continent, permanently. So it is like a double edge sword, with one end extremely useful, and the other extremely deadly. There are promises that nuclear reactor technology is quite matured, but then, people just can't be too sure about it.

No one can be so sure about fusion reactor, so far the biggest experimental fusion reactor ITER is already a friggin huge installation, can't imagine what kind of size the real thing will be. But who knows, 500 years later we can fit a fusion reactor into a vehicle.

And talk about solar, being the most reliable energy source in space, there are a proposal which involved a satellite with large solar panels launched into orbit, and transmitting energy back to earth via microwave. Now this is something that unaffected by weather, renewable, and reliable. The only problem is cost.

Wave energy is yet another renewable source that is available for 24/7, however it is extremely difficult to harvest this multi directional, slow, and strong energy. Constructing such device must be able to withstand storm and weather condition too. But it is not impossible. A commercial example of wave farm generator is the Pelamis(aka Sea Snake) Wave Energy Converter. source

Three of these thing can produce enough power for 1500 families, it is certainly not low.

This post has been edited by rexis: Aug 10 2009, 01:06 AM

When dreamer mentioned something about alternative fuel up there, remind me about our national biofuel plan, which never take off. Not too sure if it is because the gov isn't dedicated enough to bother about alternative fuel, or we just can't afford to sacrifice our economical growth into some biofuel plan.

Whenever we mentioned biofuel, we will heard something about biodiesel from palm oil, aka EnvoDiesel. But the main purpose of it is more like burning up our ever increasing palm oil stock, rather then have anything to do with renewable or environmental. We can see that whenever palm oil price go down below margin, we will see someone start talking about burning it in diesel engines.

There are nearly unlimited supply of agricultural cellulosic waste and it is a very good idea to make something out of it. Just by burning the fibre in a coal fired power plant, you get renewable energy.

Technology to convert plant fibre into vehicle fuel is already available, and has already made possible in mass production. By using this technology, we will turn whatever supposed to be waste into vehicle fuel, and cut, if not eliminate, petroleum usage.

What is stopping us from using this technology?

One thing, cost. Petroleum, sad to say, it still too cheap for any cellulosic ethanol to kick in. Especially for a government like the one we have which always put money/growth in the first place.

Not only the government is not giving any incentives in encouraging any alternative fuel development, there is no foreseeable plans being done by the gov to develop any alternative fuel, aren't they?

China is not another planet. We only have one planet, and there isn't any law AFAIK to prevent people from using solar panels came from polluting factories.

As the above stated(and the source given by other forummers), we cannot just make solar panels and label it as green energy on the marketing brochure. "Green energy" is not just some advertising gimmicks(which most of the time it turned out to be), it is a responsibility.

Other then busy cashing in tonnes of profit, we much make sure our responsibility to protect the environment. As Alternative Energy do not mean Alternative Pollution.

Googled a bit and I found this: source
In a large scaled photovoltaic system, we can minimize the usage of silicone material by using a high efficiency panel and mirrors to deflect solar energy on a smaller piece of solar panel.

Or use solar thermal generators which use focused solar beam to generate heat to push steam turbine. source

Given enough R&D, solar energy will be able to reach its maximum potential, efficiency, and feasibility.

This post has been edited by rexis: Aug 12 2009, 01:41 PM

As mentioned, governmental encouragement is still play a very important role in widespread use of alternative energy. And when there is no demand on solar panel, how can something being developed to its max potential?

The point is the dedication of gov in developing alternative and clean energy. Such as the wind farms in Australia, and their crystal clean city buses that run on CNG.

Saying some alternative energy won't work, and sit on old and dirty coal power plant, won't save the day. You tried, and at least you gave people the message to be sustainable.

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The gasification process and the FT process has long existed since before World War II, due to embargo, the German has to make air craft fuel via gasification of firewood. Commercial refinery reform natural gas into methanol or DME by FT process.

There are no new technology under the sun, we are merely developing a more efficient ways to utilize it.

Think geothermal, think Iceland.

Geothermal power feed 89% of their primary energy needs.

The down side of geothermal is that it is largely depends on geographical condition with volcanic activities. We don't have any volcanic activities within Malaysia although we do have several hot spring for mandi. It might be not sufficient enough to generate any power with it, or it is not a good idea to turn some tourist attraction like Poring Hot Spring into a borehole with huge power station sitting on top.

But then, we will never know if there isn't any expert do some study on it.

Btw, we could use some thought sharing, not some pop quiz or 1001 science questions.

Of course there is never enough. Certain that solar power still have unimaginable potential yet to be unlocked, and this can only achieve via dedicated research and practical application. We have the technology, and we need to dedicate more energy into refining the technology. And improvement like that can never stop. When "enough" here it would mean sufficient effort applied and it is practical enough to become one of the major alternative energy, or even replacing our primary energy source.

Do you mean saving resources from fusion to put into solar research? No doubt fusion required considerable research before it is feasible, but that is something that is not yet a reality. Perhaps it will benefit us with unlimited energy after some 100+ years. It won't help us immediately, but the synergy is there. Things has to be carried out simultaneously.

Meanwhile, what do you think will actually work for real life then? Apart from building more and bigger coal fired power station.

(When talk about coal fired power station, there are still amber room for improvement, like clean coal fired station which capture all the CO2 emission and produce no smoke at all, etc.)

This post has been edited by rexis: Aug 13 2009, 01:53 PM

Unimaginable potential, bro. As what you mentioned that the cost will go down in time. Who knows in not so distance future, we just send our electric car to paint shop for solar panel spray for battery recharge.

High efficiency solar panel is practical when it is for outer space application, where we seek for the highest efficiency and reliability per unit weight at all cost, for each gram reduced would result in astronomical savings in fuel cost. But high cost solar panel is not feasible for civilian use, like the idea of installing high efficiency but expensive solar panel on each roof could generate considerable amount of energy, but is clearly impractical.

When it is something on the ground, we wouldn't mind if it taking a little bit more space for low cost photovoltaic, we wouldn't mind if it is a bit bulky to use solar thermal collectors like solar towersolar tower or parabolic trough.

41%? That's super high. It is already in the high zone when the solar board reached 20%+

Be it solar or biomass, there is just too little application locally. Much of the biomass energy in padi field wasted by contributing to haze, meanwhile the palm oil refinery do generate surplus of energy by burning EFB, but AFAIK none of them feeding it back to the grid.

I just don't see our gov has any foreseeable plan to cut our dependency on fossil fuel.

Solar is just part of the puzzle to renewable energies needs.

Physical efficiency has nothing to do with popular use, financial efficiency, yes.

Take a simple example, diesel engines have much higher efficiency then petrol engine, why Malaysian mostly drive petrol cars? It is because our law make it much more expensive to drive diesel car. Not to say that Gov has taxed any solar panel, but solar panel is very expensive by nature, and our electricity is relatively cheap and make it financially impractical to install solar panels.

Governmental encouragement(not only by words) and dedication plays a vital role in widespread use of renewable energies. Take Spain for example, they have extensive renewable energies use in Solar, Wind, and the only Wave farm in the world. In order to reach the target of cutting 20% emission by 2020, their government has taken the initiative and made policies that encourage renewable energies.

We have our own solar maker here, do we make use of the solar panels they made?

This post has been edited by rexis: Aug 14 2009, 09:04 AM

Exactly.

I can argue with bgeh here until page 100 about solar, but the main problem here is that our gov is short sighted, thirst for short term gain, and prioritise profit. Being a developing country, we can ignore Kyoto Protocol and do not think about cutting emission just yet.

Even our energy security is at stake. We can be easily affected by sky rocketing petroleum price, and even if petroleum price came down, TNB say they are burning imported coal. And the latest I read about we need to import natural gas to meet our own demand because all our gas exported under the pricing some decades ago.

In short, its a big mess. And in long, what can we do to get our foot out of this mess.

And I do not think that NUKE is the solution.

And another point made here too.

The challenge here is to develop alternative energy to be practical enough that even without government intervention, people will still use it.

Just like what above mentioned, how to get those energy into the car without giving up any performance and comfort. We already have the technology to make a car run without fossil fuel and with even higher performance, but we just can't make it cheap enough.

Please note that it is only Peninsular Malaysia that has surplus, while Sabah and Sarawak towns are having daily blackout. Constructing an underwater cable could at least help utilizing those extra power.

It is true that no point to develop expensive alternative energy just to waste it. It should go two way, efficient use of energy must receive attention as well.

This post has been edited by rexis: Aug 16 2009, 09:00 AM

The project is expected to be completed by 2010.

Before any hydro-electric dam is functional, we are running diesel power plants here.

You are prolly right about the power grid thou, but we have poor grid in peninsular, and even worst grid in the East Malaysia.

And about the underwater power transmission cable, there maybe isn't any urgency to complete it, because peninsular already have surplus, TNB already signed contract with IPP to buy all their powers for so and so years, they can't get rid of them just like that due to legal issues. But for Bakun Dam, it is vital for powering up East Malaysia properly, people are living in the dark here.

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Added on August 26, 2009, 5:37 pmNuclear power is generally not classified as alternative energy.

BTW, first post updated for more relevant content.

This post has been edited by rexis: Aug 26 2009, 05:37 PM