Photo: Some of the most exciting developments have been in large-scale solar installations.
Credit: Stirling Energy Systems.
"I think the future of solar is in all sizes, from the dinky cell powering your calculator to large utility-scale projects that need to be hooked up to utility lines," said Bob Noble, CEO of Envision Solar, whose company builds solar "groves" that also include electric car charging. The solar-powered calculators have been are on the market for decades, but utility-grade solar will take longer.
Many of the biggest projects are either in Europe or involve European companies. Abengoa Solar announced this week that it had started commercial operation near Seville, Spain of its 50-megawatt Solnova 1, which uses parabolic trough solar technology. The plant can power 25,700 homes, or offset 31,400 tons of carbon dioxide.
But Abenoga is also moving ahead with two large concentrating solar plants in the U.S., including Solana (in the desert outside Phoenix) and the Mojave Desert Project (California). Another Mojave project, backed by BrightSource and $160 million in investment, got a big boost in February when it received a conditional $1.4 billion loan guarantee from the Department of Energy.
U.S. solar electric capacity is still relatively small-just over 2,000 megawatts, enough to power 350,000 homes. But revenue climbed 36% in 2009. Last year $1.4 billion in venture capital reached solar companies in the U.S. Total U.S. volume is $4 billion. The largest users in the U.S. are in California, including Pacific Gas & Electric (the most installed capacity) and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (the most solar watts per customer).
The key to parabolic technology as backed by Abenoga and BrightSource is mirrors, huge ones. Solnova 1 covers 280 acres. The mirrors concentrate solar radiation onto heat-absorbing pipes carrying a super-heated liquid. Heat transfer turns water to steam, and that steam powers a turbo-generator to create electricity.
Clean tech funder Vinod Khosla, in a briefing paper on utility-scale solar, recently called for stable U.S. and European government incentive schemes, and for the "formation of large-scale, low-cost capital to underwrite low-carbon energy projects" of $100 million to $1 billion. According to Khosla's paper, a 100-mile by 100-mile solar-equipped section of Nevada desert could meet the full electricity demand of the U.S., and one percent of the world's desert areas could meet global electricity demand as forecast for 2030.
Khosla predicted that the price of photovoltaic cells is dropping from $2 a watt today to $1 in the near future. Noble of Envision also points out that technical advances have made large-scale solar adoption more feasible. And there are frequent breakthroughs:
Many of the biggest projects are either in Europe or involve European companies. Abengoa Solar announced this week that it had started commercial operation near Seville, Spain of its 50-megawatt Solnova 1, which uses parabolic trough solar technology. The plant can power 25,700 homes, or offset 31,400 tons of carbon dioxide.
But Abenoga is also moving ahead with two large concentrating solar plants in the U.S., including Solana (in the desert outside Phoenix) and the Mojave Desert Project (California). Another Mojave project, backed by BrightSource and $160 million in investment, got a big boost in February when it received a conditional $1.4 billion loan guarantee from the Department of Energy.
U.S. solar electric capacity is still relatively small-just over 2,000 megawatts, enough to power 350,000 homes. But revenue climbed 36% in 2009. Last year $1.4 billion in venture capital reached solar companies in the U.S. Total U.S. volume is $4 billion. The largest users in the U.S. are in California, including Pacific Gas & Electric (the most installed capacity) and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (the most solar watts per customer).
The key to parabolic technology as backed by Abenoga and BrightSource is mirrors, huge ones. Solnova 1 covers 280 acres. The mirrors concentrate solar radiation onto heat-absorbing pipes carrying a super-heated liquid. Heat transfer turns water to steam, and that steam powers a turbo-generator to create electricity.
Clean tech funder Vinod Khosla, in a briefing paper on utility-scale solar, recently called for stable U.S. and European government incentive schemes, and for the "formation of large-scale, low-cost capital to underwrite low-carbon energy projects" of $100 million to $1 billion. According to Khosla's paper, a 100-mile by 100-mile solar-equipped section of Nevada desert could meet the full electricity demand of the U.S., and one percent of the world's desert areas could meet global electricity demand as forecast for 2030.
Khosla predicted that the price of photovoltaic cells is dropping from $2 a watt today to $1 in the near future. Noble of Envision also points out that technical advances have made large-scale solar adoption more feasible. And there are frequent breakthroughs:
Source: The Daily Green Read the full article here.
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