Renewable energy, untapped resource
Switching to renewable energy would do more for South Africa than save fossil fuels and reduce carbon emissions - it could employ thousands of people and economically revive poverty-stricken rural towns.
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has developed a model centred on a solar power station that uses an industrial ecology approach that would give rise to entire eco-friendly industries.
Louis Waldeck, fellow at the CSIR's built environment, said a world survey of solar resources showed that Australia has 25 percent of the resources, as did the rest of the world. "The remaining resources are in Africa. There is huge industrial development potential here," he said.
Waldeck and a team of scientists hope to build a small-scale experimental model of the power station and related infrastructure at the CSIR's facility in Brummeria, but require the necessary funding.
Waldeck said they planned to build the prototype on an identified piece of land on the north west corner of the campus near the N4 highway.
He said about R40-million was required to buy the parts, assemble them and commission the prototype solar power station. "That will generate about 100kw on power.
"The research project is intended to determine the feasibility of establishing independent power producers in 40 small rural municipalities.
"Each of these would run as private sector entities and their core income would come from selling electricity back into grid at the renewable energy feed-in tariffs," he said.
Waldeck said the idea was to use renewable energy as a catalyst for renewal of small rural towns and to assist in service delivery.
The concept goes beyond the solar plant, he explained, and is based on industrial ecology - by mimicking what happens in nature, the waste of one process becomes the nutrient or input in another.
In this case, electricity would be generated from the sun, biofuel would be generated from municipal waste and algae whose growth is accelerated by the excess heat used to power the turbine.
Using heliostats - large mirrors that direct the sun's rays - air would be heated to create pressure to turn a turbine which would generate electricity.
Urban sustainable science principal researcher Dr Chrisna du Plessis said the prototype would allow the team to fine tune the concept.
She said the solar receiver would be linked to a gas turbine. "We would use waste water from the small town to grow algae which is used to make bio-diesel.
"The bio-diesel would be used to run the turbine at night so there is a 24-hour supply of electricity," she said.
Waldeck said to generate electricity from a thermal source, for every one unit of electricity generated, you would require three units of thermal energy.
"A conventional power station puts that heat back into the atmosphere. With the industrial ecology approach we say that we cannot afford to waste that energy.
"We use the waste heat to accelerate the growth of algae which is used to create bio-fuels," he said.
Du Plessis said the production of bio-fuels was often criticised because of a perception that food that could have been used for human consumption was being used to create fuel. But not in this case. "There is no stealing here. We breed the algae specifically for the bio-fuel. We create the source from waste instead of using food, and create energy from waste," she said.
Waldeck said a site like they envisage could employ a few hundred people per site which translates into several thousands jobs across the country.
"There is a great knock-on effect for a small town," he said.
Pretoria News
Posted at 08:19AM Mar 31, 2010 by Editor in Residential |