Microgeneration

The Guardian, a British newspaper, yesterday reported:

British buildings equipped with solar, wind and other micro power equipment could generate as much electricity in a year as five nuclear power stations, a government-backed industry report showed today.

Commissioned by the Department for Business, Energy and Regulatory Reform (DBERR), the report says that if government chose to be as ambitious as some other countries, a combination of loans, grants and incentives could lead to nearly 10m microgeneration systems being installed by 2020.

Such a large scale switch to microrenewable energy could save 30m tonnes of CO2 – the equivalent of nearly 5% of all UK electricity.

The report estimates that there are nearly 100,000 microgeneration units already installed in Britain. Nearly 90,000 of these are solar water heaters, with limited numbers of biomass boilers, photovoltaic panels, heat pumps, fuel cells, and small-scale hydroelectric and windpower schemes.

Likewise, the vast majority of microgeneration systems installed here in Taiwan are solar water heaters. There's not the space for private wind turbines, but as photovoltaic cells become cheaper and more efficient, the government should make it easy for homeowners to set up net metering systems.

South Taiwan is very suitable: Kaohsiung gets 2,139 hours of sunshine per year; Tainan enjoys 2,649 hours. Many apartment buildings have flat roofs, and residents will likely be interested in a scheme that means, instead of paying a monthly management fee for building upkeep, they earn a few dollars every once in a while.