Xcel Energy Files to Reduce Colorado Solar Projects; Cites Concerns over Timing of Future Transmission

Bummer. Looks like I'm not going to get my wish for a concentrated solar power (CSP) plant in southern Colorado. I'm really torn on this San Luis Valley issue now. I've learned from a scientist at NREL before that we could power all of Colorado and then some by placing CSP plants on just 2% of the San Luis Valley. Just 2% (roughly 160 of the 8,000 sq. miles of the valley. That's a 13 x 13 mile plot!) of the land to reduce our carbon footprint immensely, rid ourselves of dirty coal emissions, and showcase to the world that Colorado powers itself with 100% renewable energy. However, these CSP plants are water intensive and need new high voltage transmission lines built over the hill for many miles to the load centers on the Front Range. I'll be frank, large high-voltage power transmission lines are unattractive. If I lived in the beautiful San Luis Valley I probably wouldn't want them. But would I think about compromising to have a large majority of our power produced from the clean and free sun?

Then there's the distributed generation (DG) folks who make a good case for solar PV or thermal on rooftops in the valley and around Colorado. Putting solar rooftops on every residential and commercial building would go along way to lessening the environmental impact and the need for high-voltage transmission lines, but I believe (no facts to back this up yet), doing it piece meal like that wouldn't be as cost-effective (unless economies of scale kicked in at some point) and wouldn't provide nearly as much wattage as a CSP plant on 2% of the land in the San Luis Valley.

I don't know what the answer is. I imagine that it all depends on how quickly we have to get off of fossil fuels. Let's hope we come to some type of compromise sometime soon.

DOE Funds to Stretch Concentrated Solar Power Through Salt Storage

Glad to see the Department of Energy (DOE) is investing $62 million in salt storage. It is cheaper and easier to store energy as heat than electricity. The way concentrated solar thermal power essentially works is that the sun's rays are focused on a tube of liquid, the liquid heats up to steam, and the steam turns a turbine which creates electricity. Once the sun stops shining the heat starts to dissipate and the process starts all over again in the morning. Well, instead of letting that heat dissipate into the atmosphere in the evening what if you could store it in something like salt? If you store the heat you can use it again in the morning so the concentrated solar power (CSP) panels don't have to work as hard to heat up the liquid to steam. Storing the excess heat will also allow a large-scale CSP plant to run for many more hours after the sun goes down. Doing this causes the economics of a CSP plant to start looking better and better!

Kudos to the DOE for recognizing an opportunity to help drive down the cost of renewable energy.

Mixing Solar with Coal to Cut Costs

Great article from MIT's Technology Review on how Abengoa Solar (located in Lakewood, Colorado) is working with Xcel Energy to build a concentrated solar power (CSP) plant to help make the steam used to turn a coal plant's turbines to generate power. Reality dictates that we cannot just stop using coal today and just rely on renewable energy to generate our electricity. There are several reasons why this is not possible. Coal burning power plants are the most cost-effective and energy efficient way of generating base load power (because you can burn coal at anytime). Wind and solar power are sporadic and we haven't found an effective way to store the power created by renewable sources (there are many up and coming methods like fuel cells or lighter batteries that hold greater charges for longer or using salt vats to keep the heated water warm). This hybrid method is a great way to begin the process of transitioning to renewable sources.

The process of preheating a water using the sun is not new. Using solar thermal units on your rooftop to preheat the water that goes into your hot water heater is a great way to save you money by reducing your natural gas bill and helping to put less CO2 in the environment. Abengoa Solar and Xcel Energy are utilizing this same method but on a power plant-size scale. Kudos to both companies for finding ways to implement renewable solutions for our energy issues.

Secretary Salazar, Senator Reid Announce ‘Fast-Track’ Initiatives for Solar Energy Development on Western Lands

Nice. We are getting some traction with using federal lands for concentrated solar power (CSP). If you remember this post, "An Evening with Dr. Kutscher and Concentrated Solar Power," the good doctor from NREL said that if we put CSP plants on just 2% of the San Luis Valley land we could power all of Colorado. CSP has a lot of potential and is the most viable solar renewable energy technology. Good times.

A Solar Boost for the Sunshine State

Looks like Florida is going to get their first concentrated solar plant (CSP) soon. And this plant will use natural gas to provide base load power when the sun isn't shining. If you need a CSP primer check this blog post out. Congrats to Florida for getting their very own CSP plant.

The Next Generation of Alternative Energy

According to this article, concentrated solar power, algae, and ocean wave-power generation are attractive to venture capital firms. According to the article $2 billion in funding was served up to the cleantech industry in the second quarter of 2008. That's a lot of coin and encouraging to hear about. Now let's back that up with sound and intelligent legislation.

Solar Thermal Energy Coming to a Boil - Peak Oil

Great overview about concentrated solar power (CSP) from the North Denver News. This is our best hope for providing maximum power (more so than PV) that is clean and renewable. Also check out my older post titled, "Heat Is Much Easier to Store Than Electricity, Dreaming of a Low-Carbon Economy" for more on the phenomenal benefits of CSP.

Google, Chevron Build Mirrors in Desert to Beat Coal With Solar

More positive love for solar thermal (or CSP) plants in the Mojave Desert. This is probably my favorite line:

"Google, Inc., Chevron Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are betting this energy will become cheaper than coal."

"Cheaper than coal." That certainly is the goal.

BrightSource's Novel Solar Thermal Power Concept for California Heats Up

I think it's time to make concentrated solar power (CSP) a household word. I really do believe that this technology will help us dramatically reduce our need coal-fired electricity plants. Now you'd still have to pay a utility for your electricity needs from this renewable source, but if you get an energy audit to see where your property currently stands with respect to energy consumption, and then add some solar panels, a solar hot water heater, solar air heater, and great insulation, you can radically drop the amount of money paid to the utility. CSP plants are going to do wonders for the United States' electricity consumption.

Speaking of CSP plants (sorry for my little rant above) it looks as though a company out of California wants to build a 900 megawatt CSP plant. And this company has a new method of making the solar thermal process more efficient. Apparently the founder (Arnold Goldman) of this company (BrightSource) was the first to pioneer CSP plants in the 1980s, but the low cost of oil put him out of business. Anyway, check out the article on Mr. Goldman's new CSP method here.

"Heat Is Much Easier to Store than Electricity": Dreaming of a Low-carbon Economy

You must read this article if it's the only thing you do this year! It gives the reader a little bit of everything (science, history, economics, politics, etc.) with respect to solar electric thermal or concentrated solar power (CSP). I've written about this with respect to Abengoa Solar's CSP plant in the Arizona desert, here and here. Basically, there are a bunch of mirrors in a sunny place concentrating the solar rays on a tube of liquid. This liquid boils, turns into steam, and then rotates a turbine, which produces an electric current. Pretty simple eh?

From the article, one line in particular caught my eye:

"Heat is much easier to store than electricity, a fact that gives CSP a crucial -- maybe the crucial -- advantage over wind and solar photovoltaics."

That is critical. In order to take advantage of the electricity from wind and photovoltaics at night we would have to store it in batteries, which is expensive. Storing the heat generated from the CSP plant is easier and cheaper to do than storing electricity.

So whadda ya' says folks? Concentrated solar power plants all over the southwest? It'll be cheaper and quicker than building a nuclear plant. It's a no-brainer to me.

Mega Solar Power Concentrators Could Supply World's Energy Supply

Yeah you read that right.

"According to pro-TREC (Trans-Mediterranean Tenewable Energy Cooperation) sources, an area of 254 kilometers x 254 kilometers of hot desert, if covered with concentrating solar power plants, would provide electricity equivalent to the current annual electricity consumption of the whole world."

EcoWorld decided to crunch the numbers on this grand claim and they figured that TREC's numbers are about right. Wow. Let's put one of these puppies in Nevada (is it a "hot desert"?) to supply the US with all of the power we need. There's about 64,000 square kilometers out there right?

More on Solar Thermal Power

MIT's Technology Review, "Solar Without the Panels", discusses generating electricity from the sun without photovoltaics. It also speaks to the recently announced solar plant project in Arizona by Abengoa Solar. This is interesting technology and is worth checking out.

Lucky Phoenix Gets a Little Love from Abengoa Solar

Via Solar Buzzzzzzz, Arizona Public Service Co. is going to a get a huge 280 megawatt concentrating solar power (CSP) plant outside of Phoenix. The construction of the power plant will create about 1,500 jobs and the plant will take about "85 highly-skilled technicians" to operate it. While operating at capacity it can serve about 70,000 customers.

CPS is not photovoltaic but rather concentrates the sun's heat on a heat transfer fluid which then turns to steam and turns the plant's turbines. Clean energy all of the way. I am happy for Phoenix and I sure hope Denver will get one of those.