Biogas and Solar Energy-Powered Greenhouse

INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES AND SOLUTIONS

TKWB

Technique: ARCHITECTURE FOR MANAGING ENERGY AND RESOURCES
Title: Biogas and Solar Energy-Powered Greenhouse

Description of the innovative solution

Biogas and solar power are viewed as environmentally sound alternative sources of energy for cooking and lighting. Biogas is popular in Asia, especially China, while solar power has yet to find its niche in developing countries. The current costs of applying any of these technologies for rural domestic use are prohibitive and hence remain unsustainable, under available technical pathways.

Traditional knowledge for building greenhouse is very popular in northern China to make full use of the solar energy and to improve land productivity and solar energy devices are used to reduce the plunder-like destruction of vegetation in circumstance of shortage of fuel wood, especially in the desertified land areas where the human population pressure causes heavier loss of vegetative coverage. The clay-mud made greenhouses are normally curtained with straw matrix and all the inside walls be painted to black colour for absorbing more solar heat, and out-side wall protected with plantation of some ever-green trees and shrubs. These arrangements aimed to prevent the greenhouse from heavy wind-rain weathering and to increase soil moisture and air temperature in winter season or decrease air temperature and humidity inside the greenhouse in summer. All the greenhouses in desert or affected regions are well designed and constructed with mud-bricks. Glasses or plastic mulching are used as roof and coal-stoves were installed inside the greenhouse for heating. In cold season, straw matrix made of wheat hay or sorghum stalks were taken as quilts to cover the glass-roof during the night for increasing temperature inside the installation. The greenhouse was designed to be 100 metres long and 10 metres wide.