Increasing global environmental consciousness is driving the growth of green technologies. In South Africa, the lack of a regulated market has seen the emergence of cowboys and fly-by-nights that have created a negative image for the industry.
At AdRenewables we are driven by a desire to see an acceleration in the adoption of existing green technologies and the development of new technologies. These investments will only occur when the market has service providers they can trust.
With over 10 years of dedicated service to the industry, we have won the trust of our clients. Driven by our vision for a more sustainable future we do so much more than keep our finger on the pulse of what is coming. We dedicate any spare time and resources to the research and development of new technologies we aim to bring to the South African market.
Here are just two of the technologies we think you should be getting excited about in the future.
Scalable Biogas Digesters
Imagine being able to throw all of your organic waste – we’re talking food scraps, dog waste, grease and oils, bones, you name it – into a digester that will have two outputs: liquid fertiliser and refined methane. I know some of you will be saying that your worm farm takes care of most of that for you already, but worm-tea is infinitely less useful than a self-generated source of safe cooking and heating fuel. Now imagine being able to scale this technology up to meet the needs of commercial and community interests.
Liquid Metal Batteries
If we want renewable energy to succeed at the scale required for a significant reduction in CO² emissions, we need a way of cheaply storing large amounts of energy in a technology that is going to last a very long time.
Made of earth-abundant materials, a team at MIT have developed a liquid metal battery that ticks all the boxes. This technology is cheap to build, simple, safe and scalable. These batteries will allow communities and even entire countries to shift to 100% renewable energy, where the dips in supply are provided by a silent and emission-free battery rather than a coal or nuclear power plant.
It has been exciting spending the last few months sharing some of our ideas and achievements with you. I hope you have enjoyed them, and if you would like to keep hearing about these amazing green technologies, please get in touch or follow us on Facebook: @AdRenewables
*Through his team at AdRenewables, Sebastian Brogan is designing and developing technologies that complement their core offerings of solar electricity and rainwater harvesting. The team is dedicated to a more sustainable future and utilise technology to drive this vision in southern Africa.
Illustration:
In 1964 Nikolai Kardashev described what is now known as the Kardashev Scale. It is a way of measuring the technological advancement of any given civilisation based on its ability to harness and use power.
A TYPE 1 CIVILISATION has been able to harness all of the power available on its home planet. A TYPE 2 CIVILISATION can harness all of the power generated by its parent star.
A TYPE 3 CIVILISATION can control energy on the scale of its entire host galaxy.
According to the latest calculations, the human civilisation is rated as a 0,73 Type Civilisation. Whether or not we make it to a Type 1 Civilisation will largely depend on our ability to develop sustainable energy technologies that do not destroy ourselves or our host planet.