As we move towards a time of increasingly depleted energy resources, we find ourselves faced with the question of how to sustain ourselves and the planet. As it is not feasible to continue using conventional sources like coal and natural gas, we’re leaning more towards renewable sources like solar, tidal, and wind energy. They can produce as much, if not more, power than conventional sources, provided they are harnessed properly using the right technology.
The People’s Republic of China has increased its target for installed solar power by 50%. It now aims to have 15GW of installed solar generating capacity, by 2015, Reuters reports.
The move comes just months after China doubled its solar goal from 5 GW to 10 GW earlier this year, following the partial meltdown of the Fukishama nuclear plant in Japan.
I don’t understand why researchers are not trying harder to crack better energy storage solutions. Instead, all the focus seems to be on finding new clean sources of energy. That’s important, of course, but if we could vastly improve energy storage we could presumably make do with the energy sources we already have? And intermittent renewables such as wind and solar would be so much more attractive.
BrightSource Energy is a leading solar thermal energy company. In California, it’s in the process of planning and building some of the largest solar thermal power plants in the world. (For more on its technology, see the last paragraph of this post. For more background, check out our BrightSource Energy page.)
Yesterday, the company announced that it is adding “its SolarPLUS thermal energy storage capability to three of its power purchase agreements with Southern California Edison (SCE).” It now has two solar thermal power plants scheduled to be finished and delivering energy in 2015, and three, with storage, scheduled to deliver electricity in 2016 and 2017. (And, BrightSource — with partners NRG Energy, Google, and Bechtel — are building a 126-megawatt plant for Southern California Edison at the Ivanpah solar project in southeast California).
Southwest Solar Technologies Inc. announced today the successful on-sun testing and proof of concept of a highly advanced solar-turbine power system being developed by the Company. The full-scale prototype test was the first operational validation of the integrated system, which uses a large parabolic solar dish with mirrors to concentrate the sun’s energy to power an air-based open cycle turbine to produce electricity.
This milestone field test was conducted in Phoenix using the Company’s 320-square-meter solar concentrating dish, the largest solar dish in North America. The dish delivered thermal energy in the form of 2000 “suns” of concentrated sunlight into its advanced high-temperature solar thermal receiver. Inside this receiver compressed air was superheated, and that superheated air was used to power a high-speed turbine alternator and produce electrical power.
The nimbys are mutating. Until recently the main opposition to renewable energy in the UK was directed against onshore wind turbines, along with some strong pylon-hating.
But today’s Times reveals the existence of solar farm nimbys too. You may not be able to read that story, it’s behind a paywall, but luckily it’s a pretty shameless replica of a story from the Daily Mail on Friday. It even has the same nimby, Robin Smith, who says his view of Somerset Levels has been spoiled, using exactly the same words: “It is blanket desecration of the countryside. I feel very sad that it is just for people lining their coffers.”
GE Energy Financial Services, in collaboration with US thin-film producer First Solar and state-owned firm Verve Energy announced their new plans for Australia’s “green energy” future. As the companies claim, a new giant solar project is under way.
The solar farm that the companies want to build is ten times larger than any yet built in the country. It will provide electricity for a desalination plant in Western Australia, which has a mandate to use the energy obtained from renewable sources for all new desalination projects.
In an announcement that underscored the growing shift from concentrating solar power (CSP) technology to photovoltaics, especially in the United States, Solar Millennium announced that it would convert its 500-megawatt (MW) project in Blythe, Calif. to PV.
In a press release Thursday, U.S. subsidiary Solar Trust of America, cited the lower cost of PV modules and more favorable lending conditions for the shift in technology.
Construction has already begun on the first phase of the project. When completed, the two-phase project will be 1,000 MW – far larger than any current operating site.
Construction of concentrated solar power (CSP) plants will drive global demand for molten salt thermal energy storage (TES) sales in 2010, driven by demand associated with construction and project planning of CSP plants, upon which they are completely dependent, according to SBI.
NaS batteries have been the largest HTS market since they were introduced in 2003, SBI notes. Utilities such as RUBENIUS in Mexico and the Abu Dhabi Water and Electric Authority are building NaS battery energy storage systems in the hundreds of megawatts, but lack of basic R&D investment will result in increasing use of lithium-ion batteries by utilities at the expense of NaS energy storage systems, SBI forecasts.
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