12-17-2006
I just finished reading articles about the melting or non-existent snows in the higher altitudes of Africa and the Alps in Europe, as I am presently enjoying an unseasonably warm and snowless New England winter.
The temperatures are in the low-fifties fahrenheit north of Boston (we had a 70-degree day recently), November was about seven degrees F. warmer than average, and even the ski areas in the White and Green mountains display merely an occasional dusting of natural snow.
The top of Mount Washington right now, a place that can be dangerously cold in August, is presently 32 degrees F.
There was little nordic skiing to speak of last winter in northern New England, and it doesn't look good so far for my beloved areas such as Bretton Woods, at the foot of the typically Arctic Mount Washington. Is climate change at fault?
Should we care, or simply live in the moment and be grateful about the endless variety of conditions that Mother Nature bestows upon us? Climate scientists would balk at blaming local weather conditions on monolithic global warming; intellectually flimsy and uninformed conclusions. Chicken Little, right?
The "localized" reason New England is warmer is due to the northern position of the jet stream, which ultimately is affected by weather dynamics in the Pacific Ocean. If the jet stream were south of us, then cold Canadian air would be transported to New England.
The winter has been brutal in the Pacific Northwest, for instance.
How long can we deny, however, the gut feeling and mounting anecdotal evidence that the earth is warming at a rate that has damaging consequences economically and ecologically, as the debates swirl about in a feverish pitch about the finer points of climate science and whether mankind is at fault — and further whether humans can do anything about it. Both Poles are melting, for example, at a rate that has alarmed most geologists and climate scientists.
The biggest potential problem arising from the melting ice caps are rising sea levels. I'll be out on Plum Island near Newburyport on my mountainbike this morning, for instance. My GPS watch tells me that the island is give or take about 25 feet or less above sea level.
The article linked above this sentence discusses much higher sea level rises than 25 feet, should man-made greenhouse gas emissions continue to build up (a sea-level increase of up to 20 feet in the next several decades is probably already "in the bank" due to the current build-up of gases that we can no longer remedy).
I just returned from that mountainbike I mentioned, where I talked to a Plum Island ranger, who called the weather "weird," and mentioned that his hometown of Fort Kent in northern Maine, known for its brutal winters, has become so mild in a short period of time that the snowmobilers are often grounded (they should be riding bikes anyways!).
New England and the Alps are presently not having a winter, and Christmas is just around the bend. Alpine flowers are poking up through the grass and World Cup ski races have to be cancelled. Should we "don't worry, be happy?" This attitude seems mindless to me, given the economic and political consequences of a climate change that is rearing its ugly but balmy head.
Hey, just leave it for future generations to deal with, right?
12-02-2006
I recently had a solar hot-water system and photovoltaic modules installed with my residence here in Newbury, Massachusetts. The results are highly gratifying. We're using very little propane now to heat water, and the roof-mounted, grid-tied PV system generates at least 9-10 kilowatt hours on a sunny day. Here are the details, for those who are interested.
22 PV modules next to 3 solar HW collectors
The solar hot-water heater is a German-made, Schuco Slim V System, which involves three solar collectors mounted on the roof. The sun heats propylene glycol in a closed-loop system design, which in turn cycles the glycol back down to the basement tank to heat the water.
Solar heated water works like a charm; we feel like we have more hot water than we did with the (admittedly) smaller propane-fueled tank. The collectors can reach 170 degrees fahrenheit (77 Celsius), and I've seen the water reach 130 degrees F.
The system is linked to a digital device in the basement, with which you can monitor these temperatures.
At the moment, on a sunny, 45 degree F. day here in New England, our collectors check in at 128 degrees, with the water at 110, more than enough to satisfy the lovers of hot showers here!
The PV system involves an array of 22 PV modules nestled symmetrically beside the three collectors just mentioned.
The grid-tied design means that the PV set-up feeds the electricity these modules generate into the existing utility-connected system. If you have an efficient, small house, then an array of this size, generating anywhere from 10-20 kilowatt hours (kwH) or more per day, could supply two-thirds to all of your electricity. Bye bye utility; even better, the utility pays you for electricity.
Alas, our residence of four people and numerous animals exceeds 3000 square feet and currently uses too much electricity per day. We've taken several measures, including replacing an old refrigerator and installing compact-fluorescent lighting, so we've been able to knock down our consumption by about 30-40 percent compared with last year.
Enter the PV system, with which we hope to further reduce the electricity we buy from the utility by another 40 percent. I'll let you know how it goes.
The science and technology of PV systems is better explained at the highly useful Wikipedia, but here is a synopsis of the information I derived from there.
In the southern U.S. (where I do not live), the sun delivers about 4-6.5 kilowatt hours (kwH) on to a square meter of the earth per day (maybe half that here in the north). The modules I have on my roof are about a square meter in size; however, the solar cells that make up these modules can only absorb about 20 percent of this radiation effectively.
Therefore, each module could be expected to absorb and convert about one kwH per day. If you live in a sun-soaked southern place, then an array of about 22 square meters, like mine, could generate about 22 kwH per day, or better if you're lucky.
A good day for me here in the beginning of the New England winter (plus I have some shading), is 10 kwH for this system.
That does not sound like much, but the energy amounts to 5-10 kwH per day that has nothing to do with some megalomaniac in the Middle East; and it does not derive from rapidly dwindling, highly industrial and polluting resources in Canada, or the Gulf of Mexico, or the like. So the PV system represents tremendous value-added choice.
Our PV modules were manufactured by Evergreen Solar. Solectria, another local company, manufactures our inverter. The inverter is the device, connected to the PV electrical system, which converts direct current (DC) to the alternating current (AC) that a typical house uses when plugging appliances into wall plugs.
The solar hot-water and PV system was set-up and installed by our friends over at NexGen Energy Solutions. They did a great job; check them out if you have a desire to move your residence or business into solar.