Green technologies

'With existing technologies that we basically already have on the shelf or things that we know we can develop in a very rapid period of time, we could literally reduce the human footprint on Planet Earth by 90%.'

Kenny Ausubel, social entrepreneur, author, journalist and filmmaker.

Environmental or ‘Green’ technologies and sustainable design are helping to reduce the impact of human activity on our world and build a sustainable future. Green technologies are also being applied to restoring and preserving ecosystems, waste and waste water treatment, and water purification.

Many green technologies are available now

You can:

• switch to energy-saving light bulbs
• write with pens and pencils made from recycled materials
• use rechargeable batteries
• buy products packaged in biodegradable plastic
• play tunes and watch videos on a wind-up eco media player
• wear trainers made from sustainable and recycled materials
• power your mobile phone and iPod with a portable solar powered charger.

In Scotland, you can switch to a green energy tariff, micro-generate your own electricity, drive a hybrid car or a car that’s fuelled by ethanol or biodiesel, or ride a scooter powered by a lithium ion battery. People are taking personal action to reduce their impact on Planet Earth.

The Scottish Government plans to make Scotland a global leader in green technology.

'…we must take the lead in the green energy revolution. This country has played a hugely influential role in the development of green technology but we need to take that to another level. I want Scotland to become the pre-eminent location for clean energy research and development in Europe.

Becoming a world leader in the development of renewable technology provides a happy marriage of economic advantage and meeting the fundamental challenges of climate change head on. We have the natural resources, the know-how and the skills for Scotland to become the green energy capital of Europe… '
Alex Salmond, First Minister

Renewable energy technologies are not new. For thousands of years people have harnessed wind and water power to drive machinery. Windmills and waterwheels have evolved into wind turbines and hydroelectricity as we look for eco-friendly ways to generate power in the 21st century.

Wind power

One natural resource that Scotland has plenty of is wind.

It is estimated that the 42 wind turbines of the Black Law Wind Farm near Forth in Lanarkshire save around 200,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year, powering around 70,000 homes.

As well as large wind farms owned by energy companies, Scotland has a number of community-owned wind turbines.

In the community-owned Isle of Gigha three 225kW wind turbines, known locally as ‘the dancing ladies’, are generating more than enough energy for the whole island. The islanders now sell the extra energy to the National Grid. In 2006 Gigha Renewable Energy Ltd announced a net profit of £100,000 in its first full year of operation. Profits from the wind turbines are being reinvested in the local community - building new homes and improving existing housing as the population of the island increases.

'The Gigha wind turbines have proved that communities can generate substantial income from renewable energy. The Gigha project model will soon be replicated by other communities throughout the Highlands and Islands, providing a valuable income source to be re-invested in other locally based community projects.'
Lorne MacLeod, chairman of Highlands and Islands Community Energy Company (HICEC)

The world's largest wind turbine is being tested in the North Sea, near the Beatrice Oil Field, 15 miles off the east coast of Scotland. The turbine tower is 120 metres tall and weighs over 900 tonnes. Each turbine blade is 61.5 metres long.

Hydroelectricity and wave energy

Hydroelectric dams have been generating electricity in Scotland for decades.

One of the best known systems is at Loch Faskally, Pitlochry. The dam at Pitlochry Hydro Power Station - with its salmon ladder - is a popular tourist attraction. The 15 MW Pitlochry Station is part of the Tummel hydro-electric power scheme.

Cruachan Power Station, near Oban, was the world's first ‘high head reversible pumped storage hydro scheme’, constructed between 1959 and 1965. Cruachan mountain was hollowed out to hold the generators and a loch at the summit is the source of the water to drive the turbines. Excess electricity is used to pump the water back up to the loch.

Scotland is at the forefront of wave farm technology. A 160 metre Pelamis (Sea Snake) device is being tested at Orkney’s European Marine Energy Centre (Emec). The site will become the world's biggest wave energy farm with four floating generators converting wave movement into electricity. The project hopes to produce enough energy to supply two thousand homes by 2008.

Micro-generation

Even on cloudy days in Scotland, solar panels fitted on south and westerly facing roofs and walls of buildings generate a surprising amount of power. Some building contractors are including solar panels in new properties to generate electricity and heat water. In many city streets you will see parking meters with solar panels and solar-powered ticket machines have been installed for Edinburgh's trams and buses.

Small wind turbines are generating power across Scotland. St John Bosco Primary School in Erskine, Renfrewshire, has installed a 2.5kW wind turbine on a hill behind the playground. It is expected to cut the school’s electricity costs by around 14% and reduce the school’s Carbon Footprint.

The Scottish Community and Householder Renewables Initiative (SCHRI) offers advice and grants to support the installation of community and household renewable energy technologies including solar panels, micro hydro-electric, heat pumps and small wind turbines.

Homeowners, schools, businesses, churches, hospitals and council buildings are beginning to use these technologies to save money and reduce their Carbon Footprint.

Designing for sustainability

Every product you can think of has an environmental resource component in every stage of its lifecycle, from manufacture through distribution to its eventual disposal.

Within our ‘throwaway society’ many products have a very limited shelf life. Many products and gadgets are seen as disposable; when they break down it costs more to repair them than to simply replace them.

How often do you feel that the things that you buy are over-packaged? Do you really need your food to be individually wrapped then packaged together with a plastic tray in a cardboard box sealed in plastic wrap?

Our towns and cities, our homes, factories and buildings, our road networks, machines, energy grids and pipelines, are characterised by intensive use of fossil fuels and other natural resources.

At a minimum, priority should be given to innovations that target wasteful or polluting processes and products, or reduce material and energy flows, while innovations that encourage consumerism or non-essential services should be actively discouraged.

Thus a key challenge for the new design professions of the 21st century is to assist business and industry to move beyond 'reduce, reuse and recycle', to the three Rs' of radical resource reduction.
Design for Sustainability : A Sourcebook of Integrated Eco-Logical Solutions

Sustainable Design, or designing for sustainability, challenges our wasteful use of the Earth’s resources. It considers and incorporates environmental impacts into the decision-making processes concerned with producing, marketing, distributing and disposing of products from buildings to breakfast cereals.

It asks fundamental questions about the availability of resources to be used; the extraction, transport and energy involved in each stage of the process and it looks at alternatives, trying to provide eco-efficiency which adds value with less environmental impact.

'Our planet didn't become polluted by accident. It has taken a concerted effort and decades of hard work to really screw it up. It is going to take just as much effort to fix it and you can be part of the solution.'
John W. DiTuro, CEO, Aqua Dynamic Solutions

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