Solar project looks to energize economy

State Sen. Bill Montford, right, congratulates Gadsden County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director David Gardner on the National Solar Power's massive solar farm project. / Dave Hodges/Democrat

With the excitement of a massive solar-energy farm coming to the community still fresh on their minds, Gadsden County businesses are looking ahead to the potential such a project could have on the local economy.
Monday's announcement by National Solar Power was a discussion topic Wednesday at the "Go Gadsden" breakfast of the Gadsden County Chamber of Commerce. The invited speaker, state Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, told the gathering the project's impact will extend well beyond the county.
"This is good for Gadsden County, but it's good for all of North Florida," Montford said during the breakfast at the Florida Public Safety Institute in Midway. "We believe it's just the beginning."
Montford talked about the Florida Legislature's continued challenges in coping with state budget limitations as demand for government services increases. In the case of Gadsden County and its school system, the solar farm is anticipated to generate $120 million in property tax receipts throughout the life of the project.
Melbourne-based National Solar Power announced Monday that Gadsden County was its choice for the first farm construction — the Southeast's largest such solar project to date. It will sell power directly to electric utilities and will be big enough to power about 32,000 homes. It is expected to require up to 400 construction personnel to build, then will have a permanent staff of 120 thereafter.
"We have lost a lot of jobs over the last few years with the nurseries and a printing house," said chamber president Charlie Brown, referring to businesses that have closed. The solar project comes along at a good time, he added. "Hopefully, it will be a catapult for other jobs and other companies in Gadsden County."
Paul Gleasman, chief financial officer for Ram Construction & Development, said his company is looking at the business potential for the work necessary to create the solar facilities. There will be 90,000 solar panels per farm, with build-out consisting of twenty 200-acre parcels.
"I am very excited about it," Gleasman said. "In fact, it is interesting that North Florida is taking the lead on renewable energy."
"If you can add that accolade to your resume, that's very impressive," he added.
David Dickson, senior project scientist for environmental consulting firm Cardno Entrix, agreed. "Good things are happening for Gadsden County," he said. "It's something this region has sorely needed."
Montford thanked chamber executive director David Gardner for his efforts to pursue the solar project and build local support for it. Gardner responded that he suspects more companies may bring projects to the area once they hear of National Solar Power's decision to make a $1.5-billion investment in Gadsden County.
"This is going to be great. I am still trying to grasp it," Gardner said of the economic impact.

Solar power to light up parks in Dubai soon

 

Dubai: All parks across Dubai will soon use solar powered lighting systems, Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director General of Dubai Municipality told Gulf News.
"All lights in our parks will be solar. We have already started implementing it and gradually will cover all the parks," he said.
"This is one of our many initiatives towards sustainable development. We are focusing on measures that help reduce consumption of power through natural resources."
Lootah was speaking to Gulf News on the sidelines of the Future Cities Conference, organised by the Dubai Municipality and the Environmental Centre for Arab Towns (ECAT) in collaboration with Informa Exhibitions.
He said cities of the 21st century must evolve into centres of progress that serve as the forces for national and global advancement. No single entity can do this alone, he said; it will take individuals, businesses and all levels of government working together to achieve these goals. Leaders of the future have the responsibility to make this transition happen and must have the courage to lead, Lootah added.
He also outlined the vision and strategy for Dubai over the coming years, including areas of focus and what initiatives will be put in place to drive forward a sustainable strategy.
The conference also covered a number of key topics, pertinent to the devising of sustainable urban developments, including affordable housing, tourism, infrastructure, mobility and branding.
Last year, the Dubai Municipality General Project Department finished work on a neighbourhood park in Al Sofouh which uses solar lighting systems. Built on an area of 1.55 hectares, the park is the first to have used this technology. The project, that cost around Dh7 million, involved usage of special lighting elements that exploited solar energy for night lighting.
Dubai Municipality's Strategic Plan aims to increases the city's per capita green area to 23.4 square metres. It also aims to raise the proportion of cultivated land in urban public areas in Dubai to 3.15 per cent by the end of 2011.
"Dubai is one of the most beautiful cities and has seen a lot of development in the past. This has given a good quality of life but there have been side effects of this development like rise in per capita garbage production, high petrol consumption and high electricity," said Lootah.
"We need to ensure a sustainable development and adopt more environment friendly ways" like re-cycling sewage water and using it for irrigation, he said.
Gas-powered cars
The Dubai Municipality is working with Emirates Gas to convert all its cars from petrol to gas.
"We have already converted five cars. All our 1,000 cars will run on compressed natural gas (CNG)," Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director General of Dubai Municipality told Gulf News. He said this was one of the municipality's initiatives towards sustainable development.

 

 

US solar power growth accelerates

The US solar power industry employs more than 100,000 people, twice as many as it did two years ago and more than the steel industry or coal mining, the industry’s trade group has said.
In a bid to deflect some of the bad publicity the industry has attracted since the collapse last month of Solyndra, an innovative solar module manufacturer that was backed by a $535m federal government loan guarantee, the Solar Energy Industries Association is emphasising its job creation and growth.

In its regular quarterly assessment, published on Tuesday, the SEIA says investment in solar power should add about 1,750MW of capacity in the US in 2011, up from 900MW last year. Employment has continued to rise, although more slowly over the past 12 months than in the previous year.

Rhone Resch, SEIA president, warned however that the threatened end of so-called Section 1603 grants to renewable energy developers at the end of the year would be a severe setback to the industry.
The growth of the solar industry has been supported by several federal and state government incentives, including renewable portfolio standards mandating a proportion of electricity supply to come from renewable sources such as solar and wind and tax credits allowing the write-off of 30 per cent of the investment cost of a project.
Thanks to those programmes, solar power has been growing fast, although only about as fast as the global market, which is supported by similar incentives in European countries.
However, curbs on those incentives in Germany and Italy, two of the world’s largest markets, have slowed growth in Europe, making the US a more important part of the world market.
The leading state for total new solar installations in the second quarter of the year was California, which has sunshine and supportive policies, but the largest non-residential market was New Jersey, which has also had strong support for solar power from the state government.
However, the analysis prepared for the SEIA by GTM Research, a consultancy, warns: “Looking ahead, nearly every major market is facing some difficulty, California, New Jersey and Pennsylvania principal among them.”
Demand for solar power has been helped by falling prices for modules, which have made conditions difficult for manufacturers and helped tip Solyndra and other companies into bankruptcy, but increase solar’s competitiveness against coal, gas and other fuels.
In some sunny markets, including California, the industry says solar is now at or close to the point where it can compete with gas-fired power stations, the regulators’ benchmark for electricity costs, at peak times during the day.
The report says three uncertainties face the industry: whether falling costs will stimulate much new demand, whether new projects emerge once the existing pipeline of new developments has been built, and what happens to the Section 1603 grant.
These grants allow developers to take a tax credit worth 30 per cent of investment cost once a project is complete, rather than waiting to generate enough earnings to set the cost off against tax. They seem likely to be ended by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives when they come up for renewal at the end of the year.
Mr Resch said: “Much of the growth of the past two years can be attributed to the 1603 programme. We could see the solar industry turn down in 2012 if the grants are not extended.”

Solar power use: Top 10 countries

1. Germany
Total use: 10,000 megawatts
Germany is the world leader in solar energy.
Germany is expected to stay the top buyer of solar panels through 2011.
Germany has a goal of 100 per cent renewable energy by 2050.
In 2009 alone, Germany installed 3,806 megawatts of photovoltaics solar energy capacity, which is more than Spain's total capacity and almost eight times more than what the US installed recently.

2. Spain
Total use: 3,500 MW
Spain was the world leader in newly installed PV solar energy (2,605 MW) in 2008 but its new installed capacity decreased tremendously (to just 69 MW) in 2009.
The reasons for this drop are attributed to complexity and delays related to a new government subsidy programme and a decrease in energy demand due to the economic crisis.
With expectations that both of these will improve in and considering its excellent sun irradiation and PV potential, Spain is expected to bump up its solar energy capacity again this year.

3. Japan
Total use: 2,700 MW
Japan has high national solar energy goal's to achieve 28 GW by 2020 and 53 GW by 2030.
Japan invested $9 billion in stimulus money in solar energy in 2009, and the prime minister also announced a plan to install solar power at 32,000 public schools that year.

4. United States
Total use: 1,800 MW
Supportive state-level policies are a major driver of growth of solar energy in the US.
With many large ground-mounted solar projects in the pipeline, installed capacity in the US is expected to grow significantly in coming years.
The cap on the federal solar tax credit was lifted in 2009, promoting growth in this industry.

5. Italy
Total use: 1,300 MW
In 2009, Italy had experienced the second-largest solar energy growth in the world.
Every two months, Italians install more solar power than California does in an entire year.

6. Czech Republic
Total use: 600 MW
A generous FiT and simple administrative procedures have put the Czech Republic on this list.
The market growth has probably boomed unsustainably, however, and if appropriate policies aren't put in place to slow it, the nascent solar bubble is expected to bust in the coming years

7. Belgium
Total use: 450 MW
Belgium is a bit of a 2011 solar energy surprise.
Belgium's success was from 'a well-designed Green Certificates scheme (which actually works as a Feed-in Tariff), combined with additional tax rebates and electricity self-consumption.'

8. China
Total use: 400 MW
China gets a lot of attention these days for its clean energy push, and for good reason.
China is a major solar panel manufacturer but hasn't installed a ton of PV itself yet.
However, it now has 12 Gigawatts of large projects in the pipeline and if those projects are implemented China is expected to jump closer to the top of the list.
According to China's national energy plan, it is expected to reach a total of 20 GW by 2020.
According to a recent PTI report, China is marching well ahead of all of them when it comes to capturing the solar market.
China's solar energy budget still stands roughly 20 times larger than America's investment in the same period, Jonathan Silver, executive director, Department of Energy told US lawmakers recently.

9. France
Total use: 350 MW
France has a well-designed FiT for building-integrated photovoltaics, so BIPV dominates the market there.
They've put protections in place to help avoid abuse of the system, and may revise the tariffs to accompany price speculations.
One key issue of concern in France is that although many MW of solar energy have been installed, a lot of them have not been connected to the grid. In 2009, 285 MW of capacity was installed but only 185 MW connected to the grid.
This is a major issue that needs to be resolved.

10. India
Total use: 200 MW
India has fast-increasing electricity demand and it has very high sun irradiation levels. Its government has also been moving forward strongly on clean energy.
The country has a goal to reach 20 GW by 2020 as well.
India could quickly rise higher on this list with proper government strategies.

Solar power cheaper than coal

Many critics of renewable energy technologies will tell you that they’re a wonderful idea which they’d support whole-heartedly if they weren’t so bloody expensive. It might come as somewhat of a surprise then that the day when electricity generated by harnessing the energy of the sun will cost less than electricity produced by burning coal isn’t far off at all.

The cost of solar power has dropped exponentially for three decades and the trend continues unabated. According to the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the price of photovoltaic (PV) electricity (excluding installation) has plummeted from $22 per Watt in 1980 to just $3 today. In Germany, solar PV output has increased by 76% since 2010 while equipment prices have dropped by 50% since 2006. This year alone, the cost of conventional solar panels has fallen by over 20% internationally.

Michael Liebreich, the CEO of London-based research company Bloomberg New Energy Finance notes that “the most powerful driver in our industry is the relentless reduction of cost”. Some commentators have suggested that solar power will reach price parity with coal by 2020, a mere nine years from now, but their estimates are turning out to be rather conservative:

• In May, General Electric’s global research director, Mark M Little, suggested that his company’s thin-film PV technology would deliver cheaper electricity than fossil fuels or nuclear plants within three to five years.

• In June, the world’s largest thin-film solar panel manufacturer, Arizona-based First Solar, announced that they expect to be supplying power utilities in California at cheaper-than-coal prices in 2014.

• In August, a report by a think tank linked to the Chinese government projected that solar power would be as cheap as or cheaper than coal by 2015. China is set to double its solar electricity generating capacity to 2 Gigawatts by the end of this year, up from 900 Megawatts at the end of 2010.

• This month, a study published by the European Photovoltaic Industry Association suggested that parts of Europe could see cost parity between solar energy and the cheapest fossil fuels as early as 2013.

• For many poor, remote and rural areas in developing countries, locally produced solar power is already cheaper than electricity generated at large, centralised coal-fired plants.

Given all of this, you’d think the South African government would go all out to invest in solar energy in our sun-drenched country. Not so. We continue to build massive new coal power stations, ensuring that by the time solar power is cheaper than coal, we’ll remain almost exclusively reliant on this non-renewable fossil fuel which will become more expensive as reserves decrease and carbon-emission taxes become mandatory internationally.

In addition to tumbling costs, solar energy comes with some very important extra benefits:

• significantly reduced greenhouse gas emissions and climate change impacts;

• cleaner air and less acid rain;

• much reduced water consumption compared to coal or nuclear power plants;

• employment – a home-grown solar manufacturing, installation and service industry has the potential to create tens of thousands of sustainable new jobs; and

• less environmental degradation from mining and pollution.

By stark contrast, burning coal to produce electricity has very substantial negative environmental and human health impacts, all of which are routinely ignored – or “externalised” – in cost calculations. A recent study co-authored by Dr Paul Epstein, Director of the Harvard Medical School, estimates that “the life cycle effects of coal and the waste stream generated are costing the US public a third to over one-half of a trillion dollars annually”.

In effect, we’ve all been subsidising the coal industry to the tune of billions of rands every year. As private individuals and as taxpayers we’ve been footing the bill for the damage it’s doing to our health and to our environment, and we’ll continue to do so for many years to come.

We need fundamental change. It’s high time that our government saw the light and did everything possible to get us off our national coal addiction by truly supporting renewable energy sources like solar power. For the sake of our people, our planet and our budget.

Cheaper options for solar power

RAPID development in solar energy technologies has made it an alternative to fossil-fuel power generation in many countries.
But Pakistan does not have to depend on borrowed ideas for generating bulk solar power at a high cost, when other economical options are available.
In a bid to overcome electricity loadshedding, the Punjab government has moved to tap possible energy resources for power generation on fast-track basis. An agreement was signed by it in July last year with a German firm to establish a 50-mw solar energy unit at Jalalpur Pirwala, Multan, apparently without conducting any project feasibility study. The first-ever solar farm costing $150 million, was to be installed within six months. But there is no physical progress achieved as yet.
Likewise, the government of Sindh has allowed an independent power producer (IPP) to construct a 50-mw solar power generation unit at Dhabeji and allotted 150-acres land to the investor at a nominal cost. The project, for which an agreement was signed by the sponsor with the same foreign company during the same period at a total cost of $125 million, was scheduled to generate power commercially by December 2011. So far, no construction activity has been undertaken at the site.
Both the projects are based on solar photovoltaic (PV) system and are proposed to be connected to the national grid. Seemingly, the projects are non-starters for a number of reasons. First, solar thermal electricity is the most expensive among other renewable energy resources.
In case of hydropower, and even wind energy, availability, reliability and affordability of power is comparatively much higher, since solar units usually attain the rated output only for about two hours a day around noon.
Also, capital cost is higher. Cost per mw for these solar projects works out to be $3 million, whereas hydropower costs $1.5 million and coal-fired $1 millon per mw, according to international markets.
Second, solar technology selected is not appropriate for on-grid application as its adoptability to the existing grid remains problematic, and in some cases, disruptive to the grid.
The power generation occurs only when sunlight is strong, weather not cloudy and supply to grid fluctuates broadly resulting in irregular, intermittent feed.
Third, the plant module, technology selected and foreign partner are apparently not suitable. The German company specialises in commercial and residential PV systems, having individual installations of maximum one megawatt only, and not having a utility-scale system.
There are no references for large-scale utility projects either in Germany or in export market. It has recently completed a 463-kW commercial project in the UK (equivalent to meet energy requirements of 125 homes on yearly basis).
Primarily, there are two solar systems for generation of electricity using solar energy – directly, using PV system, which is the most common, and indirectly, utilising concentrated solar power (CSP) system. By the end of year 2010, global installed capacity of solar PV power was about 40,000 mw. Germany alone ranked as the world leader in the field has installations of 17,370-mw cumulative capacity.
Normally, the maximum size of a solar electric system is of 20-mw capacity. The Sarnia Solar Project in Ontario, Canada has just become the largest PV solar power plant in the world with the recent quadrupling of its size from 20-mw to 80-mw capacity. The CSP technology is employed for large-scale power generation and has the ability to store energy as sunlight generating strong heat that, in turn, is used for power steam turbine.
The CSP technology, commercially developed in the late 1980s, is now proven and has an installed capacity of over 1,000 mw world over. There are four types of CSP plants: (i) parabolic trough, (ii) compact linear Fresnel reflectors, (iii) dish Stirling (parabolic) and (iv) solar power tower. International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts that technology could be developed as a source of bulk power in peak and intermediate loads by 2020 and further, in base load, by 2030. Thus, within two decades the CSP technology might be able to compete with coal-fired power generation.
Currently, Mojave Desert of California has the world’s largest power plant, of 354-mw capacity, based on the CSP technology.
Now, Abu Dhabi plans to develop a 100-mw solar power plant adopting the CSP technology. Construction of the plant, which would cost $600 million, is scheduled next month.
Pakistan has abundant solar resources, while almost half of its population is devoid of electricity connectivity. There are about 40,000 villages with more than three million households that are without access to electricity and will remain so for long if allowed to depend on grid connection. Nevertheless, low-technology solar option offers long-term solution for electrification in these far-flung areas.
Based on PV, stand-alone solar systems are being used economically as a source of electric power for remote areas not connected with the grid. By the year 2010, a total of about 650 kW of PV have been installed for village electrification in Sindh and Balochistan. In addition, another 4,500 houses in Dalbandin (Balochistan) have recently been energised with solar power.
Moreover, stand-alone solar systems in the range of 600 watts to 5 kW have been installed in Sindh under the prime minister’s initiative.
Various NGOs have also electrified 485 houses in the FATA, about 2,000 houses in the AJK, and 12 solar panel systems of combined capacity of 3,600 watts in ten villages of Ziarat district (Balochistan). Other applications of solar energy in these areas are solar space heating, water heating, lighting, cooking, process heating, water pumping and telecommunication, etc.
The trend is being followed in urban areas. Besides street lights, a number of public and commercial buildings, including mosques, hospitals and parks, have been illuminated through solar energy. List covers the Quaid-e-Azam’s mausoleum and two systems of 180-kW each on grid solar system in Islamabad.
A number of solar thermal appliances such as solar cookers, solar water heaters and solar lights have been introduced in the country. Punjab also plans installation of tube-wells to be operated with solar energy at a cost of Rs1.36 billion.
Large-scale solar thermal power generation cannot play, and should not be allowed to play, a significant role in meeting power demands mainly for the reason that immense potential exists for hydropower and coal resources, which are abundant and cheap, and comparatively have many advantages for development under local conditions. This potential is required to be harnessed optimally and speedily. Simultaneously, solar PV system also needs to be developed further.

Sheffield solar power sees city top table for renewable energy installation

Sheffield solar power adoption since the introduction of feed-in tariffs has been so high that it is now the city with the highest rate of renewable energy installation per head. Photograph: Simon Burt/PA

Sheffield shines out as the soar-away winner of the solar stakes in the UK, with more solar power generation added in the city per household than in any other British city, according to a league table published on Monday.

Northern cities have been the unexpected winners from the boom in renewable energy that has followed the introduction of feed-in tariffs to pay for power generated by households, which are popular as they offer a guaranteed income stream as well as free electricity.

Nearly 2 megawatts of capacity have been added in Sheffield in the last 15 months, and Leeds comes second in the league table, with more than 1MW of capacity added. They are followed – though at quite a distance – by Bristol, Bradford and Birmingham, when renewable energy installations per person are counted.

London has added more renewable power than anywhere else, with more than 3.2 megawatts of capacity added in the 15 months since feed-in tariffs became available. But when assessed per head, it comes only sixth in the UK.
Sheffield has benefitted from a strong push by the local council to encourage the take-up of renewable power, and in particular by plans to give people living in social housing access to the technology, said Colin McNaught, knowledge leader on renewable energy for AEA Group, which carried out the research on which the league table is based.
He said that the unexpected success of northern cities in installing new renewable power flew in the face of expectations that the south would benefit most from photovoltaic installations.
McNaught said the boom was likely to continue, both in terms of domestic solar power installations and in bigger renewable energy projects. He said that there had been a marked increase in applications for large-scale solar parks, since the government announced recently that only large scale installations begun before August would be eligible for the higher rate of feed-in tariff.
McNaught predicted that this would result in much more generating capacity being registered in the coming months, and he pointed to a new £100m fund to be offered by Barclays Bank to assist farmers to finance renewable energy projects.
Around the UK, in the first 15 months to 30 June 2011, more than 160MW of low carbon electricity generation has been applied for under the feed-in tariff scheme, with a total of 44,460 separate installations, according to data collated by the electricity regulator Ofgem and the Department of Energy and Climate Change. About three quarters of the installations are solar power, though in Scotland wind is predominant.
AEA, an energy and environmental consultancy, has calculated the rate of growth in capacity in microgeneration at about 400% since the feed-in tariff was launched in April 2010. Photovoltaic technology – solar panels – have been at the forefront, with an increase in generating capacity of about 900%, though part of this was owing to the pent-up demand as households delayed putting up panels until the feed-in tariffs came into force. Over the same period, wind generation and hydro electricity – some smaller installations of which also qualify for the enhanced feed-in tariffs - have also grown strongly.

Wind turbines harness MRI tech

GE Global Research

GE researchers are applying more than 30 years of experience developing superconducting magnets for MRI systems to design an advanced generator for large-scale wind power.

By John Roach, contributing writer at msnbc.com.

The high-tech magnets in modern MRI systems encountered at the doctor's office may soon generate electricity from the wind, according to researchers at the General Electric Company.
MRI systems are the tube-like contraptions that make images of damaged hearts, torn ligaments, brains, and other body tissues. Instead of X-rays, the images are made with superconducting magnets, which are electromagnets made from coils of superconducting wire.

---

GE has spent more than 30 years working on the magnets in MRI systems and now thinks they can apply what they've learned to make a more powerful and cost efficient wind turbine. The U.S. Department of Energy recently granted the company's research arm $3 million and two years to get cracking.
The goal is a wind turbine that is close to three times larger than the company's largest model, able to operate in the 10 to 15 megawatt range. One MW can power between 240 and 300 U. S. homes per year, according to the American Wind Energy Association. Most wind turbines in the market are in the 2-4 MW range.
GE's new turbine technology is a direct-drive system where the shaft of the rotor blade connects directly to a low-speed generator that uses permanent superconducting magnets to generate power.
Conventional generators produce magnetic fields made of copper coils, "which are resistive and lossy and produce a lot heat and hard to design with in a compact manner," Kiruba Haran, a manager in the electric machines lab at GE Global Research, explained to me Wednesday.
All direct-drive wind turbines on the market today overcome this problem by using magnets made from rare earth materials. One problem is most easily mined rare earths today are locked up in China.
Superconducting magnets are also more energy dense than rare earth permanent magnets "so the machine tends to be much lighter, more compact, and would enable you to scale up to a much higher megawatt rating in an easier manner," Haran said.
These new direct-drive systems are also considered more robust than traditional systems that connect the rotor shaft to a gearbox, which steps up relatively slow blade speeds of around 50 rotations per minute to the 1,000 rpm range needed by most generators to create electricity.
According to GE, gearboxes work well in turbines currently deployed, but they get too expensive when scaled up to the larger next generation wind platforms eyed by the government and industry mostly due to their heavy, clunky materials and maintenance costs.
The superconducting magnets reduce weight requirements since they are able to generate high magnetic fields without using as much heavy iron. "With the superconductor, we are trying to get the best of both worlds — bring the machine size down and have no gear box," Haran said.
Doing this, however, is a challenge. For one, superconducting magnets operate at temperatures approaching absolute zero. The DOE funding, Haran said, takes away some of the financial risk involved with translating MRI technology to a wind turbine.
"The applications are different," Keith Longtin, a wind technology expert at GE said in a news release, "but the basic technology is the same."

Solar Comes of Age: SolarCity to Double PV Systems on American Homes by 2016

A leading American solar company is set to begin the largest residential rooftop project ever undertaken, effectively doubling the number of solar systems currently on homes around the U.S.

Armed with funds from two major investment banks and a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy that will cover close to a third of the $1 billion project, SolarCity plans to install 160,000 solar photovoltaic systems on houses and other buildings on military bases around the country in the next five years.
As a “solar services” provider, SolarCity owns, operates and maintains the systems, and sells the electricity to the end-user. By working with investment banks to pool together often-complicated state and federal incentives, the company streamlines the process and simply offers the customer solar electricity — often at prices lower than current electric rates.
Given the relentless attack on green jobs and the DOE’s loan guarantee program in recent weeks, this story is particularly relevant.
SolarCity says it will try to employ American veterans and family members for the 750 people needed to complete the project, showing that green jobs do indeed exist. The company has seen extraordinary growth in recent years. After starting in 2006 with just two people, SolarCity has added over 600 employees since 2006. And this latest project will again double the staff.
The $344 million loan guarantee will leverage $1 billion from private investors Bank of America Merrill Lynch and USRG Renewable Finance. This comes after Google invested $280 million in a fund for SolarCity installations this past June.
With the bankruptcy of the solar company Solyndra last week, the Department of Energy loan guarantee program has been under major attack. What critics don’t mention is that the $535 million set aside for Solyndra is only two percent of all loan commitments to clean energy companies, and is dwarfed by the tens of billions of dollars leveraged by the program.
The DOE loan guarantee program is designed to fund “first-of-a kind” projects. As an ambitious 160,000-system undertaking, this project is exactly that. But it’s also a very safe bet. SolarCity is a company with a proven business model and a history of strong, sustainable growth.
You can bet that the critics who claim green jobs “don’t exist” or solar power “doesn’t work” will be ignoring this piece of news.

Urban Wind Turbine

Shining the light on solar energy

© NCSU Student Media 2011

Working at the NC Solar Center, Pennsylvania engireers Jeff Sloat from Summit Electric, and Matt Wilson, from Secco Inc, install solar panels as part of a national training course put on by SunPower Corporation April 14.

 

Solar energy is one field of alternative energies that is fairly misunderstood. Most people know what solar panels are but may be unaware that there are other ways of harnessing the sun's energy to power the amenities that we use everyday. Tim Lupo, Extension Specialist for the N.C. Solar Center, said there are two types of solar energy: passive and active.
According to Lupo, passive solar energy pertains mostly to the construction of a building.  Examples of this type of solar energy are seen throughout N.C. State's Solar House. It has amenities like natural lighting fixtures, which maximize outdoor lighting in the interior of a building.
The solar house also includes a large, south-facing sunspace—a two-story room with large windows to heat the house in the winter. The solar house also has thick, brick Trombe walls that help heat the bedrooms by providing solar heat. These walls store heat and slowly release it throughout the day. The basic concept of passive solar energy is using what is already there without having to convert it. These are very basic forms of solar energy, but take planning when building a structure.
Active solar energy is the more commonly recognized of the two, with its poster child: the solar panel. Yet, solar panels, while being well-known, are not well-understood.
According to Lupo, solar panels consist of two layers of silicon with a metal conductor in between. One of the layers is ingrained with atoms that have fewer electrons, usually boron atoms, the other with atoms that have more electrons, like phosphorous. When this system is exposed to sunlight, photons, the source of energy from the sun, force the electrons off of their atoms, which then travel between the two layers through the metal conductor, resulting in the production of electric current.
This current is then sent to the electric company via the grid, or the network that provides electricity from the electric company to the consumer. The electric company uses this energy to support the grid and pays whomever provides the energy. Thus, buildings that have solar panels do not necessarily run on solar energy, but they do provide this environmentally-friendly energy for the grid to use.
This raises the question of whether or not people who harness the sun's energy through solar panels are doing it for the economic reasons, or strictly for the environment.
"Most people go solar for environmental concerns, but there is an economic incentive," Lupo said. "[Solar is] not a quick payback, so you have to have interests in other areas like the environmental impact."
The initial cost of converting a small, residential structure is about $35,000, which Lupo rationalizes as being a reason for someone to have environmental concerns and economic interests.  However, once someone decides to use solar panels, there are significant tax incentives. The state has a 35 percent tax incentive, and there is also a 30 percent federal tax incentive for the installation of a solar panel system. With these incentives, the cost to install solar panels could actually be cut in half, making the payback period significantly shorter.
With a rise in alternative energy use, people may wonder what direction solar energy is headed in the years to come. Although there is research going into futuristic products like PV ink, a solar panel technology in ink form, Lupo said these ink products will not be market ready for quite a while.
However, Lupo believes that significant improvements will be made in the efficiency of active solar energy products in the near future. This will also effectively shorten the payback period of going solar by increasing the output of current, according to Lupo.
Another issue is energy storage. As it is now, the energy company grid is acting as the storage space for solar energy producers; however, if an energy storage device is made and produced, this would be a new avenue for solar energy, allowing consumers to effectively store their own energy. Lupo said this can improve cutting costs.
"The more people who invest in it [solar], the cheaper it's going to be," Lupo said.

DOE approves loan for solar power plant

The Dept. of Energy has approved a partial guarantee on an $852 million loan to support the development of the Genesis Solar Project in California
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced that the Dept. of Energy finalized a partial guarantee for an $852 million loan to support the development of the Genesis Solar Project. The Genesis Solar Project is a 250 MW parabolic trough concentrating solar power (CSP) facility that will increase the nation’s currently installed CSP capacity by about 50%. NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, the project sponsor, estimates it will fund approximately 800 construction jobs and 47 operating jobs. The project is located on land managed by the Bureau of Land Management in Riverside County, California.
“This project creates jobs, avoids greenhouse gas emissions and helps strengthen our nation’s renewable energy future,” said Secretary Chu. “With the support of loan guarantees, we will enable the deployment of clean, renewable sources at scale, which will help bring down the cost of solar power in the years to come.”
The partial loan guarantee will support a utility-scale deployment of proven and scalable parabolic trough solar thermal technology that has been used commercially for more than two decades. The project is expected to produce enough electricity to power over 48,000 homes and avoid over 320,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually. Power from the project will be sold to Pacific Gas and Electric Company. The lender-applicant, Credit Suisse AG, submitted the application under the Financial Institution Partnership Program (FIPP). Through FIPP financing, the Department of Energy guarantees up to 80% of the eligible costs of a loan provided to a renewable energy project by qualified financial institutions.
- Edited by Chris Vavra, Consulting-Specifying Engineer, http://www.csemag.com/