This was step number one for me.
Vegetable oil used on solar panels.
Renewable energy at kettle brand we re continuously exploring ways to reduce the carbon footprint of our facilities.
The fuel source was vegetable oil.
Aggreko s generators at the festival ran on hydrotreated vegetable oil which is derived from a mix of 100 per cent used vegetable oils and waste fats.
The festival s green fields hq ran entirely on solar power for the duration of the festival which were combined with battery storage systems.
The most energy intensive phases will be the production and purification of the silicon or other sem.
While cooking oil is not an abundant prep in most people s homes it can be used to make candles and lanterns.
The ultimate way to compare solar energy to fossil fuels is by cost where solar has quickly caught up with its non renewable counterparts.
There is at least one 5 mw power plant that runs on biodiesel.
Then it makes energy with no energy cost at all for the rest of its life.
Even ten years ago this study said it takes about 2 years of energy generation to pay back the energy used to make the solar panel.
Other methods like nuclear power fusion power wind power and solar power may provide cheaper electricity so vegetable oil may only be used in peaking power plants and small power plants as diesel is limited to today.
So a solar panel will make many times more energy than it takes to make it.
In terms of reliable application coal and natural gas have the edge.
Probably the most popular way to use solar energy in the garden these units store solar energy collected via a small photovoltaic panel during the day in batteries within the unit.
It works quite well if you construct something like a vegetable oil lantern.
Clearly the amount of oil used will vary depending upon the source of electricity utilized during the most energy intensive phases of production.
In 2003 we partnered with the energy trust of oregon portland general electric and others to install one of the largest grid tied solar pv arrays in the pacific northwest at the time a 114 kw 3 phase system designed and installed by advanced energy systems of eugene oregon.
Solar energy is touted by some as the solution to the world s energy woes but the process of making the various components requires fossil fuels both for power and for the components themselves.
Using solar power to get fossil fuels out of the ground will strike some as ironic especially since if that method weren t available the high cost of extracting the oil might lead to more.