And the Show Went On

Whale Coast Conservation hosted the first of its monthly talks for 2015 at the Green House last night. There was some concern from members of the audience that the load shedding in the area would prevent speaker Sean Privett from showing his beautiful fynbos images. Of course they need not have worried. WCC is completely independent of Eskom power trough …

Solar Water Heater

In most homes the geyser is the appliance that uses the most electricity. Geysers use electricity all day to keep the water in the tank constant. This requires much electricity, resulting in much coal being fired with air pollution as a result.

How Green Is Our House?

Whale Coast Conservation is not just talking green, we have gone green. Our new home on the R43, between Hawston and Vermont, called the Green House, is going green with sustainable off-grid technology.  We have 18 photovoltaic panels that produce most of our electricity, especially on sunny days. In addition there are 3 horizontal axis wind turbines on the roof and …

Home Sweet Lab

Computerized House to Generate as Much Energy as It Uses In a ribbon-cutting ceremony today, the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) unveiled a new laboratory designed to demonstrate that a typical-looking suburban home for a family of four can generate as much energy as it uses in a year. Following an initial year-long experiment, the …

Low Cost, High Efficiency Solar Technology Developed

Researchers at RTI International have developed a new solar technology that could make solar energy more affordable, and thus speed-up its market adoption. The RTI solar cells are formed from solutions of semiconductor particles, known as colloidal quantum dots, and can have a power conversion efficiency that is competitive to traditional cells at a fraction of the cost. Solar energy …

Gansbaai Energy Road Show

30 MAY 2012 Bravo Gansbaai! What a pleasure it was to visit such a vibrant community. Whale Coast Conservation brought its sustainable energy roadshow – funded by Lotto – to Gansbaai on Wednesday 30 May.  The expo was enthusiastically hosted by Laerskool Gansbaai in their school hall, and that enthusiasm was the keynote for the entire day. Each class visited …

Electricity and Carbon Dioxide Used to Generate Alternative Fuel

ScienceDaily (Mar. 29, 2012) — Imagine being able to use electricity to power your car — even if it’s not an electric vehicle. Researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have for the first time demonstrated a method for converting carbon dioxide into liquid fuel isobutanol using electricity.     Today, electrical energy generated by various methods …

WCC Sustainable Energy Expo

WHALE COAST CONSERVATION’S SUSTAINABLE ENERGY EXPO Are you committing the ‘energy crime’ and you don’t even realise it? Just how fast will the kids have to turn a merry-go-round to boil the water for that cuppa?  Have you ever wondered how a generator works?  What about using the energy in the waves of Walker Bay for our long-term energy needs? …