Power to the People

Comm: "From eco-warriors to sensory zones. Plastic pencils to recycling domes. EXPO 2000 explores humankind, nature and technology through a series of futuristic displays."

Margaret Wallstrom, EC Commissioner: "They hope to inspire the best of what their countries can offer when it comes to environmental technologies and good practices. Of course technology has always played a very important role and challenge in the environment."

COMM: "EXPO's energy pavilion has some of the most inspiring exhibits. This week Hands On tracks down some of the latest developments in tidal, solar and passive energy."

Margaret Wallstrom: "Industry is proving that greening of the environment creates new jobs and increases competitiveness and that's a really important message."

POWER TO THE PEOPLE

Story one: New Wave, Scotland

Comm: "With oceans covering 60 per cent of the planet, wave power offers a source of energy that's still untapped."

Allan Thompson, Wavegen: "If you took 0.1% of the available energy you could power the world for five years. This is a dramatic amount of power, it's an unbelievable amount of power, its one of the biggest flywheels or storage systems of energy available to us so it's the obvious resource to harness.

"Historically wave energy hasn't taken off because its had to compete with very low fossil fuel prices and most of the other technologies have benefited similarly from huge government support hydro-electric, nuclear, they have many decades of investment and capital funds spent on it. Our technology is new and we therefore have to go through the same development curve."

Comm: "Because of low fossil fuel prices and lack of big government subsidies enjoyed by the hydro-electric and nuclear industries, wave energy can't compete.

"Wavegen has been trying to crack the market in commercially viable wave power for nearly a decade. As Hands On was filming at Wavegen's production plant, foundations for the limpet - a shoreline wave power station - were being laid at Islay off the coast of Scotland. If successful, it may herald a new wave in renewable technologies.

"Back at the plant David Langston and his colleagues continue tests on a model of the limpet."

David Langston, Wavegen: "This is the wave tank and this is the paddle that produces the waves that we test at the other end of the tank. The waves move down the tank to the limpet which is located at the end and that's where we actually do the testing of the device. This is the computer room that we use to generate the waves at the moment we are generating a regular wave but we can actually generate a wave with a realistic profile of the wave we'd get at site.

"OK this is a model of the limpet device and if you imagine that this is the west coast of Scotland and we go all the way across to America then all the way across there are winds which generates waves. And there is on average 16 kilowatts per metre, the wave energy is about 16 kw per metre. We are doing that to get the waves to create an oscillating water column and when it goes up it squeezes the air through the turbine and when it goes back down again it sucks air back into the turbine and the turbine generates power up to half a megawatt. It's enough for 300 houses.

"This is the wells turbine a device which converts the air energy into electric energy and it takes the air from the capture chamber the device you saw on the wave tank. This is the end of the turbine that is going to be connected to the capture chamber and this air back in and at the back end is the landÖ out again.. This is the heart of the kit ,this is the wells turbine you want to take the energy out of the air - it will only rotate in one direction although the air. From a maintenance perspective its very simple.

"This is the end that's open to the air the sea's at the other end. When the concrete capture chamber is finished it will merge into the cliffs it will take on the same colour if you look at pictures of the old device it merges in. And this turbine is fairly well down in the dip so from the land you can't see it, (so all we need is a good wave climate, a suitable location, cliff breakwater harbour a wells turbine and some know hoe and we have the ability to produce wave power cheaply)."

Allan Thomson: "The plant on Islay has enough to produce enough to power 300 houses. The cost of the power is 5p per kilowatt hour. This compares very favourably with windpower which initially retailed at 11p per kilowatt hour think but our subsequent plants will be half that price.

It's a vast, vast resource and its global. And it is more than the energy that's extracted from the oil reserves around these coasts so it's the equivalent of finding a whole North sea oil gas field every year forever. It has enough energy stored within it to provide all the power that the UK requires."

Story two: Current Charge, Peru

Comm: "Only 6 per cent of rural Peru is linked to the national grid. Most people rely on batteries for light. With few recharging outlets batteries have to be taken to the nearest town, often many hours away. For people living deep in the Amazon jungle it's an arduous task. Most towns are only accessible by boat."

Hildebrando Pacaya: ."Before we had a recharging system, we had to take our batteries to Mazan or Iquitos and that was very expensive as we spent a lot of money on petrol going back and forth. If we didn't have money, we couldn't recharge the batteries. The town-charged batteries didn't last as long as they were meant to so we were forced to spend more money recharging them frequently."

Comm: "Mauricio Gnecco is an energy project coordinator with the Intermediate Technology Development Group, ITDG. He's travelling to Hildebrando's village with an important part for a river turbine. It's hoped the turbine will enable the village to generate its own power to recharge its batteries. It's the first such project in Latin America.

"The village of El Paraiso on the River Napo, a tributary of the Amazon, was chosen as a pilot site because of its swift river current."

Mauricio Gnecco: "With this alternative it is possible to charge batteries in the same place or near. It's considered an appropriate technology. It's simple, it's easy to transport, it's not so expensive and the people themselves can maintain and operate it with a small training.

"The river turbine is a shaft and a generator, the supports, wire and rope. And that's all.

"It's not exactly a wind turbine - it's a river turbine but it's the same kind of mechanics. (It needs) more or less one metre per second speed of the water in the river and more or less two metres deep water in the river - that's all. Perfecto!

"There is potential danger - there is large trees coming from the river but never have we had this problem here because the place is very well selected - it is very important to select the place OK. Other kinds of problems like electronics and a few bolts - are easy to solve the problem if we have the problem but now at the end of this step we are finishing with this kind of problem. The next step will be the diffusion of this technology in all the Amazon.

"For the people in Paraiso it is very important because they have now the opportunity to charge batteries."

Comm: "There's another benefit. Villagers can now charge others for topping up batteries. It'll earn extra income to pay for installing the turbine and cover any minor repairs."

Mauricio Gnecco: "It is a centre where people from other places come to make business with them to charge his battery."

Hildebrando Pacaya: ."One of the benefits is for our kids. They can study at night which is a great advantage. Before we had candles and kerosene lamps but it was difficult for our kids to see, but now with this generator we can have proper light in our houses."

Story three: Solar City, Germany

Comm: "Freiburg, in the Black Forest of southern Germany.

"It's turned itself into a leading solar city. Perhaps the leading solar city.

"Freiburg's railway station is where most visitors arrive. The first thing they see is the tallest solar power plant in southern Germany ñ a symbol of an energy policy that began as a protest against nuclear power.

"Rolf Disch is the architect of many of Freiburg's solar buildings - including his own home."

Rolf Disch, architect: "This is an experimental house. With this house we've tackled many problems. One of these is energy. This is the first surplus (plus) energy house that we've built, which produces five times the amount of energy that the house needs."

Comm: "Disch now builds solar-powered, low energy houses for others. These are the first of a hundred and fifty that make up Freiburg's first solar village.

"Disch's houses are not only living spaces. They're also power plants - the solar panelled roofs generate more energy than the occupiers need."

Rolf Disch: "The idea behind this housing development is becoming more and more a question of not merely saving energy but of opening out and using nature. It's not about exhausting nature but taking advantage of it completely.

Comm: "The whole city is involved in Freiburg's solar policy. There's even a solar plant on the grandstand roof of the local football stadium.

"Many other private companies and public facilities make their roofs available for solar modules. The people of Freiburg buy shares in the panels and are reimbursed when the power is sold to the city electricity scheme. And there's free information to anyone wanting to install their own solar panels.

"Naturally, the public swimming pool is heated by solar power.

"But so are the parking meters.

"With Freiburg reaping major economic rewards there's a booming demand for new solar technology.

"At the factory where much of the hardware is made, solar power modules in the glass facade plus a power plant fuelled by vegetable oil together give enough energy for the whole building.

"But technology is moving fast. Until now solar panels have been things to stick on buildings.

"The next generation of panels will be in the structure of the building itself.

"The Solar Cafe, just outside Freiburg, has a roof made with this new technology - semi-transparent solar panels. They're not on the roof - they are the roof.

"They let in sunlight and give the architect greater flexibility in design. They're part of the building materials - panels of the solar future.

"Freiburg has come out of the shade and into the sunlight - will the rest of the world follow?"

Story four: The Cepheus Complex, Austria

Helmut Krapmaier, Energy Institute, Vorarlberg: "In our country the houses have solar collectors and photovoltaic to make warm water and to use electricity. And in our country the houses have windows facing to the south in order to collect the sunshine. And in our new houses in our new sustainable houses there is no need for central heating any more."

Comm: "Vorarlberg is a very small province in Austria - it's the smallest actually with only 350 000 inhabitants. Fifteen years ago a movement amongst the people started and the building has improved together with innovative architects and technicians we now have the situation that compared to other provinces of Austria we are a little bit in front."

Helmut Krapmaier: "Well Cepheus is a star combination in the sky; it's an old mythological king in Greece but here it stands for Cost efficient passive houses as European standards.

"The role of the Energy Institute is to try to get energy ecology down to the people and the builders and architects for a sustainable future."

Comm: "Cepheus is a five year project started in 1997. Backed by the European Commission it's running in five European countries to encourage architects and designers to build affordable, energy-efficient homes for everyone. They're known as passive houses.

"A passive house is an ordinary low energy house where everything is a little bit better and a little bit more efficient."

Helmut Krapmaier: "Meaning that for example you don't have to have an ordinary radiator in front of the window because the window and the exterior walls are so much better meaning that you don't have to have air conditioning systems because the house itself cools itself in the summer of course and it stays warm in the winter. It's very comfortable.

"If we look at the different points of a passive house that's better insulation, it's very high insulation, it's better windows meaning better glasses, better frames and a better situation from the window in the outside walls it means high insulation in the roofs, it means airtightness in order to be able to use the heat recovering system - otherwise they're not different from any other houses."

Comm: "Architect Gerhard Zweier takes us on a tour of the apartment building he's designed using the passive house concept."

Gerhard Zweier: "This is the nose of the building. Here we breathe in fresh air and bring it down to the cellar into the ventilation system.

"So this is another feature of the passive house concept. We have triple glazing - argon is the filling material between the layers of glass and we have a special wooden frame construction which has some ventilation between the wooden outside and the wooden inside of the frame.

"This is the main part of the passive house which makes the heating and ventilation of all the flats in the house. So how does it function? The cold air from the outside comes in through this pipe and goes into the machine. And on the other side the stale air from the flat the warm air is coming in here. So what happens is these two airs are exchanging their temperature but they are not mixing and so we always have fresh air into the flats. And the stale air goes through the cellar and through a pipe system to the outside.

"Even in winter time this air exchange system keeps the temperature in the house comfortable.

"There are no radiators. The temperature or the warmth comes in by the air."

Helmut Krapmaier: "The aim of the project is to show that we can do these pilot projects with different builders with different architects in different European countries with different uses from the social housing up to the private home. This is something that can be used everywhere and for everybody."

Story five: Glow Star - Kenya

Comm: "Stephen Njenga and his friends hold a hymn and prayer meeting in Stephen's house. Two weeks ago this would have been impossible. The congregation of fifteen is lit by a single solar lantern. Enough to allow the service to go ahead. And, more important, to give Stephen enough light to read the scriptures.

"Across this part of Kenya, lives are being transformed.

"Kerosene is out. Solar power is in.

"Designed by the Intermediate Technology Development Group, ITDG, Stephen's lamp is easily charged by Kenya's powerful and plentiful sunlight. A day's charge will give four hours light at night. It used to take Stephen and his wife two hours every time they had to collect their kerosene."

Jane Njenga: "The lamp has many advantages. I don't have to buy kerosene and its portable. I can use it when cooking and for checking the children's rooms. We leave it on till 10 then take it to the chicken hut."

Comm: "Jane feeds the chickens last thing and leaves the light on, tricking the hens into thinking it's day-time so they lay more eggs.

"A few kilometres away, twelve year old David performs the daily chore of cleaning his family's solar panel.

"Here, too, kerosene has been ousted by the sun.

"Before the solar lantern normal life came to a standstill after dark. Now, David's family can do all sorts of things at night. Homework, potato peeling, reading, ironing can all be done much more easily.

"The lantern can be bought on easy terms and comes with a number of convenient extras thrown in. There's a lead for a second smaller lamp that fits on the wall. The lamp costs just over 100US$ and after initial investment the light is free.

"And a big bonus - you can even plug a radio into it.

"Because the lamp is for remote rural areas it's a sturdy and simple design, with few working parts to go wrong. Although there is a natty, sophisticated computerised bit at the top.

"John and Alice Njuguna have also forsaken smelly and expensive kerosene for solar light.

"Although John perhaps doesn't see quite as much of his wife as before.

"When John travels to town he takes his lantern and charges it at his friend's house.

"Night time jobs like checking livestock have been made easier by the light of the silvery solar lantern."

John Njuguna: "It's brighter than a torch."

Comm: "And other night time needs are also so much simpler."

John Njuguna: "I used to go to the latrine.

"I can read longer and my neighbours bother me because they want a lantern like mine."