The PintPundit sent me this blog post documenting electrical utility substations in the Toronto area that look like residential homes. Pretty cool. Like the cell phone towers I see around Birmingham that are disguised as pine trees (FYI… there’s one on the east side of I-65 just north of Lakeshore Drive).
A Green Wombat post today states that FPL Energy, a big player in the renewable energy market, is about to build a $1 billion, 250-megawatt solar power plant in the Mojave Desert, called the Beacon Solar Energy Project.
To recap, solar thermal plants, which are very different from solar photovoltaics, use long rows of parabolic mirrors to focus the sun’s rays on tubes of synthetic oil suspended above the arrays. The hot oil is used to create steam which drives electricity-generating turbines. This new power plant will be built on 2,012 acres of former farmland beside a Honda test track near California City.
According to the Green Wombat article, California law requires the state’s investor-owned utilities — PG&E (PCG), Southern California Edison (EIX) and San Diego Gas & Electric (SRE) — to obtain 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2010 and 33 percent by 2020. But public utilities like LADWP only have to set green energy targets, 13 percent by 2010 and 20 percent by 2017 in Los Angeles’ case. Under California’s global warming law, the state’s greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced to 1990 levels by 2020.
Not surprisingly, those renewable energy mandates have been driving the market for large-scale solar power plants, but so far California’s Big Three utilities have placed their bets on startups like Ausra, BrightSource Energy and Stirling Energy Systems.
See my recent post on solar thermal plants.
Two congressmen introduced the “Moratorium on Uncontrolled Power Plants Act of 2008″ (H.R. 5575) on March 11th, which will place a moratorium on either EPA or states issuing permits to new coal fired power plants without state-of-the-art control technology to capture and permanently sequester the plant’s carbon dioxide emissions. You can find more details on Chairman Waxman’s House Oversight and Government Reform Committee page.
“If we lose control of coal, we will have lost control of the climate,” said Markey. “This bill will make companies prepare for the future and prevent them from building low-tech coal-fired power plants before a global warming bill is passed that will necessitate the use of the newest, most climate-friendly technology.”
Without emissions controls, a new coal-fired power plant will emit hundreds of millions of tons of global warming pollution over its 50 year lifetime, the lawmakers said. Over 100 new plants have been proposed, and even if just a portion of these are built, they will emit over a 100 million tons of carbon dioxide a year.
Meanwhile, Jennifer Marohasy, a biologist and senior fellow of Melbourne-based think tank the Institute of Public Affairs, discusses the latest climate data and temperature trends. She points out that NASA’s Aqua satellite, launched in 2002, and the results of other recent climate models show that global temperatures have plateaued over the past eight years and that the earth’s climate has shown signs of being able to regulate its temperature more effectively than previously thought.
Here’s an excerpt of the interview:
Duffy asked Marohasy: “Is the Earth stillwarming?”
She replied: “No, actually, there has been cooling, if you take 1998 as your point of reference. If you take 2002 as your point of reference, then temperatures have plateaued. This is certainly not what you’d expect if carbon dioxide is driving temperature because carbon dioxide levels have been increasing but temperatures have actually been coming down over the last 10 years.”
Duffy: “Is this a matter of any controversy?”
Marohasy: “Actually, no. The head of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has actually acknowledged it. He talks about the apparent plateau in temperatures so far this century. So he recognises that in this century, over the past eight years, temperatures have plateaued … This is not what you’d expect, as I said, because if carbon dioxide is driving temperature then you’d expect that, given carbon dioxide levels have been continuing to increase, temperatures should be going up … So (it’s) very unexpected, not something that’s being discussed. It should be being discussed, though, because it’s very significant.”
Duffy: “It’s not only that it’s not discussed. We never hear it, do we? Whenever there’s any sort of weather event that can be linked into the global warming orthodoxy, it’s put on the front page. But a fact like that, which is that global warming stopped a decade ago, is virtually never reported, which is extraordinary.”
Solar thermal plants are being viewed as a renewable power source with huge potential. Matthew Wald takes us on a tour of the technology and its potential in this New York Times article.
According to the story there are plans to build several new solar thermal plant in the deserts of the southwestern US.
Today, natural gas prices are much higher [than the 90s when natural gas plants were being built across the nation], and political opposition is rising to construction of new coal-burning power plants. Many states, including California, are imposing mandates for renewable energy. All of that is reviving interest in solar thermal plants.
The power they produce is still relatively expensive. Industry experts say the plant here produces power at a cost per kilowatt- hour of 15 to 20 cents. With a little more experience and some economies of scale, that could fall to about 10 cents, according to a recent report by Emerging Energy Research, a consulting firm in Cambridge, Mass. Newly built coal-fired plants are expected to produce power at about 7 cents per kilowatt-hour or more if carbon is taxed.
How it works:
Nevada Solar One, built by a Spanish company, Acciona, is of a proven design. It uses a mirror in the shape of a parabola to focus light onto a black pipe with a heat-transfer fluid inside. The fluid is used to boil water into steam, which turns a generator that can produce 64 megawatts.
That is small compared with a plant running on coal or natural gas, but far bigger than a typical installation involving solar photovoltaic panels, the type of solar power most people are familiar with. That technology, while good for some uses, is far more expensive than solar thermal power.
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The newest solar-thermal technology involves building a “power tower,” a tall structure flanked by thousands of mirrors, each of which pivots to focus light on the tower, heating fluid. That design can work even in places with weaker sunlight than a desert.
One of the big advantages of these plants is that they can be built with the capacity to store heat in what amounts to a giant Thermos. Experts say that will smooth production and make it easier to integrate the plants into the electrical grid.
Obligatory environmental considerations:
They could take up immense amounts of land and damage the environment.
Already, building a plant in California requires hiring a licensed tortoise wrangler to capture and relocate endangered desert tortoises.
I’m amazed that the state of California has an office that licenses “tortoise wranglers.” Thank God someone’s watching out for the tortoises!
Also see this 5 min NYT video summarizing the technology.
Just in case you think life in a country where the government runs your life is a lot like life in mostly free-market country like the US, think again. Up until now sales of DVD PLAYERS were BANNED in Cuba! And that’s not the only thing you take for granted that is prohibited in Cuba; AIR CONDITIONERS will not be available until NEXT YEAR! Can you imagine life in Cube without the AC?! TOASTERS are on hold until 2010 due to limited power supplies. Communist utopia?… Dream on.
“The country’s priority will be to meet the basic needs of the population, both material and spiritual,” he said as he replaced Fidel Castro, a staunch critic of capitalist consumer society.
To me, this is outrageous. It also illustrates the dangers of a government with too much power. As you think about which candidates to vote for this year and in the coming years, remember that the USA is the great nation it is today due to the personal and economic freedom we have enjoyed through the years. Sadly, our country has been embracing the same ideals of socialism and communism that have produce these pitiable conditions in Cuba today. Please, for your own good (isn’t that what democracy is all about?), support public officials who embrace the ideas of limited government and free-market capitalism. Unfortunately, most politicians these days don’t.
Think about it this way: Do you like “Politics” or “Politicians”? Probably not, right? Well, most candidates running for office these days support bigger government, more programs, more regulation, etc. etc. Translate that into: more Politics & more Politicians. See where I going? If you say you don’t like Politics and Politicians, why vote for candidates who promise programs and the like that will only result in more Politics and more Politicians. The only way get reduce politics is to reduce the size of government. It’s really that simple. Unfortunately, most people seem happy to vote for candidates who promise them what they want but all they get is a bigger Political mess.
Cubans were delighted with the prospect of being able to buy items such as microwave ovens and air conditioners that were previously only available as stolen goods on the black market.
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Many Cubans expect the state to soon allow them to buy cellular telephones. While they will now be able to buy computers, access to the Internet remains controlled by the government.
Read more about anti-capitalist Cuba here.
Watch out, according to the Energy Action Coalition, April 1st is Fossil Fools Day.
Read all about it:
DENVER – Xcel Energy announced today it will put in motion its vision to make Boulder, Colo. the nation’s first fully integrated Smart Grid City.
Smart Grid City could feature a number of infrastructure upgrades and customer offerings – for the first time fully integrated through the partnership’s efforts in Boulder – including:
· Transformation of existing metering infrastructure to a robust, dynamic electric system communications network, providing real-time, high-speed, two-way communication throughout the distribution grid;
· Conversion of substations to “smart” substations capable of remote monitoring, near real-time data and optimized performance;
· At the customer’s invitation, installation of programmable in-home control devices and the necessary systems to fully automate home energy use; and
· Integration of infrastructure to support easily dispatched distributed generation technologies (such as plug-in hybrid electric vehicles with vehicle-to-grid technology; battery systems; wind turbines; and solar panels).The potential benefits of the Smart Grid City include operational savings, customer-choice energy management, better grid reliability, greater energy efficiency and conservation options, increased use of renewable energy sources, and support for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and intelligent-home appliances.
The first phase of Smart Grid City is expected to be in place by as early as August 2008, with implementation throughout the city continuing through 2009. Beginning in 2009, the consortium also expects to begin an initial assessment of the technologies.
Xcel Energy also unveiled a Smart Grid Consortium web site today, www.xcelenergy.com/smartgrid, which has graphics and educational materials explaining its Smart Grid vision.
Xcel Energy (NYSE: XEL) is a major U.S. electricity and natural gas company with regulated operations in eight Western and Midwestern states. Xcel Energy provides a comprehensive portfolio of energy-related products and services to 3.3 million electricity customers and 1.8 million natural gas customers through its regulated operating companies. Company headquarters are located in Minneapolis. More information is available at www.xcelenergy.com.
There’s a 7 minute video on the smartgrid page.
We’ll see how all that works out.
If you live in Alabama (or Georgia), you are about to get a SmartMeter power meter. Alabama Power and Georgia Power customers can read all the details here and here.
Current Smart Meter customer benefits include:
Future Smart Meter benefits include:
They should be installed statewide by 2011 and in the Birmingham metro area by 2009.
SmartMeter, a.k.a. AMR, technology seems to be the most significant technological advancement in the power distribution industry in recent years – power companies all over the world have already installed the meters, are installing them now, or are planning to in the future. Here is a map showing installations and ongoing AMR projects worldwide.
Minneapolis-based utility Xcel Energy will begin testing a wind power storage system of massive batteries located in Luverne, MN, which is in the far southwest corner of the state. The test will be run in partnership with the University of Minnesota, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Great Plains Institute.
Xcel plans to install 20 50-kilowatt batteries, about the size of two semi trailers, this spring and connect them to an 11-megawatt wind farm owned by Minwind Energy. The batteries are expected to go online in October.
When the wind is blowing, the batteries will charge, and when the wind diminishes, the batteries — which can discharge one megawatt of power — will supplement the flow of electricity to Xcel.
While two other U.S. utilities use the batteries to supplement peak power needs, Xcel said it would be the first to use them for a wind project.
The University of Minnesota group is also conducting related research on storing energy in flywheels.
I say, why not use wind to power pumps to store water at pumped hydro plants, like the Rock Mountain facility near Rome, Georgia, to store wind energy?
Bird enthusiasts should be sure to check out Xcel’s Bird Cam site.
More details from TwinCities.com & Reuters.
When the wind stopped blowing today, power grid operators in Texas were forced to cut power to many interruptible customers in the state. The state of Texas is the largest producer of wind energy in the United States.
Although wind power is very clean and very cost competitive with other sources of electrical power, the unpredictable and uncontrollable nature of the wind is its biggest drawback and prevents it from being more widely used.
Given that, I bet most people would be surprised to find out that environmentalists are the biggest enemies of wind farms. And you can’t really blame them either – according to a recently published report, at the Altamont Pass wind farm in California, the number of actual dead birds found among the four targeted species (burrowing owl, American kestrel, red-tailed hawk and golden eagle) increased nearly 90 percent from 2005-06 to 2006-07, which is between 1,839 and 2,906 bird deaths per year.
Below, an unidentified dead bird of prey found below the Altamont Pass wind turbines in the San Francisco Bay Area:
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