Posted on 07/01/2008 5:30:46 AM PDT by P.O.E.
A double blow for solar energy
EPAIT SEEMED so promising—mirrors sprawled across desert land in the scorching south-west delivering clean electricity and helping to wean Americans off imported fossil fuels. Some scientists and industry developers claim that Nevada’s empty and sun-drenched expanses alone could supply enough terawatts to power the entire country.
Now even the optimists fear this wonderful prospect may be a mirage. Congress has been dithering over extending a valuable investment tax credit for solar-energy projects, which solar advocates say is critical to the future of their industry but which is due to expire at the end of the year. The latest attempt failed in the Senate earlier this month: prospects for a deal before November’s presidential and congressional elections now look dim. Uncertainty has led some investors to delay or abandon projects in the past few months. Rhone Resch, the president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, said if the tax credits are allowed to expire at the end of the year, “it will result in the loss of billions of dollars in new investments in solar.”
Further dampening hopes for a big solar-energy boom, the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has abruptly slapped a moratorium on new applications to put solar collectors on federal land. The agency says it has a backlog of more than 130 applications and needs to conduct a region-wide environmental-impact study on the industry before it will accept any more. The study will take 22 months to complete, however. Few argue against trying to preserve precious water sources and protect desert tortoises and other creatures that might not enjoy cohabiting with sprawling fields of mirrors. But many solar advocates wonder why the government is not acting as cautiously when it comes to drilling for oil and gas.
Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington state, wants a congressional probe into the proposed moratorium. “The fact that the BLM pops this out without people even knowing about it, especially when solar thermal looks extremely promising as a baseload [power source], is not right,” she says. Harry Reid of Nevada, who is the majority leader in the Senate, also condemns the BLM’s freeze, saying that it could “slow new development to a crawl”.
The BLM is not without its supporters, however. At a public meeting on June 23rd in Golden, Colorado, Alex Daue, of the Wilderness Society, said that his organisation supports renewable-energy development as long as it doesn’t damage other important resources. The message is clear: no rubber stamps, even for renewable energy.
The "Wilderness Society" is based in Washington, DC. My guess is that NOT ONE of them are living in log cabins.
Ahh, but they've studied it so very much, dontcha know.
“EPAIT SEEMED so promising—mirrors sprawled across desert land in the scorching south-west delivering clean electricity and helping to wean Americans off imported fossil fuels.”
I’m confused. How does solar energy replace imported fossil fuels? If they’re speaking of electricity production, solar energy’s competitor is domestic coal, not imported fossil fuels.
Harry Reid says before these things get built in my state we need to slow down so that I can get probably situated to have my palms greased for decades to come.
These anti-everything greens are doing more dangerous to this country than terrorists. They are at war with wealth. They have no organized opposition.
I'm sitting on a power source, where I could rake in enough money to cover everybody's electric bill, everybody in the whole dang country, but I'm not going to build it, unless I get a subsidy from the gubmint?
Yeah, right.
Perhaps that's what they are referring to.
Ethanol didn’t work. Why not?
Mostly. Perhaps they're reckoning on replacement / substitution factors (e.g., switching transport to electric?)
Could be. But this seems like an awfully expensive investment to replace such a miniscule amount of foreign oil import.
Time was when oil was a serious chunk of electricity-producing fuel, but no more.
All California’s new plants are gas. Remember this when the heating bills start arriving.
If this technology is viable it does not need more government subsidy.
There have been several large mirror-collector solar plants (Sandia, and the one in Daggett, CA) that never could make a profit.
As for BLM, the greens will protest and try to stop anything that is not imported oil. Hmm, who has an economic interest in that? Investing a few hundred thousand in moonbats is better investment than a new well or refinery.
FYI, the amount of solar power avalable, averaged over the entire US, 24 hours, 365 days, is about 5 Watts per square foot. Still a lot of power but nowhere near the number often quoted (140 W, I think) which is for Phoenix, noon, clear summer sky, with a perfectly aligned and cleaned collector0.
I’ve been very pessimistic about solar.
However, with new technology, the price per watt is finally going below $1 per watt. At this price point, it becomes competitive with coal.
The only missing factor is storage. If someone develops an affordable 1KW/Kg battery, solar could become very important.
The very fact that these technologies would not exist without some kind of government subsidy says they are economically inefficient.
49% of all electricity generation comes from coal with nuclear providing another 19%. Natural gas provides 20% and hydroelectric 7%. Oil only provides 1.6%.
I think the idea is to switch to electric cars.
And once again, Maria Cantwell (D WA)demonstrates that the only bidnez she knows how to stimulate surrounds calling for even more Congressional Investigations...
Washington *ping*
Some of the usual suspects are right out of a satirist’s dream. Consider CongressCritter Maria Cantwell, Democrat, Washington state, who was quoted in this article, as a perfect example.
If I wrote about a fictional, idiotic CongressCritter, named CANTwell who was prone to repetitive speeches with no meaning, no editor would allow such a name.
After all, a dictionary definition of “cant” is:
“phrases that have been endlessly repeated and have lost
impact and meaning; a type of phraseology, such as
affected and insincere religious speech”.
That poor Liberal from Washington might as well have been named “BullSh*tsWell”.
Worse yet, she attempts to live up to her unfortunate name.
Hmmmmn - could her name have been given to her by an American Indian who knew what she would be like as an adult?
The only missing factor is storage. If someone develops an affordable 1KW/Kg battery, solar could become very important.
Improved elemental electrical storage is important, but to a large degree the storage is ALREADY in place:
1)In our garages with any battery that would be routinely used anyway. That is to say the "storage" is onsite and local.
2)The national grid itself is storage as long as the overall instantaneous power demand does not exceed the instantaneous solar supply. In which case there is no loss of the solar supply.
3)The article is correct in that the western arid expanse, Nevada, southern NM, Calif, has far, far more than enough surface area to supply the nation's entire annual electrical demand, at 20% harvest (the current state of the PV art) of incomimg solar insolation (albeit a long view of a major infrastructure).
4)The real secret is that the reduction of silicon dioxide to the rather pure silicon required for PV panels requires about 200 kwh per kilogram of silicon, but over it's functional lifetime that kilogram of silicon can supply about twenty times that amount of energy. Making PV solar, right now, with current technology, a totally positive source, unlike say ethanol whose production may (who knows?) require more energy than it produces. This is a profound fact, and there are either people hiding it for private (global?) agenda, or we are all just plain stupid.
5)Johnny Suntrade is a conservative. He wants the individual citizen to assume responsibility for his own decisions, and expect the same from others. He wants the United States of America to be totally independent from the global phonies and rapists, like Soros. But sometimes the cynicism on this website defeats the very purpose it claims.
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