13.12.2009

The process consists of fusing nuclei rather than splitting a nucleus as happens in ordinary nuclear-fission power plants. In a fission reaction, the nucleus of a uranium atom is split into two smaller atoms, releasing energy in the form of heat. The heat is used to make steam, which drives a turbine and generates electricity. In fusion energy, the second half of this process (heat makes steam makes electricity) remains the same. But instead of splitting the nucleus of an atom, you’re trying to force a deuterium nucleus to merge, or fuse, with a tritium nucleus. When that happens, you produce helium and throw off energy. Currently scientists at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) are trying to create a tiny pellet that will contain a few milligrams of deuterium and tritium, isotopes of hydrogen that can be extracted from water. If you blast the pellet with a powerful laser, you can create a reaction like the one that takes place at the center of the sun. Harness that reaction, and you’ve created a star on earth, and with the heat from that star you can generate electricity without creating any pollution. Scientists have been trying to produce energy with fusion for decades. So far, they keep failing. It’s not that fusion itself can’t be achieved. Fusion takes place in every hydrogen-bomb explosion. The trick is controlling fusion so that instead of a one-time blast you get a series of tiny, controllable explosions. The product that NIF is trying to build is called Laser Inertial Fusion Energy LIFE). If successful LIFE would produce energy with no carbon emissions, from a fuel that is cheap and abundant

Google PowerMeter is a free electricity usage monitoring tool that provides consumers with information on how much energy their home is consuming. Google PowerMeter receives information from utility smart meters and in-home energy management devices and visualizes this information on iGoogle. Studies show that being able to see ones electricity usage in near real time, throughout the day, makes it easier to reduce it and save money. This sort of feedback requires either an advanced electricity meter, a “smart meter” or a consumer-owned electricity management device, and many of today’s smart meters don’t display information to the consumer.

Since the regulation was published in Israel in July 2008 regarding the generation of solar electricity, businesses to install roof top solar technology have budded. The method behind the concept is as follows: energy companies publish a “roof requested” notice and then they install the facility on the roofs of the owners of the premises such as petrol stations, malls, industrial plants, etc. using three different kinds of business models. The first model is to rent the roof and the payment of a monthly fee for using it, so that the entity that gains from the electricity generation is the energy company rather than the roof top owner. In the second model, the company only sells and installs the solar equipment and the roof owner enjoys any gains from the sale of electricity. The third model is a hybrid of the first two whereas the energy company and the roof owner jointly benefit from the gains of the sale of electricity. Based on a result carried out by Calcalist in December 2009, this solar trend has certain financial disadvantages, such as: (1) tax burden – any income from industrial solar generation facilities larger than 4 KW are bound by the regular tax regulations so that income could be taxed up to 44%. (2) In addition, no system works 100% of the time at 100% efficient, but rather at a maximum efficiency of 95%-98%, due to maintenance needs, break-downs, dirty panels, or even shade passing momentarily over one small part of the system is sufficient to significantly decrease its production efficiency by dozens of percentage points. (3) Every 8 years (life span is between 5-10 years) it is necessary to change the converter at a cost of at least 120 thousand shekels. (4) The need to take on long term financial obligations – many times the facility is financed with prime linked loans. With such long term loans, the prime could increase significantly. In addition, the equipment is likely to lose 5% of its income value each year. One also needs to take into account the risks involved in undertaking 20 year financial obligations, such as if one wants to sell the property, change the purpose of the land/property, possible theft or breakage of the system or damage caused by weather (such as thunder and storms). (5) Insurance/guarantees are not included in the purchase price – although the energy companies offer a guarantee for the installation of the facility, this guarantee is far from all encompassing. In fact, profits are due to stream in as of year 8 of the installation and continue under the best circumstances for 20 years. However, no guarantee will be worth anything, if the energy company or the manufacturer of the equipment encounters financial difficulties and does not outlast the 20 year term