Abengo Solar Inc. is heading the $2 billion endeavor, but once the plant is up and running, it will be able to provide an additional six hours of electricity each day during periods of time when the sun isn’t shining. This will be made possible by storing the heat generated by the sun to create steam that will in turn power turbines.

While construction is planned to start in the middle of this year, the plant isn’t expected to be operational until 2013. It will be the first plant of its kind for the United States, although Nevada and California may soon be jumping on the bandwagon, and there are a few already running in Spain.

Backed by a $1.45 billion U.S. loan, the Solana plant will provide electricity year-round for an impressive 70,000 homes in the region. It is currently under a 30-year contract to sell what it generates to the utility company, Arizona Public Service.

Photo Credit: Paul Keller via Flickr CC

It’s not the biggest news of the new week, or the new year, but it is indicative of the gradual tilt toward renewable energy taking place all across America, as Green Mountain Power, a Vermont utility, pledges to install electric vehicle (EV) charging stations within its service territory.

And while the charging stations themselves may not be solar-powered, the company does plan to install solar panels which produce as much energy as the charging stations deliver, according to Green Mountain Power President and CEO Mary Powell. The company already has charging stations for its own fleet of EVs.

Sites haven’t been firmed up yet, but will likely be in populated communities in Chittenden, Washington and Addison counties. Each station will have two chargers, offering 110-volt household current for Toyota Prius models that have been converted to “plug-in” technology, and 220-240 watt for newer EVs like the Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf.

The charging stations will be ready for use by spring of this year, making gloriously green Vermont just a little bit greener, if that is possible. Way to go, Green Mountain! Now if you could only teach some of your fellow utilities the importance of green.

Photo Credit: Sam Churchill via Flickr CC

Called the Patrolman, the electric bike has a body some are comparing to an iPod Nano, two wheels, and a handlebar/seat assembly jutting out of each end of the “tank” portion, or body, of the cycle itself.

Equipped with battery-charge indicators, a GPS system for easy navigation, and headlamps in a long oval recessed area at the front, Chinese designers Renfei Bai and Likun Zhen are hoping that the design will inspire more solar-powered recharging stations across cities where demand for the Patrolman becomes significant.

The Patrolman was shortlisted at the Seoul Cycle Design Competition 2010, sponsored by Designboom in collaboration with the Seoul Design Foundation.

While designers are calling it a “green” design concept, others are asking why one would build the vehicle before the power sourcing is complete?

Henry Ford might have an answer.

Breaking Down the Stats

Experts anticipate a slow transition, estimating that by 2014, only 1% of all vehicles will be purely electric.  However, there is a bright spot – they also estimate that 25% of cars in 2014 will be hybrid, like the Toyota Prius, which uses a mix of internal combustion and electric propulsion.  We’ve got to start somewhere, after all.

International Attention at Electric Vehicle Conference

The first production models are slated to arrive in the showroom as early as next year.  A recent Business Of Plugging In conference was attended by 600 industry experts that represented their respective industry areas. All were there to figure out the “when and how” of electric vehicles replacing the combustion model.  Attendees ranged from battery manufacturers to policy makers, automakers to tech entrepreneurs. So are we moving in the right direction?  600 industry experts definitely equates ample attention.

Battery Blues Loom Overhead

Battery storage is improving as the lithium ion types become more energy efficient and “energy dense,” although concern remains over the earthly supply of lithium.  There’s also a technology called the ultracapacitor, a small device that stores energy efficiently, discharges the energy quickly and recharges in a very short amount of time.  Ultracapacitors have been used in digital cameras to provide the flash, which requires a burst of energy.

To bring costs down, the US Department of Energy has created a $2.4 billion grant program to help manufacturers utilize existing technology and take it to the next level.  Other ideas include leasing the battery for the electric vehicle, since it’s the battery that adds a hefty dollar sign to the price.  Manufacturers understand that if the product is not cost-effective, it won’t be able to compete with the deeply entrenched thought and production patterns that go along with current models of automobiles.

Looking on the Bright Side

There are serious perks to owning an all-electric vehicle, though.  Things like no more oil changes, no more carbon emissions and quieter roadways for the poor animals that line them (although for them, danger just got quieter).  Also, on a mile-for-mile basis, electric vehicles will be cheaper (nearly $1,500 annually), and they will have easier maintenance to boot.

Even with an electric vehicle’s high power draw during charge cycles and the fact that this power still comes from coal, the combination could reduce carbon emissions by 30 percent.  Now imagine how much could be reduced by using a more renewable form of energy generation.  It’s outstanding!

And the Votes are In…

Automakers do favor electric and hybrid cars over hydrogen technology and bio-fuels at least somewhat – they have large investments in the arena.  There are a few start-ups emerging and the standard Detroit companies are in on the party too.  With so many big heads knocking together, I imagine that it won’t be long after 2014 that this technology really begins to take off.  By then, the infrastructure and other components that prove necessary will be in place and the bugs ironed out.

The move is vastly important because the US is not the only consumer of automobiles.  Traditionally-struggling countries are beginning to enter into buying the “horseless carriage,” and that means reduced carbon emissions in the US could be balanced out by emissions elsewhere on the globe.  It’s time for the US to lead the way in sustainability rather than perpetuate an overseas corporate image of chains like McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and the like.  We’ve got the know-how and drive, but do we have the courage to commit to it?  Time will tell.

For much more information about this topic, check out Martin LaMonica’s Cnet article here.

Photo Credits: MetaEfficient, AutoChannel, & BizGov

Innovalight has devised a method of producing high-efficiency cells by adding a step to the manufacturing process: an industrial inkjet printer.  Innovalight’s website states that the cost reduction comes from using silicon in its liquid form rather than traditional solid or gas forms, thus lowering overhead and equipment cost for manufacturers.

Skeptical of the efficiency rating?  The results have been recognized by the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the IEEE,  an “association for the advancement of technology” that has been around for 125 years.

So how does it work?

“You need to drop the resistivity under the metal and increase it between the metal contacts, a fundamental property of this high-efficiency cell,” said Homer Antoniadis, Innovalight CTO and VP of Engineering.  The lighter doping lowers recombination losses. Therefore, with fewer dopant atoms, surface recombination velocity is improved and more charges are generated at the surface of the cell.  “A standard cell has uniform doping throughout, which kills the photoresponse,” he noted.

Get that?  Neither did I, but after researching some, I learned that doping refers to the semiconductors that allow energy to flow through them.  Since semiconductors are not full-blown conductors, doping allows science to essentially alter how “semi” a semiconductor is.  And recombination? Try this Wikipedia article if you’re interested in the science of the cell.

On the tangible side, higher efficiency cells equal more energy per panel than ever before. And that means the dollars to watts ratio should go down, given some time.  The more each cell harvests, the more energy your system will sell back to the grid and deliver to your home.  I think we can all agree that would be a wonderful new stride for solar, whether we understand all the science or not.

JA solar plans initial commercialization of the Innovalight cell sometime in 2010.

For the full document by Homer Antoniadis, click here.

Photo Credit: Innovalight

Think of a centralized solar system as a string of Christmas lights run in series.  If one bulb goes out, the rest go with it.  Even shading a portion of one panel in an array can drag the entire array’s energy harvest down.  Enphase Energy has laid claim to being the first to produce a microinverter system available for commercial or residential applications. According to a friend of mine in the solar industry, “[Enphase Microinverter systems] are taking the solar world by storm.”

Microinverters reduce the bulk, space and noise of traditional inverters.  A microinverter mounts below each PV panel, converts that panel’s DC current to AC and then ties directly into the existing wiring and power panel of the house.  This saves the expense of heavy gauge copper wire, as well as the task of running it to your garage (or other centralized location) from the PV array.  At a few dollars per foot, that wire amounts to a lot of money in labor and material.

According to the Enphase Energy website, their microinverter can boost performance of PV panels by 5%-25%. The benefit of one inverter per PV panel is the continued production of individual panels, even if one panel of the array is shaded or damaged.  In traditional arrays where all the panels are tied together, the least efficient panel drags the rest to its level.

Microinverters reduce the chances of total system failure significantly by isolating the system’s components. Enphase also claims that if a single inverter goes out, repairs can wait until routine maintenance is necessary, which saves the homeowner a lot of pulled hair in the end.

Detractors say that the inverter is the most likely piece of equipment to fail (next to batteries if you are thinking of an off-grid application).  They argue that increasing the number of inverters could lead to increased expenses in system maintenance for a homeowner.  To help limit premature failure, check if the product you are thinking of purchasing has met Highly Accelerated Life Testing (HALT) and Highly Accelerated Stress Screening (HASS) testing standards. Enphase’s microinverter has passed this testing.

Watch the Enphase presentation about their microinverter system.

Or you can come back here.  There will be more said about this exciting new development of the solar world in coming blogs.

The manifestation of that dream is called a Smart Grid. Our current grid is, if anything, not that. Today, we struggle to use 21st-century technology and energy by way of a 20th-century grid system that simply can’t “understand” and manage the digital age.

Photo Credit: TreeHugger

Out with the old

It’s certainly not for lack of size that the current grid is sagging under pressure. According to the Department of Energy, the old grid contains 9,200 electric generating units and 300,000 miles of transmission lines, including over 1 million megawatts of generating capacity. And yet it’s so inefficient as to need immediate upgrade.

The elder grid is a momentous achievement of 20th-century innovation, and a smarter grid will not destroy that lesson. It’ll merely update it to handle increasing diversity in energy supplies, technology, and communication.

You might be wondering why the grid hasn’t evolved with other technologies. Unfortunately, it’s been met with relative neglect over the last 30 years. In that time, investment in transmission infrastructure has fallen to less than two percent of total industry revenue. Since 1982, growth in peak demand for electricity has exceeded transmission growth by nearly 25 percent annually.

The end result is the weary, overburdened, blackout-prone grid we must now overhaul. It’s like the classic example of home electrical safety that shows 10 or 15 electric cords plugged into the same outlet…it’s just asking for a fire. One that we’re increasingly fighting to our own financial chagrin. There have been five major blackouts in the last 40 years, three of them have occurred in the last nine.

The DOE points out that the 20th-century grid lacks in three fundamental areas: energy efficiency, environmental impact and customer choice. In a society so connected by the internet and digital gadgets, it’s kind of amazing that the electric grid supporting and powering all these devices is so archaic that it often won’t know of a blackout until a consumer first reports it.

In with the new

The Smart Grid will work to solve those problems. It’s meant to empower both the customer, power generator and utility in a way that increases efficiency, reduces costs, and provides utility customers with unprecedented control over usage & costs.

The smart grid of the future will entail several concepts, in development now, that will radically change the way we purchase and experience electricity from the grid. These include advanced metering infrastructure, visualization technology and phasor measurement units.

• Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) – Smart meters are often mistaken for the primary component of a smart grid, but they’re in fact just one of many components of the end product. Yet their importance to smart grid innovation must not be underestimated. AMI will integrate consumers into the power grid in unprecedented ways. Consumers will be able to program personal settings for energy usage by time of day, season, etc. The electric grid and the home will then be able to communicate. Price signals will be sent from the grid to home controllers, which will then automatically adjust thermostats, washers/dryers, refrigerators and other high-end energy users to minimize usage and costs during peak hours. As the DOE puts it, the home will respond to the occupants, rather than vice-versa.
• Visualization Technology – Visualization will provide the smart grid with better “situational awareness,” including real-time load monitoring and load-growth planning. It’ll integrate real-time data, weather information and grid modeling with geographical information. Eventually, the grid will be intelligent enough to know and understand load characteristics at the national level and then, within seconds, narrow that focus to specific locations – down to street level. In this way, the grid will be able to recognize immediate blackouts and fluctuations in power quality, providing grid controllers with valuable insight into the system as it works in real-time and the ability to address issues in a much timelier fashion.
• Phasor Measurement Units (PMU) – Also known as the grid’s “health meter,” PMU systems sample voltage and current many times per second. This provides valuable awareness of what is going on throughout the national grid. Demand spikes or falls can be noted as they happen and power can easily be rerouted to where it’s needed most at any given time. This will greatly increase grid efficiency and provide power companies with valuable data as well.
• Microgrids – Several programs are currently underway to study and develop blueprints for local and regional smart grid systems. They want to create a grid that simply cannot fail to produce enough power to meet the basic needs of its constituents or end-users, and the interconnectivity of the Smart Grid will enable such a system. It will break the larger national grid up into to “microgrids,” each self-sufficient in its own right. Utilizing a grid made up at a high percentage of distributed-generation systems (rooftop solar arrays, etc.), innovations such as super circuits, microgrid technologies, and the communication skills of smart grid technology will enable grid controllers to seamlessly switch to and spread out these clean energy sources in the event of a failure from utility-scale generation plants. In other words, if all the lights go out, the grid can immediately distribute power from sources unaffected by plant failure to ensure that basic needs are met, like food refrigeration, lighting, etc.

Many of these technologies are already in action in select areas. The hope is that these initial programs will spawn the full integration of a smart grid. There’s still a lot of research and development to be done. After nearly 30 years of relative neglect, we have an uphill battle to fight in improving our dated electrical grid.

Photo Credit: The Light is Green

The future of cooperation

It will require the efforts of regulators, utilities, investors and consumers. A smart grid will not come cheaply, but the more energy efficient we can make the grid (including consumers’ homes), the less additional infrastructure will have to be built. A smarter grid should also have a smaller footprint. On that note, innovations such as improved energy storage, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, green building and superconducting power cables will all play roles as well.

In the same way that the internet (and e-mail) revolutionized the way we interact and do business, so the Smart Grid will completely change the way we use and live with energy. Gone will be the days of paying a power bill without reading it. In the future, your home and the grid will work seamlessly together to monitor and control power usage in real time.

Consumers will at all times be fully aware of how much power is being used. The refrigerator will talk to the home meter, which will communicate with the local grid, which will, in turn, make every detail visible at the national level – all in a fraction of a second. Every aspect of the electrical grid will be redefined or improved, and the near century-old power grid will finally catch up with the new millennium.

Source: The Smart Grid: An Introduction from the U.S. Dept. of Energy

Yet many people still question solar power’s ability to reach that milestone of equality with fossil fuels. On the one hand, you have solar proponents who predict grid parity in as little as five years, and on the other, you have a much more skeptical outlook, such as the already infamous remarks by BP CEO Tony Hayward. Still, the debate rages on…

The Case for Grid Parity

Recent studies in the U.S. and Europe have bolstered the position that grid parity will soon be reached. Travis Bradford, founder of The Prometheus Institute, said at a conference earlier this month that two-thirds of the U.S. solar market will reach grid parity by 2015. The driving forces Bradford noted included federal incentives (now extended through 2016) and a consistent rise in fossil-fuel energy prices. Also contributing are a fast drop in solar panel prices, as well as lower costs for other solar system components, such as mounting systems.

Bradford predicted that commercial solar systems will reach an installed price of about $2-3 per watt and residential systems about $4 per watt installed. Assuming a rise in conventional energy costs of at least one percent per year over the next six years, that will put a good portion of U.S. solar installations at grid parity.

SolarCentury, the UK’s largest solar firm, has an even rosier outlook for solar in Great Britain and Europe. Their study concludes that solar will reach grid parity by 2013. For much the same reasons that Bradford predicted, including abundant and cheaper silicon (as well as a likely feed-in tariff to come in England), SolarCentury is betting on parity within four years.

The resulting boom from the achievement of grid parity will drive solar costs down even further, thus creating a dominant, permanent, and independent force in the energy market. And it should be noted that one solar company, First Solar, has already claimed grid parity from their 12 MW plant in Nevada.

The Case Against Grid Parity (Anytime Soon)

Ironically, those who are more pessimistic about solar power and grid parity often use some of the same contributing factors as those who argue in favor of it. Most notably: the solar industry’s dependence on tax subsidies.

The argument is that solar power will not truly reach grid parity until it’s totally independent of government subsidy. While proponents point to subsidies as a force behind parity, detractors point to financially weak governments around the world as being unable to continue support for solar.

As noted in Earth2Tech, budget woes may plague the solar industry in the near term, effectively halting its race to grid parity. Take California, for example, where some incentives are at risk in the face of a massive and growing budget deficit. In the Earth2Tech piece, which cites a recent study by Lux Research, grid parity is not a lost cause, but certainly not as imminent as some would like to think. Lux puts parity at least a decade away and should the economy continue to weaken or fail to stabilize once more, that timeline could extend.

The general argument against grid parity for solar is that the industry is still far too weak to stand on its own (evidenced by the sudden freeze on solar investing that accompanied fear of expiring federal tax credits last year). Without federal subsidies and the feed-in tariffs that propelled Spain and Germany into solar wonderland, the solar industry would fall flat.

One must accept the fact that such an argument ignores the sizable subsidies still in existence for the oil, gas, and coal industries because solar energy by proportion uses a much larger crutch. And skeptics will also point to Spain, whose feed-in tariff put the country way ahead of schedule for its solar energy goals. So the government pulled out some support after 2008 and demand for solar there has come to a screeching halt.

Overall, however, the arguments against grid parity have become less about if it will come. Some argue that grid parity is still decades away (and often take up the subsequent stance that solar cannot alleviate our urgent need for clean energy), while others argue that in many markets solar is already there. In the meantime, the race for solar grid parity, as well as the surrounding debate, is still on.

Photo Credit: Eideard

One advantage for solar over wind power is its ability to integrate with relative seamlessness into the municipal landscape. Wind turbines have either been too large, such as the 300-ft. tall behemoths comprising remote wind farms, or quite small, just big enough to power a single home. A dilemma for wind energy proponents has been how to create an effective, quiet, community-friendly midsize turbine for use with schools, government buildings, and other community-based facilities.

Middle Ground

Now a handful of wind turbine manufacturers are releasing products they hope will quell the issue of midsize wind power. Instead of the huge 3,000 kilowatt rated turbines shipped out to utility-scale farms on fleets of trucks, there are now much smaller 150 to 300 kilowatt turbines on the market — or coming soon. Manufacturers also hope these turbines will be found useful and financially sound in areas not known for a high wind resource. That includes Connecticut-based Optiwind, formed two years ago specifically to make midsize turbines that work in places like its home state and are geared toward schools, water treatment plants, and businesses — facilities with high energy needs which also lie within the community electrical grid.

There wind enthusiasts run into the hurdle of a population often leery of potential noise pollution, visual appeal, and flickering lights. In response Optiwind has varied considerably from the now-conventional three-blade turbine design. Instead they’ve opted for a cylindrical design (still about 200 feet tall) which has fans mounted on either side. The idea is that the wind will hit the circular structure swirl around it and through the fans, thus concentrating the wind so that it will enter the fans at a higher density and produce more power using less space.

FloDesign Wind Turbine has another design adapted from the jet engine concept. They are currently working on a prototype using venture capital funds that also stresses the notion of more power in less space. FloDesign hopes to have a product on the market by 2011.

Northern Power is yet another midsize turbine maker, only this company is sticking with the three-blade design. Instead of changing the look, they’ve altered the innards. Instead of a conventional gear box, the Northwind 100 (rated at 100 kilowatts) utilizes a direct drivetrain and a generator using permanent magnets, resulting in a quieter and more reliable turbine.

In Action

One example of a mid-size turbine at work can be found at the Hyannis Country Gardens in Cape Cod. After three years of obtaining permits, paying for studies on light flickering and acoustics, as well as hosting town hall meetings, the garden center finally got a 120-foot turbine up and running. It happens to be quieter than the center’s irrigation system and, after about four months, the turbine produced more electricity than the garden center consumes, generating an extra $1,200 worth of electricity.

This turbine is going a long way toward swaying public opinion around Cape Cod regarding wind power, an important turn as wind proponents in the area continue to push for their offshore wind project, aptly titled “Cape Wind.”

Indeed these sorts of innovations could come in quite useful in coastal communities at either end of the country, as well as in towns and cities in Texas, the Dakotas, and other more renowned windy places. The potential is especially easy to see for many coastal communities where wind is an abundant resources but the natural terrain does not leave a whole lot of room for onshore wind farms.

Even the makers of these turbines admit that at this point it would take a good mix of wind, high electricity costs, and incentives to make the turbines worthwhile. Yet more exhibitions like that of the Hyannis Country Gardens will really aid in their cause, bringing notoriety and assuaging longstanding community fears regarding wind production — two big steps for the wind industry.

Source: CNET News

Today the nation’s top 10 utilities hold 882 megawatts of solar capacity, with installations increasing by 25 percent in 2008. Still this is a miniscule sum when stacked next to a million-watt-capacity national electric grid, although utilities are ramping up production.

Southern California Edison, with enviable access to California’s Mojave Desert, tops the list for total capacity with over 441 megawatts — nearly doubling that of second-placer and northern California serving Pacific Gas & Electric. In total watts per customer, however, two small Bay Area utilities have a commanding lead: the San Francisco PUC with 4,739 watts and the Port of Oakland with over 3,414 watts.

After the two California frontrunners, both lists drop dramatically number-wise and jump around the nation a bit, although sticking fairly close to California, our nation’s solar energy hub. And that is a revealing statistic; evidence of our recent, state-reliant national energy plan (in other words, no national energy plan) and, to be fair, one of the most solar-friendly climates in the world.

Outside of the southwest and Hawaii only three utilities make either list; an Xcel Energy subsidiary in Colorado, Public Service Electric & Gas Co. in New Jersey, and the Long Island Power Authority – all scoring in the total solar megawatts category. See the full list at wired.com.

Nonetheless, the stage is set for a utility-scale ascendance. Utilities, and solar energy for that matter, are still a few years away from making a real dent in national energy production, however. Yet expected climate legislation, among other factors, has many utilities already up and running the renewable energy race. A slew of large-scale solar projects, primarily in the desert southwest, are set to go online within the next few years.