The US has 43 nuclear power plants’ worth of solar energy in the pipeline

The future's so bright, we'll all have to wear shades?

I am quite encouraged by the great news coming on the sustainable energy front (more capacity, more large companies making the investment, more homeowners reaping the rewards, greater efficiency in panels, falling costs, etc.).

Sadly, I'm discouraged by the climbing levels of greenhouse gases, the large number of climate change "deniers" in Congress, and the increased consumption of fossil fuels.  I fear we'll reach the "tipping point" before we muster the will to go green.

From Quartz:

The boom in solar energy in the US  in recent years? You haven’t seen anything yet. The pipeline of photovoltaic projects has grown 7% over the past 12 months andnow stands at 2,400 solar installations that would generate 43,000 megawatts(MW), according to a report released today by market research firm NPD Solarbuzz. If all these projects are built, their peak electricity output would be equivalent to that of 43 big nuclear power plants, and enough to keep the lights on in six million American homes.

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Only 8.5% of the pipeline is currently being installed, with most of it still in the planning stages. Some projects will inevitably get canceled or fail to raise financing.

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Source: NPD Solarbuzz

But there’s reason to believe that a good chunk of these solar power plants and rooftop installations will get built over the next two years. That’s because a crucial US tax break for renewable energy projects is set to fall from 30% to 10% at the end of 2016. So there will be a rush to get projects online. In 2012, for instance, wind developers installed a record 13,131 MW as a key tax credit was set to expire, accounting for 42% of all new US electricity capacity that year.  (The US Congress subsequently renewed the tax break for another year.)

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One sign that solar developers like First Solar and SunPower are gearing up to meet the 2016 deadline is that the balance of projects is shifting to smaller installations that can quickly obtain permits and get built fast. While eight of the 10 largest photovoltaic power plants came online in 2012—those in the 100 MW to 250 MW range—over the past 12 months the number of solar projects under 30 MW has jumped by 33%, according to the report.

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Source: NPD Solarbuzz

All those projects will make the US the third largest solar market, behind China and Japan. The building boom could have another beneficial effect: The race to score subsidies could help make them unnecessary. The pell-mell growth of photovoltaic power should push prices down, to make solar electricity increasingly competitive with fossil fuels.

Ikea to sell solar panels in UK stores

Make it affordable, make it easy, and people will embrace it.  I think these panels still need to have some sort of regulator or storage (i.e. battery) connected before they can be used.  Photovoltaic (PV) panels generate DC energy of varying (depending on the amount of light) voltage and current.  You can't simply connect them to appliances and have them work.

A couple of years ago, I wrote about a home wind turbine that could be plugged into your household outlets, but that was something that had the regulating circuitry built into it.  PV panels aren't there yet.  Users connect a varying number of panels (depending on space and budget), and it often takes a professional or someone who's done their homework before they can be used.

Still, a major retailer like Ikea selling them?  Lowe's and Home Depot sell them through their websites, but I've not seen them in the stores.  Nor do I know how difficult (or easy) it is to take them home and hook them up.  I guess I've got my homework cut out for me.

From The Guardian:

Ikea is to sell solar panels at its British stores for the first time in an attempt to tap growth in the heavily subsidised green energy market.

The world's biggest furniture retailer, best known for cheap basics such as its Billy bookcases and Ektorp sofas, plans to offer solar panel packages at all of its 17 British stores within the next 10 months.

Ikea said the move follows a successful pilot project at its Lakeside store to the east of London, which sells one photovoltaic (PV) system almost every day.

Britain offers subsidies to encourage the takeup of PV panels, which harness the power of sunlight and transform it into electricity, in an attempt to boost greener energy production and help it meet legally binding targets to cut carbon emissions.

A solar panel owner receives subsidies for generating solar-sourced electricity as well as exporting excess power into the grid. An average semi-detached house with a south-facing roof would earn as much as £770 a year through subsidies and savings on energy bills, an Ikea case study showed.

Ikea's offer of panels made by China's Hanergy Holding Group Ltd, a power producer and manufacturer of thin-film PV panels, involves a minimum spend of £5,700, for which customers get 18 panels, which should break even within roughly seven years.

"We know that our customers want to live more sustainably and we hope working with Hanergy to make solar panels affordable and easily available helps them do just that," said Joanna Yarrow, Ikea's head of sustainability in the UK and Ireland.

Britain's solar market is small compared with green energy leaders such as Germany and Spain, but it has posted regular growth, with year-on-year installations rising 25% in September to 1.7 gigawatts.

Ikea customers will receive a package that includes in-store consultation, installation and maintenance of the panels.

The Swedish company has its own ambitious clean energy target, aiming to source at least 70% of its energy needs from wind and solar by 2015 and 100% by 2020.

It Keeps Getting Cheaper To Install Solar Panels In The U.S.

Yeah, baby.  We can thank the "early adopters," those who bought solar for the ecological benefits, or who had the long-term view, and made the investment when the pay-back period was much longer.  Now, even without tax credits, it's becoming easier and easier for people to see the advantages to installing photovoltaic (PV) panels on their homes and businesses.

From Think Progress:

Americans who want to install solar panels on their houses are having to pay less than ever before, a new report has found.

The installed prices for solar photovoltaic (PV) power systems fell by a range of 6 to 14 percent, or $0.30 per watt to $0.90 per watt, from 2011 to 2012 according to the sixth edition of “Tracking the Sun,” an annual PV cost-trackingreport published this week by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The report looked at a 208,529-unit sample of residential and commercial solar installations that “represents 72% of all cumulative grid-connected PV capacity installed in the United States through 2012.” The researchers looked at the median installed price of solar panels in three system size groupings. In 2012, this median installed price ranged from $5.3 per watt for small systems, down to $4.6 per watt for systems larger than 100 kilowatts:

Since 1998, installed system prices have been falling thanks to reductions in the costs of solar energy that do not include the panels themselves: inverters, mounting hardware, labor, permitting and fees, customer acquisition, overhead, taxes, and installer profit. Prices have been falling in the short-term because of the decline of the cost of solar panels, which fell by $2.6/W from 2008 through 2012. This represents an 80 percent price drop for PV systems generating less than 10 kW.

The steady drop in costs have helped to enable a steep increase in the pace of installation over the last several years. This graph shows shows the growth of total installed solar capacity since 1998 (along with the sample). Look at the jump from 2009 to 2012:

However, module prices are established based on supply and demand. “There simply are limits to how much further module prices can fall, and so it stands to reason that continued reductions in PV system prices will need to come primarily from the soft cost side,” co-author Ryan Wiser explained.

The soft costs, or non-hardware prices, can be influenced by local, state, and national policies. Countries like Italy, Australia, and Germany have generally incentivized solar adoption through long-term policies, which have in turn helped to reduce soft costs. In fact, residential PV systems installed last year in Italy, Australia, and Germany are nearly 40 percent lower than in the U.S. The report directly cites the pricing of soft costs for this glaring difference. These costs represent approximately half of the total installed cost of residential solar systems, so having the right policies in place at all levels of government remains the greatest opportunity for cost reductions, which Climate Progressdiscussed last month.

Even so, the U.S. achieved many significant accomplishments last year, installing a record 3,313 megawatts of PV in 2012. Additionally, the market size for the U.S. industry grew from $8.6 billion in 2011 to $11.5 billion in 2012, according to GTM Research. And in California, PV system prices have decreased by an additional 10 to 15 percent just within the first six months of 2013 — leading the report authors to suggest that PV price reductions in 2013 are on pace to match or exceed recent years. In order to continue the downward price trend over the long term, the U.S. solar market will have to focus on reducing soft costs.

US Solar Targets Could Save Americans $20 Billion Annually By 2050

A billion here, a billion there, and soon you're talking real money.

From Clean Technica:

Solar energy could supply one-third of all electricity demand in the Western US by 2050 while and massively cutting emissions – if the Department of Energy’s (DOE) SunShot Initiative succeeds.

Researchers made the bold prediction in “SunShot Solar Power Reduces Costs and Uncertainty in Future Low-Carbon Electricity Systems,” a study released this week by the University of California at Berkeley.

Using a detailed computer model that considered potential cost reductions through the SunShot Initiative and potential effects of proposed emissions reduction policies, the study found if DOE achieves its goal of reducing the cost of solar to $0.06 cents per kilowatt-hour to reach grid parity, it will displace natural gas, nuclear, and clean coal technologies while reducing emissions 80% below 1990 levels.

World's Largest Solar Plant Ready to Shine

When you hear "solar energy" you probably think of photovoltaic (PV) panels.  While there are many large-scale PV panel installations, those who think on a really big scale are doing solar very differently. 

From National Geographic:

The Ivanpah Valley of the Mojave Desert in California is home to spiky yucca trees, long-nosed leopard lizards, loggerhead shrikes, and a rare species of tortoise—and soon, the largest solar thermal energy plant in the world.
More than six years in the making, the Ivanpah plant is now slated to begin generating power before summer's end. It was designed by BrightSource Energy to use more than 170,000 mirrors to focus sunlight onto boilers positioned atop three towers, which reach nearly 500 feet (150 meters) into the dry desert air. The reflected sunlight heats water in the boilers to make steam, which turns turbines to generate electricity—enough to power more than 140,000 homes. (See related quiz, "What You Don't Know About Solar Power.")
Scaling Up Solar
At 377 megawatts (MW), Ivanpah's capacity is more than double that of the Andusol, Solnava, or Extresol power stations in southern Spain, which previously were the largest in the world (150 MW each). (See related: "Pictures: Spanish Solar Energy.") The 1980s-era SEGS, or Solar Energy Generating System, also in the Mojave, about 100 miles southwest of Ivanpah, has a 354-MW capacity, but it is a collection of nine plants.
Viewed from above, the mirrors seem to angle their faces like enormous silvery blooms craning to the sun. At ground level, the facility stands on a 3,500-acre swath of federal land inhabited by the threatened desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii). Once found across deserts of the American West, the species now inhabits parts of California, Utah, Arizona, and Nevada. But its numbers have dwindled: Scientists estimate some populations have declined by as much as 90 percent.
Although initial surveys indicated fewer than 20 desert tortoises occupied the Ivanpah project area, more than 150 individuals ended up being found. Biologists working for BrightSource cleared the area, carefully moving tortoises to "nursery pens" adjacent to the site before releasing them to nearby habitat.
These slow-moving desert reptiles are able to survive a year or more without water and live for as long as 80 years, burrowing underground to keep cool and feasting on wildflowers in the spring. Yet they have proven vulnerable to encroaching human development. "Here's an animal that's been around 200 million years that may be disappearing," said Ed LaRue, a biologist with the Desert Tortoise Council, a nonprofit dedicated to conservation of the desert tortoise in the Southwestern United States and Mexico. "Solar, especially at the level that it's being proposed in the Mojave Desert, is a new threat."
BrightSource and its partners, NRG and Google, received a $1.6 billion federal loan guarantee in April 2011 in support of the project. And it may be only the first of many such developments on public lands in the Golden State. Although several large-scale solar projects in California have sputtered (including two from BrightSource) and technical challenges are considerable, the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced a move in early July to prioritize more than 300,000 acres of public lands in six Western states for use by utility-scale solar plants, with nearly half of that acreage in California. (See related: "Desert Storm: Battle Brews Over Obama Renewable Energy Plan.")
Acting on the heels of President Obama's recent call for federal approval of 10,000 megawatts of renewable energy projects on public lands by 2020, the BLM prohibited mining claims on the 300,000 acres for the next 20 years. (See related story: "Obama Pledges U.S. Action on Climate Change, With or Without Congress.") Some environmentalists have raised concerns about how fragile desert ecosystems will be altered in the renewable energy drive, but developers and advocates of large-scale clean power say the ultimate goal is to reduce dependence on fossil fuel that is far more harmful to both land and atmosphere. (See related story: "Monterey Shale Shakes Up California's Energy Future.")
"We're combining innovative technology with traditional power-block technology to produce carbon-free, reliable renewable power," said Joseph Desmond, senior vice president of marketing for BrightSource. (A power-block facility includes a steam heat exchanger, steam-turbine generator, and the electrical equipment in a substation.) "When you're talking about fossil fuels, you have to factor in the land used for exploration, extraction, processing, and then transportation," he said. "People sometimes forget this is actually a very efficient utilization of a sustainable energy resource." (See related pictures: "Oil Potential and Animal Habitat in the Monterey Shale.")
Ivanpah's developers also addressed concerns about the typically high consumption by solar thermal plants by deploying an air-cooling system that they say reduces water use 90 percent compared to conventional technology.  (See related story: "Water Demand for Energy to Double by 2035.")
First of Many?
BrightSource's desert plant is one of the largest projects in California's ambitious push for renewable energy. (See related story: "California Tackles Climate Change, But Will Others Follow?") The state aims to generate 33 percent of its electricity from renewable sources like wind, solar, and geothermal by 2020. Two other solar projects designed for the Ivanpah Valley are now working their way through the approval process: The proposed Stateline and Silver State South projects, both from the company First Solar, would generate 300 megawatts and 350 megawatts, respectively. Further north, a solar farm proposed for construction across 3,000 acres (1,214 hectares) of the Panoche Valley, would generate nearly 400 megawatts—if it can survive legal challenges from environmental groups and clear other hurdles, like signing on a utility to buy the electricity and obtaining federal permits.
"There's a trade-off," said Larry LaPre, a biologist with BLM. "If there were no push toward renewable energy, animals like the desert tortoise and plants like the Joshua tree could be impacted quite a bit [by climate change]." Indeed, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) cites global climate change and drought as "potentially important long-term considerations" for the desert tortoise's recovery. (See related story: "IEA Outlook: Time Running Out on Climate Change.") Rising temperatures and reduced rainfall expected to result from climate change could ravage the species' food supply. At the same time, FWS recognizes that it has not evaluated the potential long-term effects of big renewable energy projects that fragment or isolate desert tortoise conservation areas, possibly "cutting off gene flow between these areas."
And so in the Mojave, the question that divides renewable energy supporters and wildlife advocates is this: Is it a good trade? "There's so much land out here where the biological resources have been compromised," such as old agricultural land and areas on the urban fringe, said LaRue. "I think it would be a great resource if it was just put in the right place."

How Twelve States Are Succeeding In Solar Energy Installation

Encouraging constructive behavior through tax breaks and other temporary subsidies is a great way for government to jump start the migration to renewable energy.  Some states "get" it, many have yet to realize the benefit.

From Think Progress:

A dozen states are leading the way on solar energy policy — what can the other 38 learn from them to reap the benefits?
Solar power in America is growing quickly, generating nearly half of all new electric generating capacity in the beginning of 2013. The technological efficiency is improving by the day. It has also gotten cheaper, with the price dropping 27 percent last year. Aside from the clean, low-carbon energy it provides — mainly during peak demand hours — 119,000 people currently work in the solar energy industry.
So what is the secret?
Environment America released a report today highlighting the twelve states that have found a successful policy approach to solar power which has enabled them to have installed 85 percent of the nation’s solar electricity capacity. The group, which Environment America termed the “Dazzling Dozen,” is comprised of: Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Vermont. They have the highest per capita solar electricity capacity in U.S. Having lots of sun is not enough — they have pursued good policy to ensure they have a thriving solar industry. Here are a few of the policies that any state can adopt that could supercharge the solar industries of even small Northeastern states:

• Clean Energy Standards: Eleven out of the dozen have renewable electricity standards (RESs), while nine have solar carve-outs that ensure that a set percentage of the state’s electricity portfolio comes from solar energy. These policies help create markets for solar energy by ensuring a minimum amount of a utility’s energy portfolio comes from solar.
• Net metering: All but one state among this group have strong net metering policies that help prepare burgeoning solar markets. The report notes that in providing full market value for the electricity that solar homes generate, “Net metering ensures that consumers receive reliable and fair compensation for the excess electricity they provide to the grid.”
• Interconnection: Ten of the twelve states ensure that the process for linking up a home’s solar installation is quick and easy. Interconnection policies clarify the process by which utilities have to link up new solar installations to the grid. States and local governments can also create laws that protect the rights of homeowners to install solar panels on their own property.
• Creative financing options: Most states that do well in per capita solar installations use different methods of making solar affordable for more of their residents. Solar leases and third-party power purchasing agreements essentially allow a company or utility to pay to install the panels, while the consumer either benefits from low-price solar, or slowly pays off the lease payments over time. This allows the property owner to not have to worry about paperwork or maintenance, and economies of scale make this an attractive option to many. Property assessed clean energy (PACE) financing mirrors this no-hassle approach, but allows the consumer to slowly pay back the cost of the installation on their property tax bills.

These policy approaches have a serious impact on how much solar energy a state produces. State governments can set broad targets and take measures to make it easy for residents to buy panels and connect them to the grid. Local governments are able to clear the way in small-scale ways by ensuring property owners have the right to install solar panels on their property and investing in smaller solar projects in the community. The federal government can encourage solar development on public lands, promote research on new solar technology, invest in better grid technology, and continue to permit tax credits for solar energy.

Another benefit that states discover as they install more solar is that it requires fewer transmission lines, and more of the power that gets generated can actually be used because 5-7 percent of power wasted as it travels over lines. Solar energy is also produced at the right time: when demand spikes.
Three states sit at the top of the rankings:
Arizona
Arizona’s early requirement that utilities had to receive a certain portion of their electricity from solar energy has made it the national leader in solar energy per capita — 167 megawatts per Arizonan. Total up the state’s utility-scale solar and you get 633 megawatts, with 495 on the way. Altogether
California
California leads the nation in total installed solar capacity by far, with 2,901 megawatts across the state through the end of 2012.
New Jersey
The report highlights New Jersey as a particularly clear example of how strong solar polices can manifest a great deal of solar power production in less than ten years. In 2004, the state faced increasing energy prices and wanted to generate more power from low-carbon sources. So it instituted an RES with a solar carve out of 2.1 percent by 2021, and took other steps to make solar energy affordable and easy for New Jersey residents. The effort has been so successful that the state now has more per capita solar energy than all but three other states (including California and New Mexico). Since 2012, New Jersey has installed 971 megawatts of solar power. Even Governor Chris Christie signed legislation to increase the solar carve-out to 4.1 percent by 2028.
The report also highlights the state of Minnesota, which this year set targets for solar power production, strengthened the state’s net-metering cap, and set a predictable rate for customers who install solar on their properties. The Texas cities of Austin and San Antonio, as well as Gainesville, Florida have made recent strides in solar, though it remains to be seen if they will power the rest of their states into the rankings.
All this said, solar has a long way to go — despite its fast growth, it still provides only a small percentage of renewable energy production, let alone total energy production. The potential is there. Rooftop solar systems, nationwide, could generate at least 20 percent of current U.S. electricity generation. The U.S. will need to have several dozen “Dazzling Dozens” to meet the potential 20 percent, but the policy pathway is ready and waiting.

Solar-Skinned Buildings Save Many Ways

By using integrated solar when building, one doesn't need both conventional windows and solar panels -- they can use windows that generate solar power.  Other exterior surfaces, like roofs, can also have integrated solar.  With increased economies of scale from increased demand, prices for these materials will be only slightly more than conventional materials, and much less than it would cost to add photovoltaic (PV) panels after construction.  It also eliminates the appearance of the external panels, something many people find objectionable.

From Bloomberg:

From stadiums in Brazil to a bank headquarters in Britain, architects led by Norman Foster are integrating solar cells into the skin of buildings, helping the market for the technology triple within two years.
Sun-powered systems will top the stadia hosting 2014 FIFA World Cup football in Brazil. In Manchester, northern England, the Co-operative Group Ltd. office has cells from Solar Century Holdings Ltd. clad into its vertical surfaces.

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The projects mark an effort by designers to adopt building- integrated photovoltaics, or BIPV, where the power-generating features are planned from the start instead of tacked on as an afterthought. Photographer: Harold Cunningham/Getty Images

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Solarcentury Holdings Ltd. clad the vertical surfaces of the Co-operative Group Ltd.’s building in Manchester. Source: solarcentury.com via Bloomberg

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The market for solar laid onto buildings and into building materials is expected to grow to $7.5 billion by 2015 from about $2.1 billion, according to Accenture, citing research from NanoMarkets. Source: solarcentury.com via Bloomberg

The projects mark an effort by designers to adopt building-integrated photovoltaics, or BIPV, where the power-generating features are planned from the start instead of tacked on as an afterthought. Foster and his customers are seeking to produce eye-catching works while meeting a European Union directive that new buildings should produce next to zero emissions after 2020.
“Building integrated solar in office buildings and factories which generate energy consistently during daylight hours, whilst not requiring additional expensive land space or unsightly installations, is seen as the most obvious energy solution,” said Gavin Rezos, principal of Viaticus Capital Ltd., an Australian corporate advisory company that’s one of the private equity funds putting money into the technology.

Growing Market

The market for solar laid onto buildings and into building materials is expected to grow to $7.5 billion by 2015 from about $2.1 billion, according to Accenture Plc, citing research from NanoMarkets. Sales of solar glass are expected to reach as much as $4.2 billion by 2015, with walls integrating solar cells at $830 million. About $1.5 billion is expected to be generated from solar tiles and shingles.
The technology provides a respite for solar manufacturers, opening the way for them to charge a premium for products. Traditional solar panel prices have fallen 90 percent since 2008 due to oversupply, cutting margins and pushing more than 30 companies including Q-Cells SE and a unit of Suntech Power Holdings Co. into bankruptcy.
The industry is already well established in the U.S., where Dow Chemical Co. (DOW), the country’s largest chemical maker by sales, is selling in more than a dozen states solar shingles that look like regular roofing material.
BASF SE (BAS) also is developing products for the market. The Santa Clara football stadium near San Francisco will have three solar-array covered bridges, with a solar canopy built over a roof terrace, generating their own power.

‘Tipping Point’

“We’re approaching a tipping point and at some point in the future building integrated solar would be a must-have in the design of any new and significant building,” said Mike Russell, managing director of Accenture’s utilities group in London.
Solar technology has been installed onto the roof of the Pituacu Stadium in Brazil, as well as its locker room and parking canopies, as the nation prepares for the World Cup.
Viaticus has invested in Dyesol Ltd. (DYE), which makes dyes that mimic how plant leaves turn sunlight into energy. The dyes increase the efficiency of solar cells and provide a product that’s “highly desirable for all buildings, both new and refurbished,” said Rezos.
Dyesol is working with Tata Steel Ltd. (TATA) on ways of incorporating its technology into steel roofing products for industrial warehouses, said Richard Caldwell, its executive chairman. Pilkington Group Ltd., a glass maker, plans to integrate the technology into windows forming the sides of buildings, he said.

Private Equity

VantagePoint of San Bruno, California, and Scottish Equity Partners are backing the efforts of Solar Century Holdings Ltd. in the U.K. to blend solar-generating technology into roof tiles and slates that can be used on homes, offices and architectural buildings. It clad the vertical surfaces of the Co-operative Group’s building in Manchester.
Incorporating solar into building products does come with its challenges. Foster + Partners, the architectural firm led by Norman Foster that refurbished the Hearst Tower in New York and designed a London skyscraper known as the Gherkin, said it’s important to consider that the structures are accessible for cleaning and maintenance. The company is designing a new office for Bloomberg LP in London and has filed plans with city authorities detailing PV installations blended into the roof.

Masdar Building

In Abu Dhabi, Foster spread 3,156 solar panels across the top of the Masdar Institute building, providing shade for an interior colonnade for the energy research organization.
“While the individual cells are discreet and easy to integrate, they require cabling and additional elements that need to be carefully incorporated,” said David Nelson, head of design at Foster + Partners.
Integrated solar products are still at least 10 percent more expensive than traditional solar photovoltaic panels, said Alan South, chief innovation officer at Solar Century.
“At the moment, it’s much cheaper to install a conventional module unless your roof is an unusual shape -- and expensive solar installed on unsuitable roofs is a decorative design feature, not an energy solution,” said Jenny Chase, solar analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Still, generating electricity where it’s used becomes more attractive as the price of energy from large, central fossil-fuel power stations increases. The cost of solar energy is declining as centrally produced power rises, said Accenture’s Russell. That will weigh on utilities.
“Next-generation solar technologies could have a potentially devastating impact on the utility industry’s revenues,” said Russell. “This will force utilities to spread costs across fewer customers, driving up energy prices, and making distributed generation even more attractive.”

The Power—and Beauty—of Solar Energy

Given the choice between a sprawling solar plant and a sprawling coal plant, I'll choose the solar.  

From Time:

Utility power plants are many things—sprawling, expensive, often polluting—but one thing they are not is beautiful. Power plants are the engines of modern society, but we’d rather they stay out of the way.

The Ivanpah solar thermal plant is something different. Soon to be completed in California’s Mojave Desert, Ivanpah will provide nearly 400 megawatts of electricity. It will do so with the sun, but the not the way you might expect. Solar photovoltaic panels—the sort usually seen on rooftops—convert sunlight directly into electricity. That’s elegant, but limited—each panel produces only a little bit of power, and that power stops flowing as soon as the sun disappears.

The solar thermal technology behind Ivanpah—which is being jointly developed by BrightSource Energy, NRG Energy and Google—uses thousands of mirrors to reflect sunlight. That light is collected in one of Ivanpah’s three solar towers, where the intense heat transforms water into steam. That steam is piped to a turbine that generates electricity. It’s the same basic technology behind a coal or natural gas plant—only the sun provides the heat.

Ivanpah also has the advantage of producing electricity on a much smoother curve than solar PV, which means it can keep generating power later into the day. But Ivanpah, which should go fully online before the end of the year, has something else: sheer beauty.

to see the photos, follow the link: http://science.time.com/2013/06/13/the-power-and-beauty-of-solar-energy/#ixzz2W60blM7F

Wind Power is bigger than solar, and growing nearly as fast.

The current issue of Popular Science is (as most are) a great read.  I stayed up late last night finishing it.  The articles on renewable energy were brief but insightful.  You've probably heard that Iceland gets all its electricity from renewable energy (thanks to their wealth of geothermal activity), but did you know that Portugal, Austria, and Chile get most of their energy from renewable sources too?

And while solar power, either through concentrated solar or photovoltaic (PV) panels is growing fast (one article said 600% in the last few years), the cost of panels and the environmental impact of their production remains an issue.

Wind power, however, appears to be something that gets less press and yet is growing quickly and has tremendous immediate economic benefits.  I guess that's why a drive across the country takes one past many wind farms (thinking of those along I-80 in Iowa).

From Popular Science:

In 2012, wind power added more new electricity production in the U.S. than any other single source. But even with 60 gigawatts powering 15 million homes, wind supplants just 1.8 percent of the nation’s carbon emissions. Tomorrow’s turbines will have to be more efficient, more affordable, and
in more places.

The Supersize Route

Bigger Blades

Big rotors generate more electricity, particularly from low winds, but oversize trucks hauling blades the length of an Olympic pool can’t reach many wind-energy sites. Blade Dynamics fabricates its 160-foot, carbon-fiber blade in multiple pieces, which can then be transported by standard trucks and assembled at a nearby location. It’s a stepping-stone for 295-foot and 328-foot blades now being designed for offshore turbines. (Currently, the world’s longest prototype is 274 feet.) The colossal size should enable 10- to 12-megawatt turbines, double the generation capacity of today’s biggest models.

Wind Power Scale :  Graham Murdoch

The Networked Solution

Smarter Turbines

Reducing the variability of wind energy could position it to compete as a stable source of power. General Electric’s new 2.5-megawatt, 394-foot-diameter wind turbine has an optional integrated battery for short-term energy storage. It also connects to GE’s so-called Industrial Internet so it can share data with other turbines, wind farms, technicians, and operations managers. Algorithms analyze 150,000 data points per second to provide precise region-wide wind forecasts and enable turbines to react to changing conditions, even tilting blades to maximize power and minimize damage as a gust hits.

The Hybrid Hail Mary

Man-Made Thunderstorm Power

Solar Wind Energy’s downdraft tower is either ingenious or ludicrous. The proposed 2,250-foot-high concrete tower will suck hot desert air into its hollow core and infuse it with moisture, creating a pressure differential that spawns a howling downdraft. “You’re capturing the last 2,000 feet of a thunderstorm,” says CEO Ron Pickett. The man-made tempest would spin wind turbines that could generate up to 1.25 gigawatts (though it’s designed to operate at 60 percent capacity) on the driest, hottest summer days—more than some nuclear power plants. The Maryland-based company plans to break ground in Arizona as soon as 2015, provided it can secure $900 million in funding—a large sum but perhaps not outlandish when compared with a $14-billion nuclear reactor now under construction.

Are we on the cusp of a solar energy boom?

Long time readers of my blog know that it's been my hope we would see economies of scale push down the cost of photovoltaic (PV) panels.  I also hoped we might see more government investment (whether direct or through tax credits) that encourage the migration from finite fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.  That our future will be from sustainable practices is inevitable; when it will occur is uncertain.

The recurring news that prices are falling and technologies are improving is very encouraging.  Innovative solutions to third-world and other small-scale energy problems keep popping up in the news.  But I would really be encouraged when I see an transformation in the mindset of those in the U.S., China, and other large energy users.

The Swanson Effect looks like the solar equivalent of Moore's Law (the Intel founder predicted that the capacity of computer chips would double every eighteen months).  I've seen a number of articles lately that suggest things like solar energy costing less than fossil fuel produced energy soon, and the energy produced by PV panels exceeding the cost to produce them (from a historical perspective).  Are we near a "tipping point," past which mainstream Americans jump on the solar bandwagon?

From The Week:

T

he total solar energy hitting the Earth each year is equivalent to 12.2 trillion watt-hours. That's over 20,000 times more than the total energy all of humanity consumes each year.

And yet photovoltaic solar panels, the instruments that convert solar radiation into electricity, produce only 0.7 percent of the energy the world uses.

So what gives?

For one, cost: The U.S. Department of Energy estimates an average cost of $156.90 per megawatt-hour for solar, while conventional coal costs an average of $99.60 per MW/h, nuclear costs an average of $112.70 per MW/h, and various forms of natural gas cost between $65.50 and $132 per MW/h. So from an economic standpoint, solar is still uncompetitive.

And from a technical standpoint, solar is still tough to store. "A major conundrum with solar panels has always been how to keep the lights on when the sun isn't shining," says Christoph Steitz and Stephen Jewkes at Reuters.

But thanks to huge advancements, solar's cost and technology problems are increasingly closer to being solved.

(Bloomberg & New Energy Finance)

The percentage of light turned into electricity by a photovoltaic cell has increased from 8 percent in the first Cadmium-Telluride cells in the mid-1970s to up to 44 percent in the most efficient cells today, with some new designs theoretically having up to 51 percent efficiency. That means you get a lot more bang for your buck. And manufacturing costs have plunged as more companies have entered the market, particularly in China. Prices have fallen from around $4 per watt in 2008 to just $0.75 per watt last year to just $0.58 per watt today.

If the trend stays on track for another 8-10 years, solar generated electricity in the U.S. would descend to a level of $120 per MW/h — competitive with coal and nuclear — by 2020, or even 2015 for the sunniest parts of America. If prices continue to fall over the next 20 years, solar costs would be half that of coal (and have the added benefits of zero carbon emissions, zero mining costs, and zero scarcity).

Scientists have made huge advances in thermal storage as well, finding vastly more efficient ways to store solar energy. (In one example, solar energy is captured and then stored in beds of packed rocks.)

Lower costs and better storage capacity would mean cheap, decentralized, plentiful, sustainable energy production — and massive relief to global markets that have been squeezed in recent years by the rising cost of fossil fuel extraction, a burden passed on to the consumer. All else being equal, falling energy prices mean more disposable income to save and invest, or to spend.

The prospect of widespread falling energy costs could be a basis for a period of strong economic growth. It could help us replace our dependence on foreign oil with a robust, decentralized electric grid, where energy is generated closer to the point of use. This would mean a sustainable energy supercycle — and new growth in other industries that benefit from falling energy costs.

Indeed, a solar boom could prove wrong those who claim that humanity has over-extended itself and that the era of growth is over.

America now has more solar energy workers than coal miners

Though not as fast as I would like, the renewable energy business is growing.  Solar installations, solar workers, megawatts generated --- all the statistics keep showing improvement.  A recent study that took into  account all the costs of mining, transporting, and manufacturing to create photovoltaic (PV) panels predicted that within a few years, solar energy will have produced more energy than it took to create the solar infrastructure.  Everything after that is gravy, I guess.

From TreeHugger:

The Solar Foundation, which has been releasing reports for a few years on the state of the solar industry in the U.S., has just launched a very cool interactive map that breaks the stats down state by state. This allows us to see that there are only 80 solar jobs in Alaska (not too surprising), and over 43,000 in California. Add all 50 states together, and solar employs 119,000 people in the country, a growth of 13.2% in 2012.

Another interesting way to gain perspective is to compare these solar jobs to the number of jobs created by other sectors. Looked at it this way, the Solar Foundation (using stats from the Bureau of Labor Statistics) found that there were more solar energy workers in Texas than ranchers, that solar workers outnumber actors in California, and that across the whole 50 states, there are more solar workers than coal miners.

Solar foundation/Screen capture

The top 3 states for solar jobs are California, followed by Arizona, and New Jersey.

Solar power reinvented?

Gold, platinum?  I'm fond of saying that the biggest hurdle the solar power industry needs to overcome is lowering the cost per kilowatt hour so that photovoltaic (PV) generated electricity is competitive with that from coal or natural gas.  Improving panel efficiencies (generating more power from the same size panels) and reducing the cost to manufacture panels will be key to achieving this goal.

This new technology may achieve greater efficiencies, but I have my doubts about the cost.  Still, it's impressive that so many people are working on solving this very important puzzle.  I've no doubt that we'll see such huge improvements this decade that renewable energy will be feasible and accepted in short time.

From SmartPlanet:

A new form of solar power is at hand

Scientists from UC Santa Barbara’s (USCB) have reinvented solar power with a new approach that captures energy using a “forest” of gold nanorods and some chemistry.
The researcher tested the technology with an experimental solar conversion device that ran for several weeks, and published their findings in the February edition of the journal Nature Nanotechnology. The materials used for the design also promise much more durable solar devices than today’s solar panels, a press release said.
Conventional solar panels collect energy by having one side of a semiconductor material facing the sun to create an electrical current. The Santa Barbara team’s “nano forest” sits submerged within an array of specialized materials to absorb light. Here’s how the entire array makes electricity (if you like the science of it).
The forest’s nanorods produce electrons when exposed to light, and some electrons pass on to a layer of crystalized titanium dioxide to be captured by platinum particles, the university explained. That process, combined with water and a catalyst, creates hydrogen and charged oxygen that can be used to power things or make useful chemical reactions.
Another major difference between this new technology and today’s commercial solar panels is that semiconductors, such as silicon, experience photocorrosion due to long term exposure to UV light. That corrosion triggers a gradual break down of the solar cell over time, but that’s not the case with gold nanorods.

Here's a diagram of how it all works

Of course, the nano technology is in its formative years. It’s taken nearly a century for today’s solar technology to reach its current efficiencies - efficiencies that the Santa Barbara team acknowledges that has not matched yet. Martin Moskovits, professor of chemistry at UCSB, stated in the release that more research (read: money) would reduce costs and improve efficiency of this new method of generating solar power over time.
One could say that Moskovits is able to see the nano forest from the trees to rethink solar power.
The technology might be confined to the laboratory today, but it’s not uncommon for universities to attempt to commercialize promising research that could be leveraged by a start-up to bring a new generation of solar devices to market.