The Power Generation Blog: solar power

Showing posts with label solar power. Show all posts

America's Tallest Building To Become A Solar Farm?

Quick—what’s the tallest building in America? If you said the Empire State Building, you’re wrong. And even if you said the Sears Tower, you’d be wrong. (They changed the name of it to the Willis Tower last year.)

The Willis Tower, the tallest building in America, is set to become a solar farm later this year, one of the largest—it follows—in America.

A company called Pythagoras Solar will replace all the windows on the west side of the 56th floor of the Willis Tower with photovoltaic glass. This special glass will allow light to come in and occupants to look out while collecting as much energy as a conventional solar panel.

If the project goes according to plan, the solar panels on the Willis Tower could generate up to 2 MW of power—as much as a 10 acre field of solar panels.

Hopefully this project goes well, because our cities represent a huge untapped resource for generating solar power. Utilizing windows and roofs in urban environs could really help America as it transitions to evolving power needs.

Italian Solar Power A Bit Sotto Voce

Is Italy pulling the rug out from under solar power producers? It seems like they may be.

Previously, Italy had offered plush incentives to solar operators as it ramped up quotas and incentives for overall solar production.

Now, Reuters reports, the Italian government is changing its renewable energy incentives in solar to apply only to photovoltaic plants that are on the grid by this May. Previously, companies had until 2013. Another program is being created for solar plants that get on line after the May deadline, but it’s expected to be much more limited than the original plan.

To learn more about industrial power generation, check out Power and Composite Technologies: www.pactinc.com

An In-Depth Look At Solar's Future

Investors Business Daily has a comprehensive look at solar power generation subsidies. The whole thing is worth a long read if you’re interested in solar power or power generation in general.

The piece begins by noting that with all the upheaval in the Middle East, it should be a boom time for renewable energies like solar power. As oil prices increase (which they have been), investment in solar power usually increases. But that’s not the case right now.

That link may be weakening. Oil price spikes are reliably fickle. And the solar industry’s history in Europe, its largest market, is rife with lessons of boom and bust. Italy’s recent talk of drastic cuts to its solar subsidies — still the lifeblood of this industry — spurred a two-week sell-off in solar stocks. In addition, the potential for fast-growing capacity in China to overwhelm flagging demand further clouds the picture.

Solar power is heavily dependent on subsidies—as it says above. It’s an expensive form of power, infrastructure-wise. While its power is clean, it’s also very expensive to make the equipment that makes the power. Since clean energy is more expensive, the so-called free market generally wouldn’t make it a winner. That’s where government intervention comes in. And with the global economy still uncertain, governments around the world are hesitant to push ahead with aggressive solar power goals they set during boom years.

A way to cut down the costs of producing solar energy would make it more attractive, but since solar power is an unattractive option for business, the development of new solar technology is increasing at a slow rate.

The whole piece is worth checking out. Make sure you read it here.

To learn more about industrial power generation, check out Power and Composite Technologies: www.pactinc.com

The Sunshine State Seizes On Its Natural Strength

A “solar power innovator and leader.” That’s what Reuters has called the Florida Power and Light-commissioned Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center in Martin County, Florida.

The Next Generation station is made up of 190,000 solar panels; it does work in combination with a preexisting natural gas power plant, though. Still, it’s a great advance for the state of Florida. Besides providing clean energy, it’s also going to generate $5 million in tax revenue for its home county.

The Florida-based solar project is meeting a bit of pushback, though. The Miami Herald reports that legislators are bickering over what the best clean energy technology best suits the state. In the debate is Florida Power and Light, Florida Crystals, and domestic solar panel companies.

Even though the Next Generation station is a great boon for Florida, many smaller businesses are clamoring for some money and jobs, as well.

A bill passed in 2008 has mainly benefited Florida Power and Light, allowing it to charge a set rate for its solar power. Many business owners say the bill gives the company an unfair advantage. Florida Crystals, a local company that produces solar and biomass energy at a lower cost than Florida Power and Light agrees.

No matter, the market and local legislators seem primed to iron out the wrinkles in Florida’s plan to produce large amounts of renewable energy, and that’s good for everyone.

To learn more about industrial power generation, check out Power and Composite Technologies: www.pactinc.com

Bakersfield Gets Steamy with Glasspoint Solar-Oil Hybrid

Bakersfield, California. Once known for its abundant oil, is still a thriving city--the eleventh largest in California. And while Bakersfield enjoys a beautiful climate, a city doesn't sustain double digit growth with sunshine alone. Or can it?

According to this Forbes blog, a new company called Glasspoint is setting up shop in an old oil field of Bakersfield. Actually, what Glasspoint is setting up is more like a greenhouse than a shop.

The company recently built a half-acre greenhouse-looking structure that combines renewable energy with typical fossil fuel power. It all comes together in an incredibly clever way.

The glass structure contains a multitude of solar reflecting mirrors made of aluminum, all hanging by wires. As the sun passes overhead, the mirrors are shifted to best focus the sunlight onto hanging pipes filled with water. (Anyone who's ever used a "solar shower" will be familiar with the idea.) The water boils into steam, and the steam is then injected into the ancient oil field to push up aged crude oil.

The whole process works similar to hybrid automobiles. By combining renewable energy (or at least potentially lower-impact, in the case of automobiles) with traditional power generation, a unique hybrid approach begins to take hold.

Glasspoint's service is meant not to compete with traditional solar power, but rather the way oil is already harvested. Traditionally, oil companies use the steam process to force out oil from deep underground; to do so, they use natural gas. Glasspoint's business is predicated on replacing natural gas in both more environmentally friendly and less expensive ways. The first goal is obviously met--in optimal circumstances. The second goal is also met--apparently the Glasspoint glass houses will cost about half as much as gas to operate.

There are a few problems with Glasspoint's project, though. To start, the initial installation is about half an acre; to properly power the oil field it's situated on, it would take about 100 acres of such houses. The cost power a larger field (like the one owned by oil giant Chevron) is estimated at $700 million to cover 3,200 acres.

As oil supplies become depleted, it takes more energy to extract the oil. It makes sense that you'd want to spend as little energy as possible to produce more energy. Other oil producing nations like Oman, Qatar, and even Spain are looking to solar-powered oil extraction. American reserves are supposed by many to be economically unfeasible, but if the cost to extract oil can be reduced, our supplies could be said to increase quite a bit. Let's hope the sun keeps shining on beautiful Bakersfield.

To learn more about industrial power generation, check out Power and Composite Technologies: www.pactinc.com

Con Edison's Pushing Solar in the Big City

New York City is the largest city in America. To go along with its giant infrastructure needs, it's also the most demanding city to power. This need has forced city residents to be especially resourceful when it comes to getting enough precious power to all five boroughs.

During 2010, New York (and neighboring Westchester County) added 4.5 megawatts of renewable solar energy through power supplier Con Edison. There were 203 solar projects added to the grid in 2010, a 51% increase over the previous year's solar projects.

Overall, there are 8.5 megawatts of solar power pouring into Con Edison's grid. The solar energy is concentrated predominantly in Queens and Westchester. The energy company has been able to make so many inroads in solar energy by means of a $181 million federal funding reward from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

(Via SmartPlanet)

To learn more about industrial power generation, check out Power and Composite Technologies: www.pactinc.com

Can China Learn From Europe's Solar Successes (And Failures)?

By pursuing a dedicated strategy for modernization, China has been emerging among the top industrialized nations in population, manufacturing, GDP, and many other indicators of economic success. Energy production is no different.

A recent story in Bloomberg laid out China's plan to make a big splash in the solar energy industry. The Chinese government is going to model its system after Europe, spending the next year studying European countries like Germany.

The chairman of the Solar Photovoltaic Committee of China’s Renewable Energy Society expressed his interest in learning from Germany. The European countries have been making great strides in solar energy, gaining more than $65 billion in investment for the year 2010.

Many European countries—and America—have tried spur growth in alternate energies like solar through incentives and other economic devices. But economic ups and downs have rendered subsidies somewhat ineffective in creating growth. China began offering solar energy subsidies in 2009, though it canceled 39 solar energy projects, as well. Hopefully, China—and the rest of the world—will be able to figure out how to properly spur solar power growth. Its learning-based approach is heartening.

To learn more about industrial power generation, check out Power and Composite Technologies:

www.pactinc.com

Solar Thermal Is Heating Up in Texas

It looks like Texas is going to get its first solar thermal power generation plant. Austin-based ThermalSoul has plans to construct a facility that can generate up to 10 megawatts of electricity, which can power up to 9,000 homes. Solar technology is a growing energy industry, but ThermalSoul's facility will be slightly different than what most people think of when they think of solar power. Rather than harnessing power directly from the sun using solar panels, the Austin plant will convert solar power to thermal energy, which it can store in thermal liquids. Thermal solar power, therefore, works even when the weather is overcast or raining. Thermal solar power is up to ten times as efficient as direct solar or wind power, as well.

Even though thermal solar power is an emerging industry, it's also a growing one. Some major players are entering the arena, including Duke Energy's spinoff, Solargenix Energy, Pacific Gas and Electric, and Google. For right now, ThermalSoul is leading the charge in Austin. It hopes to generate power for the same cost as coal.

Power Generation Links

Here are some power generation links for your Friday morning perusal.

Is Google getting into the power generation business? They're making some decent strides in the alternate energy and smart grid sectors.
The UK's recent love affair with reducing its carbon emissions has left it vulnerable to natural gas shortages. Luckily, the recession has decreased demand for energy.
China's overall power generation capacity has risen more than 10% and its green energy capacity has increased, as well. Its supply still fails to meet demand, however.
General Electric is scaling back its solar power operations; it considers wind power to be a profitable sector.

Solar Power: 'It's like watching the Internet mature in 1995'

There's a great post by the Scientific American about the growth potential of solar power generation in the U.S. It quotes Harry Fleming, CEO of Acro Energy Technologies, who says memorably,

"It's like watching the Internet mature in 1995."

The post goes on to elaborate, saying that the cost of solar panels is dropping dramatically; the installation cost for solar panels is dropping--not as dramatically--but enough to decrease the pain in the pocketbook that causes most consumers and businesses to balk at entering the solar grid.

George Musser, the author of the post, plans on updating it as he installs solar panels on his house. It looks like a good page to bookmark. Have a good weekend, everyone!

Slow Progress in Greenhouse Gas Reduction

There is more progress being made on the climate change problem facing the United States. The Obama administration is promoting measures to reduce greenhouse emissions, and the President appeared at a solar energy installation in Florida earlier this week. The New York Times reports that the Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, told a Senate panel,

“When the starting gun sounded on the clean energy race, the United States stumbled, but I remain confident that we can make up the ground... When we gear up our research and production of clean energy technologies, we can still surpass any other country.”

This optimism is heartening for supporters of green energy, but the American Clean Energy and Security Act still languishes in the wake of the healthcare bill. The development of clean energy should add jobs to the economy and help modernize the power grid, but consumers, I suspect, will be skeptical of rising energy costs being passed along to them from power generation companies. Only time will tell if the Obama administration can come up with a real plan to reduce greenhouse emissions while keeping price increases to consumers low.

The Nation's Largest Solar Photovoltaic Plant To Open This Week

In one week, the nation’s largest solar photovoltaic plant will commence operations in Arcadia, Florida. It is called the DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center. The Next Generation Solar Energy Center is opening weeks ahead of schedule and about $22.2 million under budget.

The Solar Energy Center uses more than 90,000 photovoltaic panels to turn solar energy into electricity that can support the electricity needs of more than 3,000 homes. Plant officials are working with local officials to expand the Center to increase its capacity to at least 150 megawatts. Presently, the plant has a 75 megawatt capacity. Combined with other ongoing solar energy projects that have recently launched in Florida, the solar energy center in Martin County and the one at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida has increased its solar energy capacity to 110 megawatts.

In addition to its solar capacity, the Solar Energy Center is the world’s first hybrid solar thermal plant. Besides the more than 100 workers the plant will employ during its operations, it has employed more than 600 construction workers, who are all on site right now.

Good News For Nature?

The Energy Information Administration (EIA), the official energy statistic bureau of the United States government, released its latest outlook report recently, and it contains some good news for opponents of fossil fuels.

Carbon dioxide emissions from coal, oil, and natural gas are expected to drop by 5.9% this year due in large part to the economic downturn and a groundswell of support for green energy and renewable energy sources, which has started to reduce fossil fuels consumption. The EIA outlook report says that reduced coal consumption accounts for 63% of the CO2 emissions decrease. A decrease in petroleum consumption and natural gas account for 30% and 7% of the reduction, respectively.

The EIA outlook report also says that there is an expected rise in power generation from hydroelectric dams and wind farms: 5.4% and 19%, respectively. Power generation from nuclear power plants is expected to remain steady, while solar and renewable biomass power are on a decline relative to last year.

Plot of a James Bond film or real news story?

I read a fascinating story in today's New York Times. It sounds like it's ripped straight from the plot of a James Bond film!

An idea, proposed by the Club of Rome (which is billed as "an international group of experts that suggests solutions to global problems") is an idea to power much of northern Africa and Europe. The idea, basically, is to place large mirrors across the Sahara Desert. The mirrors--which are not photovoltaic cells--would collect the sun's energy, which energy would then boil water, which would produce steam to turn turbines thereby generating energy.

The mirrors would be placed in northern Africa, in the embattled Maghreb region. Critics of the plan say that local politics and resource scarcity could negatively impact--or even tank--the plan. However, the story cites the more common bureaucratic red tape as the most likely reason the plan would fail.

This plan is being executed by an entity called Desertec, and it's set to cost a minimum of $573 billion. The plan is being supported mainly by German finance firms, who have an interest in supporting sustainable energy: For such firms, the climate change poses a fiscal threat since insuring weather-related catastrophes accounts for a large part of their expenses.

Organizations and politicians who support localized, small-scale photovoltaic power generation also oppose the plan.

“Sahara power for northern Europe is a mirage,” said Hermann Scheer, a member of the German Parliament and the head of the European Association for Renewable Energy. “Those behind the project know themselves that nothing will ever come out of this.”

However, the tantalizing potential of the Desertec plan is tangible. The news story cites the fact that "more energy falls on the world’s deserts in six hours than the world consumes in a year." That's certainly impressive.

How Will H.R.2454 (AKA the American Clean Energy and Security Act) Affect the Power Generation Industry?

Lately, there’s been a lot of talk about the American Clean Energy and Security Act. The cornerstone of the bill is its implementation of a so-called “cap and trade” system to limit carbon emissions. Cap and trade calls for limiting environmentally-damaging pollution from factories, refineries, and power plants. The manner in which cap and trade limits such pollution is by imposing a government-mandated limit on heat-trapping pollutants. This limit decreases over time, thereby lowering the overall amount of emissions. Then, the system allows for the sale and trade of permits that allow the creation of such pollutants. Ideally, the cap and trade system would discourage the creation carbon emissions by putting a price on creating them. President Obama has expressed an intention of reducing U.S. emissions by 83% by 2050.

On 26 June 2009, the House of Representatives narrowly passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act thereby setting off a flurry of questions and debate. However, we are interested in the cap and trade system as it relates to the industrial power generation industry, a point of focus that has been unusually underrepresented in the national media. Rather, it seems like cap and trade is going to affect the power generation industry foremost among U.S. industries. While the United States Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers oppose the bill for fairly obvious reasons, its effect on U.S. energy producers is more ambivalent.

Under the wording of the House bill, in order to ease the transition into the cap and trade system, of the total $91.4 billion worth of carbon permits that would be provided by the government, many will be provided as free to regulated industries. This freebie period is expected to last until the end of the transition period, which is expected to occur between 2025 and 2030. The manner in which these allowances will be distributed is interesting. Whereas oil producers will receive 2.25% of their necessary permits in the form of allowances, the power generation industry is slated to receive approximately 85% of its permits as allowances. Ostensibly, this manner of distribution is to meant to avoid steep rate increases for power consumers. However, some power generation organizations feel that this amount is still not enough. It is clear, however, that this provision in the cap and trade system will save power companies from absolute ruin; they will have to make radical adjustments, though.

It is expected by many that the cap and trade system will force the energy industry to become more efficient. Whereas the expected cost increase for electricity is expected to be about 7% nationally, those who receive electricity from coal-dependent states can expect substantially greater increases. Against this notion, proponents of the cap and trade system say that the plan will return much of the money spent on permits to consumers in the form of lower taxes.

There are recent stories that suggest the impending cap and trade system is exercising its effect in another way on the power generation industry. On 29 July 2009, New Jersey regulators approved more than $515 million to spend on doubling the state’s solar power-generated energy. Included in the plan is for Petra Solar, Inc. to produce more than 200,000 smart solar systems for installation across the state, which is expected to create more than 100 green jobs. The federal government recently awarded Portland General Electric $3 million to augment the power generation capabilities of its Bigelow Canyon Wind Farm, which has been overtaxed during the summer months. The American Wind Energy Association recently released a market report citing Texas as the new leading wind power-generating state with a total of 8,000 megawatts capacity. It added 454 megawatts of that power during the second quarter of 2009. What these and other, similar stories seem to indicate is that power generation companies are looking to be proactive in the face of a cap and trade system. Rather than lobbying against change, they are rushing to meet it head-on with new alternate energy projects, many of which create new green jobs that can help combat the 9.5% unemployment rate that besieges our country. The power generating industry can look at this uncertain period in its history as a clarifying moment, an grand opportunity to update and rebuild a decaying, inefficient power grid to usher the country into the 21st century.

The Power Generation Blog

America's Tallest Building To Become A Solar Farm?

Italian Solar Power A Bit Sotto Voce

An In-Depth Look At Solar's Future

The Sunshine State Seizes On Its Natural Strength

Bakersfield Gets Steamy with Glasspoint Solar-Oil Hybrid

Con Edison's Pushing Solar in the Big City

Can China Learn From Europe's Solar Successes (And Failures)?

Solar Thermal Is Heating Up in Texas

Power Generation Links

Solar Power: 'It's like watching the Internet mature in 1995'

Slow Progress in Greenhouse Gas Reduction

The Nation's Largest Solar Photovoltaic Plant To Open This Week

Good News For Nature?

Plot of a James Bond film or real news story?

How Will H.R.2454 (AKA the American Clean Energy and Security Act) Affect the Power Generation Industry?

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