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.
If this is a viable solution to solving the energy crisis it is unnecessary to provide tax credits. Billions of investment dollars will not be “lost”.
Otherwise, this is a tax confiscation program that is not viable on its own merits without tax credits to prop it up.
Clever, but on an energy thread, I’d’ve gone with Can’tWell.
At first, wouldn’t it be better to switch to electric
buses first? >It’s got government subsidy built in (local,
usually), moves lots of people, doesn’t need to accelerate
fast, doesn’t need to look sexy, and has lots of room for
storage of batteries...not to mention, can swap out
newly charged batteries at night, or recharge in situ!
Electric commuter trains with biodiesel backup engines could
be a next step, then if that works, electric powered
cargo trains with biodiesel backup, then the private companies can build their
superefficient nanobattery powered cars...no?
Private(home) use of solar/wind/stirling electric generation
could be next.
Slow, but steady transition....end of foreign oil(will
need a dinosaur oil company death watch), won’t
need to cater to other cultures, can leave them behind.
Here’s another idea, how about mining land fills for
combustibles? or metals....gets rid of land fill problems
for sure.
1. I believe that this was to be a solar-THERMAL facility, using mirrors to concentrate sunshine on a boiler, producing steam to drive a turbine generator.
2. If it can’t OPERATE without a subsidy it doesn’t need to be built. However, I would be willing to support some amount of investment in research and development capital costs.
3. The environmental impact of covering large areas of the surface with mirrors or solar cells is FAR greater than drilling for either oil or gas. I actually agree with this requirement for an environmental impact study.
“Improved elemental electrical storage is important, but to a large degree the storage is ALREADY in place:”
What? That is just blatently false.
“1)In our garages with any battery that would be routinely used anyway. That is to say the “storage” is onsite and local.”
I don’t have any spare batteries in my garage.
“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.”
Completely convoluted logic. Instantaneous power demand must equal supply precisely because there is no storage. If you are talking about home installations with grid backup, the power is not being stored in the grid, it is being used in the grid. For a state sized solar project, it either must be relagated to a meager addition to the power supply or the power must be stored for use.
“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).”
A nice idea but the country is too large, and transmission losses would be huge.
“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.”
Silicon is too expensive, there are better technologies in the pipeline.
Besides replacing domestic coal with silicon power does not make our country stronger. Now replacing imported oil with solar would make us stronger but would require an order of magnitude decrease is battery price and storage.
“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.”
Don’t know the man.
We do need to replace imported oil, and in the long run that will require changing the technology our country runs on.
Every train in the US is powered by electric motors already.
A FEW of them obtain their electrical power by way of a third rail or trolley connection to the electric grid, but most locomotives generate their electricity on board, with a diesel powered generator set. These long-haul railroads account for less than 5% of our total oil consumption, but are far more efficient than airplanes, trucks, buses, or cars in terms of work performed per BTU.
We do need to increase our electric generating capacity and drastically upgrade our electrical grid, so perhaps we could include electrification of our major rail routes in that upgrade. That would shift that consumption from oil to whatever the electricity was generated from. That might be worthwhile, but since railroads are already so efficient, the total effect might be insignificant.
We already have natural gas powered buses here in the DC metro area. Agreed that this will have to be a long transition process. We have hundreds of millions of internal combustion engine vehicles that represent a huge capital investment for industry and individuals. The oil execs have stated that we will still rely 85% on oil to power our vehicles up to 2030. There are no easy answers.
Those major rail routes run through hundreds of cities and small towns. I can remember walking across the tracks as a kid. A third rail would be a hard sell because of safety concerns.
Practically speaking, solar energy is a *marginal* energy source. This means it will never create vast amounts of energy in centralized power generation areas. *However*, if you look at it in terms of a *marginal* energy supply, it can be very useful.
To start with, look at ordinary homes in the southern half of the US. Even with efficient hot water heaters, you spend a lot of money to get hot water. However, if you put an ordinary black painted water tank on your roof, city water has enough pressure to fill it. And in the sun, that water gets *hot*, *before* flowing down to fill your water heater. And it costs a LOT less to heat water ten degrees than to heat water 50 degrees.
This is an inexpensive, passive use of solar energy that can save hundreds of dollars a year, for the price of a water tank and some bypass plumbing.
Solar energy would also be great for home water purification and distillation. Think how much money would be saved by not having to buy bottled drinking water or water filters. Just a few gallons a day would save a small
fortune.
As far as roof solar cells go, they are good for marginal uses as well. Powering a simple fan to blow hot air out of the roof crawlspace, it can reduce the load on home air conditioning by 20% or more when electricity prices are highest. It reduces crawlspace temperature *marginally*, from say 150 degrees to just 100 degrees, but that matters a HUGE amount to your air conditioner.
If someone could create a lightweight, clear plastic enclosure for swimming pools, elevated a couple of feet above the water, it would not only passively heat the pool, but keep out lots of dirt, spores and leaves. This would mean running the pool filter a lot less, using far less chemicals, losing far less heat and water due to evaporation, and being able to warm the water further with roof solar cells. Evaporation usually cools a pool faster than it can be heated.
The bottom line is that even for the individual homeowner, such either passive or *marginal* use of solar energy is very efficient, and saves far more energy AND MONEY than if it just came off the electrical grid.
If done intelligently, this means homeowners could save two or three thousand dollars a year, still live in comfort and have even more, with less work.
Everybody happy but the environmentalists who want everyone to do with less, live uncomfortably, and be miserable.
I dislike the “Wilderness Society” for the simple reason that they don’t even want you riding a bicycle in the woods for crying-out-loud!
“....Nevada’s empty and sun-drenched expanses alone could supply enough terawatts to power the entire country....”
But, but...what a about the sand fleas? What will happen to them?
Struck a nerve did we?
No offense meant, but the grid is definitely a storage mechanism when the transient solar supply is less than any instantaneous power demand, because the "storage" is in the fuel that would otherwise be used. There is a long long way to go before that condition occurs, and when it does it means that a high proportion, maybe 40%, of the domestic energy demand supply can be met by solar without additional storage, and subsequently accounting for the potential of decentralized onsite storage, 100%, at least theoretically.
The mere fact that energy has a price means that if the source (Silicon) in the long run can produce more than the original cost, it is hardly expensive in the long run. Quite a bargain Johnny Suntrade would say, and advises if you haven't invested you are really missing out.
Incidentally Johnny Suntrade is also all for drilling for more oil, and harvesting fossil fuels, within the geoconstitutional boundary of the United States. Good for the middle term.
Also incidentally Johnny Suntrade is for using binary geothermal, which in itself could theoretically supply domestic demand. The Rankine Cycle you know.
I understand that problem, but I think we could design a new pickup mechanism that would be shielded, along with a system to energize the connection only in the vicinity of a train.
If we are changing things, we can improve them at the same time.
And if that works, I could envision doing something similar for inter-city highways, for buses and trucks.
No plans, but a few random thoughts.
A bit high, unless your willing to invest a significant amount with a long, long range return.
I’m not offended, I just couldn’t follow the logic. The concept of the unburned coal as a storage mechanism is still a leap,
The problem with the logic it that a true storage would add power when there is excess and release it when needed. Coal plants to be efficient need to run at near full load. Adjusting to hourly cloud changes is not very efficient. There is also an expense to spinning them up and down, that is why solar is not expected to provide more than 10-15% of total power output. If you could store a hundred MWh and sell them when the prices are higher, it would make solar and wind much more profitable.
The other issue with solar is that the amortized cost must be competitive. Even if you can show that the net energy output over the life of the unit is positive, it will still hurt the economy if it is more expensive.
I added to the calculations some less common expenses that are very pricey. For example, in the southwest, the swimming season can typically be between five to almost six months. A relatively few people heat their pool for the other six months that can rack up enormous bills. Add to that the expense of pool chemicals and electricity for the filter.
Far more common is the expense of bottled water. If delivered, which is fairly common, it can amount to between 35-50 dollars a week for a family of three. Buying it from a grocery store or a water machine is significantly cheaper.
Oddly enough, Scottsdale, Arizona, is having such trouble with rising sodium levels in its water that it is considering a mandatory change of water softeners to those that are potassium based. But other contaminants, such as phosphates, arsenic, lead and other metals, synthetic chemical and pharmaceutical pollution are becoming problematic around the country.
This likely indicates that a solar distillery may become a very useful system indeed, and save a lot of money, both for water and with better health.
By far the most obvious money saver would be in air conditioning. In the peak about four summer months, this can cost between $300-500 a month. Typically this is reduced during periods of low humidity, by using a swamp cooler, that is just a fraction of the cost. But with higher humidity, a crawlspace fan could reduce a/c cost by $100-200 a month.
The bottom line for the $2000-3000 annual savings is based on a lack of many of the other ways people have come up with to reduce their bills. Insulation, double paned windows, energy efficient a/c and house design, and swamp coolers exist, but are not universal. For somebody who already has a well designed house with energy efficiency trimmings, savings may only be several hundred dollars a year.
I was talking with a friend in Cleveland who is shivering his way through summer. Since for about the next decade, winters are going to be cold beyond cold, with heating oil sky high, or even in shortage, I recommended he do the following:
Empty out a room in your house and insulate the heck out of it. Insulate the floors, walls and ceiling so much that in the dead of winter, you can warm that room with a 100 Watt light bulb and keep it warm with body heat.
It becomes the family bedroom, so everybody is guaranteed eight hours of warm a day, as the rest of the house is allowed to get cold. It might even be worth it to have a camp toilet in a closet.
This means that if the power goes out, or heating oil is in shortage, or is just insanely expensive, you can still live comfortably. If it is too cold during the day, no reason to not stay in the warm room.
Don’t forget a jug of air.
Sounds miserable.
Pellet stoves should be a big seller this year.
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