Jethro's Scrapbook on Renewables

On this page you can find some pictures of renewable energy systems from my private photograph albums.
If you click on a picture a more detailed (and bigger) version will open in a seperate window.
You are free to use these pictures as long as you mention the photographer (unless mentioned otherwise: Jethro Betcke).
More pictures of and information on Dutch PV systems can be found on the PV-info webpage.

Autonomous PV systems


Autonomous PV system on Chrissi Island (near Crete). The system powers the restaurant, (the only building on the island). September 1999.
Radio transmitter powered by an amorphous silicon PV panel.
Wales June 1999.
Emergency telephone along a French Motorway. Since the telephone is wireless and PV takes care of the energy supply, there is no need to lay cables. For this particular location this is not a special advantage, but at more remote locations along the motorway this can reduce costs considerably. France July 2000.

PV on the Refuge (Mountainering hostel) des Oulettes de Gaube in the French Pyrenees. Grid connection is not an option for this remote building. The only alternative would be using a noisy and smelly generator, which would also introduce the need to regularly transport fuel up to the refuge. July 2000
Also this refuge near 'le Glacier Blanc' in the 'Parc des Ecrins' in the French Alps uses an autonomous PV power supply.
July 2001
The PBB (PV/ Battery/Backup) system at Utrecht University. The system was used for research on autonomous PV systems and irraditation. The system is now no longer in use. The modules have been donated to an orphanage in Cambodja.
 

PV-powered parking meter in Freiburg, Germany. (Do not adjust your monitor, it is a bad photograph) June 2001

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Grid connected PV systems


Grid connected PV system at Maurik, the Netherlands. Autumn 2000. (photograph by Monique Hoogwijk)
Grid connected PV systems near the Railway station in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. May 2000.
PV-system integrated into a noisebarrier along the motorway A27 near de Bilt in the Netherlands. Because the PV-array has two functions  a part of the costs can be allocated to the noisebarrier function. The performance of this  system has been analysed by STS (see the projects and publications page). (photograph by Lianda Sjerps-Koomen)

In east Switzerland the worlds first PV-Noisebarrier was built in 1990. 
PV-Noisebarrier a long a railway in Zurich, Switzerland.
Idem, with me and a tie.

In this School in Zurich (Switzerland) the sunscreen also generates electricity. (2000)
Detail of the PV-sunscreen
This house in the Black forrest in Germany uses the sun  to generate  electricity (left) as well as hot water (right). June 2001.

Very small scale grid connected system (ca 100 Wp) consisting of one so-called AC-module: A PV-module with an inverter integrated to it.
(Utrecht, spring 2001)
Detail of the module. (Utrecht, spring 2001)

System on a flat roof in Zoetermeer.
(2001)
Backside of the modules of the Zoetermeer system. The aluminium boxes are the inverters.
(2001)

Solar Thermal systems


Solar Thermal systems on appartment buildings. For this location there is an excellent correlation between supply and demand,both are high in the  summer when the tourist population is at its largest. Crete September 1999		                                                                                                                                              

Wind energy systems


Windfarm at the Haringvlietsluizen. Anyone who calls this horizon pollution has no taste. Zeeland, the Netherlands 1997		                                                                                                                                                      

Hydro energy


Because of the flatness of the Netherlands the potential for hydro energy is limited. However there are some oppurtunities, for example this system in the Rijn near Maurik. The towers serve to pull the dam up when the waterflow is more than can flow through the turbine.
(Autumn 2000)
The dam that creates the difference in waterlevel.
(Autumn 2000)
Inside the generatorroom. (Autumn 2000)

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