ALTERNATIVE FUELS FOR THE FUTURE

SOLAR:YOU'VE HEARD of cash in the attic, well how about making some cash above the attic?

Solar-photovoltaic (PV) systems on the roof convert the sun's energy into electricity, and some countries offer attractive feed-in tariff incentives to encourage businesses to invest in them.

Different to solar-thermal panels, PV is considered to be still in its infancy in Ireland and is at present mostly used to drive small devices such as parking meters.

"Photo-voltaic means the conversion of sunlight into electricity, whereas other types of solar panel will use the heat of the sun to heat water," explains Jerry Stokes, president of Suntech Europe, a Chinese-owned company that sells PV systems around the world.

"Globally, the market is growing at 40 per cent a year, with Europe leading the way," he says, adding that last year Suntech's sales in Europe were worth $1 billion (€635 million) dollars.

Germany, in particular, is embracing PV, with 130,000 new connections to the grid last year. This is spurred on by a generous feed-in tariff for the electricity that's exported from individual PV modules on to the shared power system.

"You can get a better return on your investment as a consumer investor than you can get in the bank, between 6 and 8 per cent," says Stokes.

European banks are often happy to help finance PV installation, too. So the consumer often only has to come up with around 10-15 per cent of the cost of installing the silicon panels themselves. Increasing demand will push the cost down over the next few years, says Stokes, as the company ramps up its supply.

WIND

When Larry Staudt decided to build a wind turbine on campus at the Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT), there were no planning objections.

Now the 60-foot turbine, which has been operating since 2005, provides around 50 per cent of the college's electricity needs.

Transported to Dundalk in segments and assembled over two days, the turbine is connected to the college side of the meter and is known as an "auto-producer," explains Staudt's colleague Ray Byrne, a researcher at the Centre for Renewable Energy at DkIT.

"Any electricity the turbine generates will come to the college if the demand is there. Then if it's windy and at the weekend, any excess of electricity generated will go out to the grid. But at the moment, we get little if anything for that."

The Danish-produced turbine generates between 1.5 and 1.8 million units of electricity per year, halving DkIT's dependence on grid electricity.

GAS TO ENERGY

Most people think of landfill as a dead end. But an enterprising approach is to use the rubbish for renewable energy, in the form of by-product gas that can be converted into electricity.

Waste company Greenstar recycles as much as possible before putting the remaining rubbish into one of its four landfill sites around the country, says their head of landfill operations and development, Margaret Heavey.

But that's not the end of it. At their site in Kilcullen, Co Kildare, they bore holes into the landfill so by-product gases like methane and carbon dioxide - from the breakdown of biodegradable matter - can leak out.

Then they suck the gas out and burn the methane to generate electricity in a system that links in with the national grid.

The company plans to implement the gas-to-energy scheme, which is a joint venture with German company Gas, in all four landfill sites. When that's complete, they will generate 16 megawatts per year combined, enough to power between 20,000 and 30,000 houses.