Recently in the Solar Category
Mar 18 2010
When, more than two years ago, Oakland-based BrightSource Energy first submitted plans for some huge solar power projects that would help
The company has its solar thermal “power tower” technology in hand, with a demonstration project up and running in
It has generous financing from investors like Chevron, and Google.org., as well as nearly $1.4 billion on loan guarantees from the U.S. Department of Energy.
And it has commitments from one of the world’s leading engineering and construction companies, Bechtel, to build its first major facility, the Ivanpah Solar Electricity Generating System in the
But for the last two and a half years, BrightSource has been unable to get regulators to approve its Ivanpah plant, despite downsizing the plans from an initial 440 MW to 392 MW to minimize its local impact on desert tortoises and various plant species.
That may finally change, with a recommendation this week by the staff of the California Energy Commission to move ahead with the project.
The staff wisely balanced the inevitable local impact any project would have against the clear gains for the global environment from cleaner energy.
“[I]t will provide critical environmental benefits by helping the state reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, and these positive attributes must be weighed against the project’s adverse impacts,” Terry O’Brien, deputy director at the CEC, wrote in a memorandum on March 16. “It is because of these benefits and the concerns regarding the adverse impacts that global warming will have upon the state and our environment, including desert ecosystems, that staff believes it would be appropriate for the commission to approve the project . . .”
Many environmental groups still oppose the project in its current location, despite its proximity to a golf course, Interstate 15, casinos and existing power transmission lines. BrightSource reportedly plans to pay $25 million to buy land to relocate 25 desert tortoises that could be displaced by its project. Its project still faces further reviews by the Bureau of Land Management.
Mar 16 2010
In the 1974 TV show “The FBI versus Alvin Karpis, Public Enemy Number One,” the bank robber and kidnapper, known as “Creepy Karpis,” tells his sidekick, “I’m sick and tired of everybody goin’ green . . .”
Karpis, who held the record for longest attendance as a non-paying guest at
"There are about 1 million visitors to
Actually, it will be a showcase in concept only—and a good thing, too. In order to preserve the historic nature of the site, most of the panels will be carefully hidden from view by walls around the prison roof.
Thanks to smart contracting, the park service managed to stretch its original budget from last year, freeing up $129 million for new projects, of which the
Another of those new projects will be seven new solar installations at Point Reyes National Seashore to complement six existing photovoltaic systems at the park. Together they will “reduce its total annual electrical consumption from fossil fuels by more than 45 percent,” the facility estimates, “moving the park closer to Pacific West Region’s vision of carbon neutrality by 2016, the year the National Park Service celebrates its centennial.”
Mar 05 2010
Several items relating to the business and technology of clean energy and the environment caught our attention this week:
SolarCity, a solar power system design, financing and installation company, has secured an additional $90 million fund from a unit of U.S. Bancorp to finance expansion of its solar projects in the western states. In January, Pacific Venture Capital, a subsidiary of PG&E Corp., announced $60 million in financing for SolarCity installations mainly in California with some in Arizona and Colorado. SolarCity also serves Oregon and Texas.
Former Edison International CEO John Bryson plugged some green startup companies at the U.C. Berkeley Energy Symposium on Thursday: Santa Monica-based Coda Automotive, maker of electric vehicles in China; smart-grid wireless company On-Ramp Wireless, of San Diego; and Ostendo, maker of solid state lighting displays based in Carlsbad, California. Bryson, a member of Coda's board of directors, was a co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council and president of the California Public Utilities Commission.
Greenest city in the world? Reykjavik, Iceland, tops a list for sustainability, according to Global Green Blog at GlobalPost. Reykjavik runs entirely on green power, including geothermal and hydroelectricity, and the city's transit system moves people around on hydrogen buses. Light-rail and bicycle leader Portland, Oregon, comes second, followed by Curitiba, Brazil, where sheep trim the parks; Malmo, Sweden, developing sustainable neighborhoods; and Vancouver, British Columbia, where 90 percent of its electricity comes from hydropower.
Feb 05 2010
Several items relating to the business and technology of clean energy and the environment caught our attentionthis week:
San Francisco startup and solar brokering firm One Block Off the Grid, or 1BOG, is applying a business model emphasizing social media such as Twitter and door-to-door pitches to match groups of homeowners seeking solar systems with local solar installers. 1BOG put in 550 solar systems in 2009, its first year, and is expanding into new markets in 2010. The solar customers get volume discounts and 1BOG gets referral fees from the installers. The company is introducing a program in New Jersey and planning moves into San Antonio and Honolulu. "We want 2010 to be the year where we bring solar to the masses," says Dave Llorens, co-founder and general manager.
Oil-dependent Hawaii aims to get 70 percent of its total energy needs from clean resources by 2030 -- 40 percent from renewable power generation and 30 percent from energy efficiency. The islands have abundant solar, wind, geothermal and wave resources. The state is considering projects such as a 30-mile undersea cable to link proposed wind farms on Lanai and Molokai to electric grids on Oahu and Maui. Hawaii's Gas Co. is using municipal solid waste and animal fat to make synthetic gas for its customers. "We're adopting policies and technologies here that can serve as a model for the rest of the globe," Jeff Mikulina, executive director of the Blue Planet Foundation, a Hawaii clean energy advocacy group, told the Los Angeles Times.
Last March, NEXT100 reported on a novel 60-foot catamaran made of used plastic bottles under construction in a shed on the San Francisco waterfront. The boat, named Plastiki, now is going through trials on San Francisco Bay before it hoists sails early in March to cross the Pacific to Australia. Plastiki's twin hulls are made of 12,500 plastic bottles filled with dry ice. David de Rothschild, project leader and scion of the Rothschild banking family, aims to draw attention to plastic waste winding up in landfills and in the oceans. He told the San Francisco Chronicle the way to get the recycling message across is a plastic sailing adventure -- a message in a bottle.Bon Voyage!
Feb 02 2010
The space race is back. But this time, instead of landing a man on the moon, the goal is to unlock the commercial potential of clean and virtually limitless solar power from space.
Southern California-based Solaren Corporation is working on it for PG&E. Mitsubishi and more than a dozen other Japanese companies are working on it for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Now Europe's number one space company, EADS Astrium, says it, too, has begun developing key components to beam power collected by orbiting solar panels back to Earth, where it can be delivered to the electric grid.
While Solaren and JAXA envision beaming power via radio waves, Astrium is working instead on high-powered infrared lasers to carry the energy. It is also collaborating with scientists at the University of Surrey to develop devices that convert infrared energy to electricity. Their chief technology officer says a space mission to demonstrate the technology should be feasible within five years, according to Aviation Week and Space Technology.
Ralph Nansen, former program manager for solar power satellites at Boeing, president of Solar Space Industries and author of the new book Energy Crisis: Solution from Space, told me that infrared laser solutions appeal mainly to the military, because their tightly focused beams could in theory supply power to remote battlefield locations.
Unlike radio waves, however, high-power lasers raise both safety and political concerns, and they don't penetrate thick clouds. One of the great appeals of space solar power carried by radio waves is its ability to deliver energy around the clock and under nearly all weather conditions, unlike terrestrial solar.
As Nansen points out, however, "The whole key to the thing is developing a
Nansen said the United States lags in the development of space solar power, despite many years of studying its potential, because NASA says it's an energy program, and the Department of Energy says it's a space program. So unless private U.S. companies can deliver, expect Japan, Europe or even Russia to take the lead.
Nansen, like a growing number of experts believes space must become the next great source of clean energy here on Earth. Agree or not, you can believe him when he says, "I’ve worked on this long enough to know it’s not easy."
Jan 29 2010
Several items relating to the business and technology of clean energy and the environment caught our attention this week:
Solar energy companies and relief organizations are helping Haiti to recover from the devastating earthquake, supplying solar panels to power lighting, water purification systems, ovens, mobile phones, laptop computers and other devices. Sun Ovens International is sending stand-alone and commercial solar ovens to Port-au-Prince. Solar panel maker Sol Inc. is providing solar lighting at an orphanage, relief camps and hospitals, while SolarWorld is powering 10 water purification systems. Faith Comes by Hearing, a provider of audio Bibles, is partnering with a relief organization to distribute 600 sun-powered Bibles.
Iceland is the world leader in pollution control and natural resource management, according to the 2010 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) developed by environmental experts at Columbia and Yale. The EPI, presented at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, ranks 163 countries on performance across 25 metrics. Iceland registered high scores on environmental public health, controlling greenhouse gas emissions and reforestation. Other top performers include Switzerland, Costa Rica, Sweden and Norway. The U.S. was ranked 61 "with strong results on some issues, such as provision of safe drinking water and forest sustainability, and weak performance on other issues including greenhouse gas emissions and several aspects of local air pollution."
The Olympics are embracing recycled materials for the eco-friendly 2010 Vancouver Winter Games and London's Summer Games in 2012. Medalists at the Vancouver Olympics and Paralympics Winter Games will receive gold, silver and bronze medals containing metal from recycled TVs, computers and keyboards. London's Metropolitan Police Department is melting down confiscated guns and knives with some of the metal going to help construct the Olympic Stadium in East London.
Jan 11 2010
The solar industry could get a welcome stimulus this year if the California Public Utilities Commission approves an application PG&E filed in February 2009 to develop a series of solar photovoltaic projects in the 1-20 megawatt range, totaling 250 MW over five years. In the interim, PG&E is building a 2 MW pilot plant at its Vaca-Dixon substation.
Total cost of the program, if approved, would run about $1.5 billion. That should create some serious jobs along with a lot of clean energy.
In anticipation of a ruling that could come as early as next month, PG&E plans later this month to request information from potential suppliers to qualify bidders for everything from providing PV modules to installing complete PV systems. Then, if the CPUC ruling is favorable, the utility will be able to move ahead quickly with getting bids and putting shovels in the ground.
Interested suppliers can obtain more information on PG&E's website.
Dec 22 2009
Solar energy is great--clean, renewable and reliable--except when the sun goes down. Too bad that happens every day, for hours at a time.
Now a handful of companies in the solar industry are using a high-tech version of thermal storage to stabilize the output of their power plants when clouds pass overhead or the sun goes down.
PG&E today disclosed that it has contracted with a subsidiary of Santa Monica-based SolarReserve, LLC for 150 megawatts of clean solar power, augmented by a proven energy storage system based on molten salt. The proposed Rice Solar Energy project is sized to produce as much renewable energy as consumed by more than 60,000 average homes, starting in 2013.
If approved by state regulators, SolarReserve's project will be located at the site of the World War II-era Rice Airfield, near the unincorporated community of Rice in San Bernardino County, Calif.
The project will use thousands of large, movable mirrors to focus the sun's rays onto a receiver in a central tower to heat four million gallons of molten salt to more than 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The hot, liquid salt will flow into a storage tank and used to heat water for a steam generator to produce electricity. The stored molten salt can also provide energy during periods when sunlight dims or is not available.
The ability to store heat and tap it at any time for power generation is thus like having a huge battery or backup generator on hand to smooth out peaks and valleys of solar generation.
The storage technology was demonstrated successfully over several years in the 1990s at the Department of Energy-sponsored Solar Two power plant in Southern California.The owner of some of the patents, United Technologies, licensed the process to SolarReserve.
Molten salt--28,500 tons of it--is currently being used for thermal storage at the 50 MW Andasol 1 solar thermal power plant in Spain, the first of three sister plants designed by Solar Millennium. Abengoa Solar has a molten salt demonstration project and plans to use the technology in a 280 MW solar thermal power project in Arizona. Other companies that have expressed an interest in molten salt thermal storage include the Spanish company Sener and SkyFuel, based in Albuquerque.
Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, home of the National Solar Thermal Test Facility, says molten salt is ideal for capturing solar energy in power towers "because it is liquid at atmosphere pressure, it provides an efficient, low-cost medium in which to store thermal energy, its operating temperatures are compatible with todays high-pressure and high-temperature steam turbines, and it is non-flammable and nontoxic."
Best of all, a well-insulated storage tank for molten salt can be 99 percent efficient, so it loses heat only very gradually.
Dec 21 2009
When "Miracle on 34th Street" hit the silver screen in 1947, 8-year-old Susan Walker, played by Natalie Wood, got her holiday wish when Kris Kringle gave her directions to the new home she asked Santa Claus to deliver. If the movie were written today, Susan would probably ask for an energy efficient home with ENERGY STAR appliances and solar panels.
Like Kris Kringle, Habitat for Humanity has been making children's dreams come true since 1976. But unlike Santa, Habitat delivers presents to families year round. To date, the organization has built over 350,000 houses around the world, providing close to 2 million people with safe, affordable and now energy efficient housing.
To make these homes even more environmentally friendly, PG&E created the Solar Habitat Program in 2005. So far, as part of the partnership with Habitat for Humanity, PG&E has funded solar installations on 260 homes for hard-working families. The average solar system produces 300 kWh of clean, renewable energy each month, saving participants about $500 a year. In addition, PG&E employees have donated more than 7,000 hours of their time working on Habitat for Humanity job sites.
Just last week, PG&E volunteers, including corporate officers and CEO Peter Darbee, spent the day at a Hunters Point construction site, working on one of seven four-bedroom homes. In addition to other duties, the crews worked to install and hook up eight solar panels on one of the homes.
"It's impressive to see first hand how Habitat for Humanity constructs these quality homes with the help of volunteers from the community," said Darbee. "This is an extremely organized operation that allows those of us who are volunteering to make a real contribution to the construction of these homes."
Thanks to Habitat for Humanity and its many contributors, the spirit of 34th Street lives on as families get their 21st century, energy-efficient miracles year round.
Dec 08 2009
2009 was a good year for bankruptcy lawyers but not for the solar photovoltaic (PV) industry. Dragged down by the world economy, and by sharp cuts in Spain's lavish solar incentives, the PV industry suffered its first decline as demand shrunk 14 percent year-over-year.
At the same time, according to a new report from the market research firm DisplaySearch, solar cell manufacturing capacity grew 56 percent to more than 16 gigawatts (GW) worldwide. That's just as well, because demand is likely to surge 38 percent next year, the firm predicts.
Looking farther out, GTM Research estimates that demand for PV installations in the United States will soar 50 percent a year, reaching 2 GW by 2012. Along with enough new clean energy for 1.5 million homes, this growing industry will produce 50,000 new jobs and more than $6 billion in annual investment, it predicts.
California will continue to lead the way in solar installations, but Arizona, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Nevada and Massachusetts will contribute significantly to expanding the market.
GTM predicts that the utility market will become the fastest growing segment of the industry, a view shared by a new study from Emerging Energy Research. EER notes that U.S. utilities already have an announced pipeline of PV projects totaling more than 4.8 GW. State regulatory mandates for renewable energy and federal tax incentives are helping to drive the market.
PG&E and other California utilities account for three-quarters of the solar PV pipeline in the United States, according to EER. PG&E has signed hundreds of megawatts of PV deals with developers such as Sempra Generation, SunPower and Topaz Solar Farms (now owned by First Solar). In February, PG&E announced a plan to develop up to 250 MW of utility-owned PV projects in the 1-20 MW size range.
Although PV is still a relatively expensive technology, it holds many attractions for utilities. "Unlike other larger, centralized power generation technologies such as natural gas, wind, concentrated solar power, and geothermal, PV offers scale and unique siting versatility," explained EER Solar Research Director Reese Tisdale. "These key differentiators allow PV to be deployed in a wide range of geographies."
