Cost of Installed Solar Power is Sinking Like a Stone

This should be music to all of our ears. According to the Tracking the Sun report by the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab the cost of residential and commercial installed solar installations dropped 11 to 14 percent from 2010 to 2011. Of course the larger the solar installation (like utility scale solar plants) the cheaper the price. These sinking prices will only help the adoption of renewable energy technologies by both home-owners and businesses alike. Can you imagine a lower and lower capex spend in addition to never paying for electricity again and reducing your carbon emissions? I certainly can.

GE Combines Natural Gas, Wind, and Solar

Credit: GE via Technology Review

First off, I must say that I have a minor addiction to MIT's Technology Review. The writers render hyper-techie information into a digestible format that even grandpa can understand. Ok, cool science magazine plug out of the way, we have interesting news from GE. They've created this hybrid solar thermal/wind/natural gas plant. They say that a solar thermal and natural gas combo is nothing new, but the additional element of wind is something new. I think all three of those elements working in conjunction is fascinating. The plant uses renewable solar thermal to help heat the water to create steam to turn the turbine. In addition, the plant uses natural gas to do essentially the same thing when the sun is not shining, and the new element is the use of a wind turbine to supplement electricity generation. As we've discussed before natural gas is a better fuel than coal for use with the variability of wind. This trifecta of fuel for a power plant (two renewable fuels and one fossil fuel) will be a great way to reduce the overall amount of natural gas. GE has announced that they will implement this new technology at a power plant in Turkey by 2015. I can't wait to see the numbers once this thing comes online.

Australia to Build World's Largest Solar Energy Plant

Put another shrimp on the barbie! The Aussies are about to rock and roll on a new solar power plant (article doesn't say if it is concentrated solar thermal or PV). 1000 megawatts of, "Australia's biggest natural resource." I wonder why the U.S. doesn't do this?

Anti-renewable IREA Says Conservation Bill Violates Its ‘Right to Dissent'

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the Intermountain Rural Electric Association (IREA) is out to lunch and taking a nap. There are several issues in this article by the Colorado Independent where IREA seems like they have an agenda that isn't in the interest of their consumers, nor the communities that surround their coal-fired electricity plants. They're agenda seems to me to be a little too much of "don't tread on me" when they need a little more, "do the right thing."

I had a gander at IREA's website and lo and behold right on their homepage towards the bottom is a bit of revealing information. They attack global warming and climate change with the title, "Is Earth Entering Another Cooling Cycle?" We can debate the semantics and science of whether the Earth is warming, cooling, or doing nothing at all. Whatever the case may be (and we will see), you cannot deny the fact that electricity created by coal-fired power plants is horrible for the air we breathe and water we drink. It is a fact. Coal is dirty. And even though we can't see the particulates in the air or coal slurry that is seeping into our water supplies, it is still affecting our bodies. I bet IREA would deny that as well.

Now as I've said before we cannot just turn off the coal-burning power plants. I've discussed it in my recent post, "There Is No Such Thing As Clean Coal". The need for base load power is critical. But this is not an excuse to refuse the implementation of other options in energy generation. To attempt to appeal to IREA's base instincts, implementing renewable energy to supplement the power supply makes good business sense for a few reasons. It's sustainable, it comes from a renewable resource (sun and wind), it's good for our health, there is an infinite supply (all fossil fuels are finite), sun and wind are easier to harvest (as opposed to digging mines or removing from mountain tops), renewables will become cheaper than coal, and due to the great technological minds in this country, renewable sources will eventually produce more output power than coal.

This article and the attitude of IREA makes me think that they are more interested in putting a stick in the eye of environmentalists/climate change advocates rather than exploring ways of supplementing their customer's energy supply with renewable energy.

Oh and one more thing. Smoking was once acceptable and even advocated by doctors and nurses in magazine advertisements. We now know that smoking kills, not to mention all of the horrible side-effects from diseases such as arteriosclerosis, emphysema, and lung or throat cancer. So just as smoking was once acceptable and then found to be horrible for the human body, I predict that one day we will look at burning coal to provide us with electricity as brutal and depraved.

Wake up IREA, your actions lead us to believe that you've been sleeping since the 1930s.

PUC Approves Xcel Plan to Replace Coal Plants with Greener Tech

Via Coyote Gulch blog, good news from Xcel Energy. Their request for retirement of old and inefficient coal-fired power plants to be replaced with greener technologies has been approved by the PUC. Excellent.

Duke Energy to Invest in Mini Solar Power Plants

This is a good development. Duke Energy is essentially starting a pilot of localized energy production via a solar power plant. Instead of a large power plant in one location this solar power plant will be made up of numerous houses with PV panels on the roof. Duke Energy will study the effects of this method to see if it can replace the typical single location power plant. From the article:

The utility said that next year it plans to start installing solar electric panels at 850 locations in North Carolina that would be capable of generating 16 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power about 2,600 homes.

Cool. Hopefully the results are positive.

Wind Energy Faces Daunting Challenges

I am glad to see some articles beginning to talk about transmission lines. We have all of these potential renewable energy sources that are located in various parts of the country, but how do we get that created power (from say the desert or the "wind corridor") to the home? Our current transmission lines are woefully inept and will need to be completely revamped. It's something that we must talk about before we unleash the flood gates of renewable energy power generation.

Large Scale Renewable Generation Causes Distribution Gridlock

Well this is something I hadn't thought of. Looks like parts of New Hampshire are going gang-busters on renewable energy generating plants. Good work. However, 400 megawatts here, 350 megawatt plants there using solar, wind and waste wood and before you know it you are generating more power than your power infrastructure can handle. So, one more thing to think about when planning for increased energy consumption. Now there is one way around this dilemma - localized and individual power production, instead of spending $200 million (and who's going to pay for it?) to put up larger power lines. In addition, to the "thinking local" mantra, energy audits could be done and education could be provided on how to reduce energy consumption in the home.

Things That Make You Go Hmmmm...

Interesting article in CNN Money, "Drought Poses Serious Risk to the Power Industry". Now, one of the reasons why I haven't been sold on nuclear power is that is takes a ton of fresh water to keep those plants cool. Well, I didn't realize that our coal burning power plants need fresh water to keep cool as well. We really have to start being honest with ourselves, especially in the western United States, of what kinds of energy production make sense for our type of climate.