I think we need a forth thread about climate change, one that does bring it down to the personal level. This does not necessary mean that I or somebody else must be frugal or a vegan or both. To me it means to look into what I can do to a problem that is so much bigger than me. And where I can initiate something on a small scale that can possibly grow.
It does not really help anybody if I live like a saint (environmentally I mean) if I do not work on having as many people as possible doing the same thing.
The ATA forum should be ideally suited for this kind of discussion. I suppose most ATA members and/or ReNew readers are interested in some sort of technology, but technology with a purpose. And one of the major drivers should be to use renewable energy and do something about climate change.
The niche I am trying to fill is to develop systems that make use of solar thermal energy in some less common ways. Solar thermal is much easier to do on my own than PV or wind, as those technologies require usually much more specialized skills and tools. My starting point is using solar collectors with evacuated glass tubes. They are incredibly efficient. In pure thermal applications they beat the efficiency of PV several times. If imported in container loads from China they are also low cost.
One of my first projects has been solar cooking, using steam produced from the solar collectors. There is no real need for that in Australia as despite of the complaints of many people about electricity bills, our electricity prices are far too cheap to cover the true cost and to encourage alternatives. However there is a need in the world as about 2 billion people (about the population of 100 Australias!) have to rely on wood or dung for cooking. As I went on, I learned that there are many other advantages of solar cooking, but I don't want to take too much space here. So far I have introduced these systems at my own cost to Vanuatu and to Kenya, and I am planning to do the same thing in Vietnam.
Where I could need some help is in discussing some improvements like using the steam energy to drive a small pump that supplies the water back to the steam generator. The efficiency is not critical as I need only about 10 L of water during a day. But reliability and long life at low cost is important.
Another idea is to use the steam to create a vacuum using an injector. The vacuum can be used to evaporate water and create cooling for air conditioning or similar. Unfortunately I lack a sophisticated workshop and I would appreciate co-operating with someone who does things with a lathe. A lathe would also be required to build a steam engine. As the steam is low pressure, only a vacuum steam engine (James Watt type) makes sense.
Space heating and energy storage are some other very promising projects, even and especially for applications in Australia.
