According to the movie “Collapse” our best options for replacing fossil fuels are solar and wind power.
Wind power has a few potential problems only because of the sheer number of giant, land-using wind turbines that are needed to generate large amounts of electricity. With wind power, you have to have the large installations away from cities because of their size and that means transmission issues. Solar power is well suited to any location, including their installation in cities. Theoretically, every rooftop in a city could have solar panels.
Solar companies are growing fast and one of the most successful so far is BrightSource Energy, a California-based solar firm backed by $300 million in investment from Chevron, Google and Silicon Valley venture capitalists. From a recent Rolling Stone (September 2 2010) article:
“Can huge solar-thermal plants help stop global warming? For decades, solar power has promised to provide an inexhaustible supply of clean energy — but it never seemed to deliver. Now, the federal government and venture capitalists are pouring billions into a massive solar-thermal installation known as Ivanpah. It’s cheaper and more reliable than photovoltaic cells, and it provides power on a scale big enough to rival coal and nukes.
How it Works: Instead of photovoltaic cells on rooftops, Ivanpah relies on a vast field of mirrors in the Mojave Desert to act as giant magnifying glasses. The mirrors — spread across 3,500 acres — concentrate the sun’s energy, boiling a mammoth vat of water and creating steam to drive an electric turbine.
Why it’s Revolutionary: Sheer size. It’s the biggest solar plant ever: When Ivanpah goes online in 2014, it will power 140,000 homes, create 1,000 jobs and reduce CO2 by 400,000 tons a year — the equivalent of taking 70,000 cars off the road.
BrightSource Energy is backed by $300 million in investment [as described above]. The biggest obstacles: Geography (you needs lots of flat land) power lines (you need wires to transmit electricity from the desert) and turtles ( the project had to be scaled down to proptect the habitat of the endangered desert tortoise).
The Future: Very sunny. BrightSource plans to build 14 plants in the Southwest, and Israel and Australia are also getting into the act.
Look into the future — it’s a very sparse and dirty place. It might also be very dark. The few remaining humans will all live at the tops of major mountains, trying to grow things in the rock. Some made it to the Arctic, but it’s hard to live in such extreme latitudes where the sun doesn’t even shine for months out of the year. The remaining humans can’t figure out exactly what happened. So many animals and plants have gone extinct, there is little to eat and no medicine, no electricity and no power. There has been a great culling of humans and animals on planet Earth and along with them went the ability to communicate over distances. There are no governments, and no countries remain. Borders are meaningless. After the final resource wars, countries descended into chaos and humans scattered over the horizon . . . .
This is our potential future unless we get a handle on global warming very soon. That’s not likely without strong national leadership. So, I’m hoping that President Obama will talk about climate change and new energy and green jobs in tonight’s State of the Union speech. We had such high hopes that he would act decisively on global warming, and it’s been a year already!
Alternative energy like wind and solar are making big development strides, but are not being implemented fast enough. The U.S. needs a huge infusion of stimulus money and work into building new transmission lines. The news on wind overall is good though:
Issuing its end-of-year report, the American Wind Energy Association said the industry installed nearly 10,000 megawatts of new capacity during the year, growing at an annual rate of 39%. The U.S. now has a total of 35,000 megawatts of wind energy installed, enough to light and power 9.7 million homes and the equivalent of removing 62 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere each year and taking 10.5 million cars off the road.
Though the industry avoided a predicted 50% decline in domestic wind turbine manufacturing because of the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus and the Obama administration’s commitment to clean energy job creation, AWEA CEO Denise Bode said a stronger federal policy on renewable energy is needed to keep manufacturing robust.
China Secures Major Foothold in California’s Growing Solar Market. . . . Chinese manufacturers of photovoltaic solar panels have secured an increasing hold in California, the United States’ largest solar market, doubling their market share in the last year alone, according to a new report. In the last three years, China’s share of the market increased from 2 percent to 46 percent, says Bloomberg New Energy Finance, a research and consulting firm. The share of U.S. manufacturers in the California market dropped from 43 percent to 16 percent during that same period. “The ascendancy of Chinese manufacturers would be noteworthy regardless of market conditions, but is particularly telling in a time when purse-strings are still tight,” the report said. One Chinese company, Yingli Solar, now claims 27 percent of the California solar market. California accounts for about 40 percent of the U.S.’s total solar power business. The lower manufacturing costs of Chinese companies have given them a strong competitive advantage and have contributed to a sharp drop in solar module prices in the past year. Source
Say hello to the thing that could save our sun-splashed suburban lifestyle: affordable residential solar power that puts roof-top solar panels within reach of the most cash-strapped America consumer. This breakthrough is not a result of technological innovation, but a new financing scheme cooked up on Wall Street called a “residential solar lease,” a no-money-down, low-monthly plan that has made solar electricity cheaper than the stuff we get by wire. It’s an old approach to a new source of energy, and it is taking California by storm.
“Go solar for $0 down. Now you can afford to go solar without the high initial cost of installing a system. Instead of buying the equipment, you simply lease it,” boasts the Web site of SolarCity, a well-financed Silicon Valley start-up that has been pioneering the residential solar lease.
A solar lease is a fairly simple arrangement that is not unlike a car lease. Instead of dishing out tens of thousands of dollars upfront to buy and install a rooftop solar array, homeowners simply borrow one for a low monthly fee. Like a car lease, customers sign a contract that locks them in for a specified period of time with the option of extending their lease or buying the panels at the end of the contract. It makes sense when you consider that a typical homeowner would have to cough up between $20,000 and $50,000 to buy and install a solar panel system. A solar lease, on the other hand, would only cost them somewhere around $100 a month.
Every year the earth’s surface receives about 10 times as much energy from sunlight as is contained in all the known reserves of coal, oil, natural gas and uranium combined. This energy equals 15,000 times the world’s annual consumption by humans.
It makes so much sense to make use of solar energy. It’s free, it’s clean and it’s available for the taking. Investing in solar energy will also create the right kinds of jobs. (Solar panels are finally being manufactured in the United States). The stimulus money is finally being used to invest in solar energy. Today’s solar news is good:
“Senators Chris Dodd, Joe Lieberman, and Congressman Chris Murph, announced today that Connecticut is poised to receive $2,578,717 in stimulus funding to create jobs and develop clean energy technologies. Solaire Development, LLC, of Danbury, will receive the funds, which are being allocated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. . . .
“An investment in renewable energy is an investment in our future,” said Lieberman. “Solar energy is crucial to a clean and cost-effective energy future, and these funds will tremendously benefit the important work at Danbury’s Solaire Development.” . . . .
“The funding for Connecticut is part of a $502 billion package announced today by the Departments of Energy and the Treasury that will provide much-needed upfront capital in lieu of tax credits to clean energy companies, enabling businesses to create jobs and spur construction that would have otherwise been delayed by the recent credit crunch. The Department of Energy estimates that approximately 2,000 construction and manufacturing jobs will be created in the renewable energy industry under this wave of funding.”
Great news! Read more here. There is more great solar investment news today. If you have been wondering where VP Joe Biden is, he was virtually (via satellite) breaking ground at a new solar panel factory in Fremont, California.
Solyndra celebrated the boost for solar power with star power: an event with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu and — via satellite from the White House — Vice President Joe Biden. . . . .
. . . The new plant is designed to produce enough rooftop photovoltaic solar panels to generate 500 megawatts of power a year. “The economy needs clean-tech alternatives to help it recover, but our planet requires clean-tech solutions in order to survive,” Solyndra CEO Chris Gronet said in a statement.
The $535 million loan from the feds was combined with $198 million in funding led by Argonaut Private Equity, Solyndra said. About 1,000 people will work at the plant once construction is done.”
Solar panels on roads might seem like a bit of a far-out idea now, but the U.S. DOT is actually investing in funding the building of a prototype road. Building a solar road would be the ultimate green job.
What it will take for this to seem less odd is more people getting used to seeing solar panels everywhere, something that will happen soon, and a desperation for clean power, another thing that will happen very soon. The barriers to this include: the panels have to be strong enough to withstand traffic. They will have to be heated. The road panels will initially be expensive (what isn’t?). And we will have to get trucks and super-heavy vehicles off the road, (which should happen anyway because they cause accidents and destroy the roads we have.) The smoothness of the panels will also be an energy saver as they will reduce friction between vehicle and roadway. And they will generate lots of power.
From Grist: “The Solar Road Panels would contain not just solar panels but LED lighting (to enable real-time communication with drivers), heating units (to prevent icing), high-voltage power transmission lines, and even electric-vehicle recharging stations. It’s transportation, power, and grid infrastructure in the same place.
At the limit, if all paved surfaces in the U.S. were replaced with 15% efficiency solar panels, the resulting distributed power network could provide three times the electricity the nation consumes, with zero carbon emissions and no additional power grid infrastructure. (Yes, I’m aware manufacturing, installing, and maintaining it would generate emissions, as with any infrastructure project.)
So crazy it just might work? Apparently the Dept. of Transportation thinks so: Solar Roadways has received a $100,000 contract from DOT to build a prototype”
I love the idea. If it can work, why is it any crazier than CCS or geoengineering?
Solar panels generate electricity at the McKinney, TX Wal-Mart store. (photo credit: Wal-Mart)
Walmart and other American retailers see the writing on the wall and are switching to renewable energy. Have progressives been too harsh in judgment of Walmart? Walmart’s energy goals are very ambitious — 100% renewable power. That’s better than the U.S. government’s goals. Walmart does seem to be doing good things for the environment, for whatever reason, and that’s a positive thing. They also have enough influence with their success to show other retailers how it should be done with power. Let’s hope more big retailers around the world follow this example.
Walmart Sees Sunny Forecast For Solar
Walmart is inching closer to its goal of using 100 percent renewable energy with a new deal bringing rooftop solar power to five Puerto Rico stores.
The arrangement with SunEdison could lead to rooftop solar systems at an additional 23 stores over five years. Each system will provide between 25 percent and 35 percent of the electricity consumed by the host store.
The deal is similar to a slew of previous announcements by retailers looking to add renewable energy to their operations without a large capital investment. SunEdison will finance, own, build and operate the solar arrays over a 15-year contractual period, guaranteeing Walmart a long-term source of green power at a predictable rate.
We need these all over the U.S., not just on military bases. On Wednesday (May 27th) President Obama visited the west’s largest solar array. Obama marked the 100th day of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act by highlighting the development and use of geothermal and solar energy. Some of his remarks:
“. . . we’re standing near the largest solar electric plant of its kind in the entire Western Hemisphere — the entire Western Hemisphere. More than 72,000 solar panels built on part of an old landfill provide 25 percent of the electricity for the 12,000 people who live and work here at Nellis. That’s the equivalent of powering about 13,200 homes during the day.
It’s a project that took about half a year to complete, created 200 jobs, and will save the United States Air Force, which is the largest consumer of energy in the federal government, nearly $1 million — $1 million a year. It will also reduce harmful carbon pollution by 24,000 tons per year, which is the equivalent of removing 4,000 cars from our roads. Most importantly, this base serves as a shining example of what’s possible when we harness the power of clean, renewable energy to build a new, firmer foundation for economic growth.
Now, that’s the kind of foundation we’re trying to build all across America. One hundred days ago, in the midst of the worst economic crisis in half a century, we passed the most sweeping economic recovery act in history — a plan designed to save jobs, create new ones, and put money in people’s pockets.”
More at White House.gov. It’s a shame this is powering an Air Force Base (the military) as opposed to a civilian city. Should the military be the ones who get solar power and not regular Americans? Militarizing renewable power is not what we had in mind. According to the WAPO:
He said the second program will help develop geothermal energy across the country, building on the technology’s success in Nevada, which has 17 industrial-scale geothermal plants.
Obama also touted the results so far of his $787 billion stimulus package, which includes about $476 million for expanding and accelerating the development of solar and geothermal energy.
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