Future developments

Microgeneration - make it yourself

Posted by Nigel Ellis, 19 June 2009 08:27:25

Reducing our carbon footprint probably commands more column inches in the press than just about any other subject except MPs’ expenses and Britain’s Got Talent.

As your energy supplier, Atlantic Energy needs to provide you with the energy you require in a sustainable way. And we're investing considerable sums in renewable energy generation and energy efficiency.

Another solution to ‘de-carbonising’ home energy use, however, is to make your own energy from renewable microgeneration technologies.

What is microgeneration?

Microgeneration means the generation of heat or power by individual people or small organisations. It includes solar photovoltaic power, solar hot water, ground- and air-source heat pumps, biomass and wind turbines.

There has been a considerable amount of interest and investment in this sector, including government support to deploy these technologies. But there’s also a great deal of confusion about the viability and practicality of these systems for domestic use.

What do you think?

Would you consider installing any of these in your home? If so, what barriers do you see in doing so?

What could Atlantic Energy do, or indeed other agencies do to encourage the uptake of these systems in our homes?

What are your views generally on the various technologies and their suitability for you as a solution to reducing your carbon footprint?

Do you think there is sufficient information and support to help you in making sense of this complicated subject?

As always we would like to hear from you, and your opinion helps us in improving our service to you.

Find out more

You can find out about our microgeneration tariff and other special offers in our Microgeneration section.

Please comment on this post

Please comment on this post 'Microgeneration - make it yourself'

1 / MG said,

I think its a great idea. perhaps atlantic should invest in an independent organisation which deals with home power saving and generating gadgets, tips and tools. You can also consider including subsidies on efforts on making greener homes. Maybe put up some innovative competitions on greener homes. There are great minds out there and there might be some fab ideas sitting out there now.

on 07 July 2009 17:43:23

2 / Nigel Ellis said,

Hi MG,

Thanks for leaving a comment.

We do have an investment in a company which specialises in home automation and energy-saving gadgets. The company is called Smarthome and they provide home automation expertise.

We are actively investigating home automation 'platforms' which ultimately will link in to smart metering to allow for more home automation products for the future.

Thanks again,

Nigel

on 10 July 2009 10:48:51

3 / Mr Scott said,

The benefits of domestic microgeneration are massively over-hyped;-
1) Photo-voltaic in the UK will never provide sufficient power for other than some low level lighting. This assumes you have a bright sunny day, a large bungalow roof expanse facing South completely covered with cells, and sufficent battery storage. Of course cost will have be of no consequence to the gullable homeowner.
2) Domestic wind turbines whilst slightly better than voltaic cells, also suffer significant inadequacies. Sufficient battery storage is cost prohibitive. Average wind speeds used to estimate potential generation capacity of a given turbine are over exagerated. Finaly the turbine costs (if contraints above are met) to provide a daily minimum 5-7kWhr (excluding heating), for an average day in an average week, for an ecconomical single-person household, would be in the range of £15k-£20 (plus maintenance).
3) Water turbines offer some chance to the lucky homeowner who can dam a stream at the bottom of their garden!
To sumarize, stop fantisizing over renewables and put any and all funding into nuclear, it IS the only viable low-carbon solution. All these commercial wind turbines will still need to be FULLY backed-up (ie generating capcity duplicated) by nuclear for the several calm days each year when little wind.
That's all....now people and politicians get serious about the problem of low-carbon.

on 04 March 2010 19:51:50

4 / Clive Coston said,

Feed in Tariff
I've been searching the Atlantic website for information on how to convert my electricity account to Feed in Tariff. I've found nothing. Can you advise please?

on 20 April 2010 16:21:59

5 / Nigel Ellis said,

Thanks for your question Clive. We've recently updated the website and there is a large 'Being green' section which includes information on Micro-renewable energy.

The link for the specific Feed-in Tariff page is : http://www.atlanticeg.co.uk/BeingGreen/Microrenewables/FeedInTariff/

I hope this gives you the information you're after.

on 21 April 2010 08:36:36

6 / Tim Hadley said,

Has any one with pv cells experienced problems with lightning strikes?

on 01 May 2010 14:45:09

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