$467 Million Funding for Renewable Energy
Sunday, May 31, 2009 at 1:11AM | Share Article "The nation that leads the world in creating new sources of clean energy will be the nation that leads the 21st-century global economy." Barrack Obama
Against a backdrop of 72000 solar panels, Barrack Obama gave a speech at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas on Wednesday, announcing over $467 Million in Recovery Act Funding for Geothermal and Solar Energy Projects. The Nellis Air Force Base lays claim to the largest solar energy installation of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. The solar panels are intended to provide 25% of the electricity requirements for 12,000 people living and working at the base.
Solar Energy Projects (117.6 Million)
Photovoltaic Technology Development
$51.5 million will be invested with the aim of making solar energy cost-competitive with conventional sources of electricity by advancing photovoltaic concepts and high impact technologies,
Solar Energy Deployment
$40.5 million will be spent on removing the barriers to wider adoption of solar energy in residential, commercial and municipal environments. Projects will focus on such things as grid connection, market barriers and the shortage of trained solar energy installers.
Concentrating Solar Power Research and Development
$25.6 million for improvments to the reliability of concentrating solar power technologies and improved test and evaluation support to the solar industry.
Geothermal Energy ($350 Million)
Geothermal Demonstration Projects
$140 Million will be allocated for demonstration of advanced geothermal energy technology in new geographic areas, as well as geothermal energy production from geopressured fields and oil and natural gas fields.
Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) R&D
Geothermal energy systems must be located near easily-accessible geothermal water resources, thus limiting widespread use. EGS uses engineered reservoirs to make use of available heat resources which can used to produce electricity. R&D is needed to demonstrate that the ESG technology will be ready in the near-term. $80 Million will be used to fund this activity.
Innovative Exploration Techniques
$100 Million fund will be used to reduce the up front risk for the private sector by investing in and validating innovative exploration technologies and methods. Projects will include siting, drilling, and characterization of a series of exploration wells utilizing innovative exploration techniques.
National Geothermal Data System, Resource Assessment, and Classification System
$100 Million will be used to fund a detailed characterization of geothermal energy resources nationwide. In addition a nationwide data system will be developed to make resource data available to academia, researchers, and the private sector. DOE will support the development of a geothermal resource classification system for use in determining site potential.
Reader Comments (9)
These projects are so important - and it's money that we've known we need to invest for a long time. The fact is that most private industry - highly touted as being innovative - is actually more driven by stasis. The inclination of investors who have a lot of money to invest is to protect their current systems rather than fund new systems that will make their current system obsolete. This only changes when the change is forced by externals. In this case, government investment will spur private investment in retrofitting and grid refitting because the alternative is to be left behind. We're seeing the same thing in the ITSec sector, where companies that routinely field big defense contracts are suddenly buying up smaller IT security companies or scouring the world for IT security specialists in light of the government's increased interest in protecting its servers from attack. I've got a few IT security nerd friends who are going to be able to pfffbbbtt at all the folks that laughed at them all these years for being such nerds as they pocket nice, fat paychecks.
I agree Deb. And its refreshing to see money put into some serious R&D for renewable energy instead of lining the pockets of oil company executives.
I doubt this drop in the bucket will accomplish much. Photovoltaic production technology has to come a long way before it can become viable. It is darn hard to compete with such a polished electrical grid , mass producing electrical energy in the cheapest forms possible.
However, in California, the government has given big incentives to produce electrical power from the sun and they have the TOU (time of use) energy rate structure and rate to support a residential PV (photovoltaic) system.
In Ontario (PV) is almost a dead art due to our efficient Hydro system and low solar insolation values. As an example lets take a single watt of PV panel and apply some values.
This single watt panel would produce aproximately
1 watt / 1000 x 4 hours x 200 days per annum x $0.11 (per kWh) = $0.088.
Yes it can produce at our current rates and our low Ontario insolation value of 200 days with 4 good hours of sunlight almost 9 cents of energy per annum.
Now let's look at the costs.
- Assuming no other equipment is necessary (big lie)
- Assuming we could make 5% investment profit on our money
- Assuming a PV watt's worth of panel can be purchased in Canada for $5
$5.00 x 5% = $0.25
Somewhere this logic doesn't work in Ontario Canada. We can produce almost 9 cents worth of energy at a cost of 25 cents worth of interest or investment loss.
We can do it as a hobby or, do it for the environment or, do it in lieu of expensive remote grid locations. Until energy rates rise significantly or we secretly pay for it in our taxes, solar PV will not be viable without first solving the world's high grade silcon production problem.
It's definitely a step in the right direction. However, with these small fund amounts, it is only an image builder for some politician. Many companies have spent more than this to produce PV breakthrough technologies, only to fail repeatedly.
Hi Larry! How can I convince you to writing a guest post on your experiences with solar and wind power?
I may work up to it. Things have been very busy with two houses on the go. We are still missing a kitchen, flooring, living room, bedroom and landscaping while travelling to home one to do open houses each week.
Be aware as much as I love the experimental side of solar, it is a dead loss in this province yet (PV). The money saved on electricaty won't pay the cost of replacing my batteries every few years...LOL It is fun though. I have to remove my solar PV panels to do some landscaping in that area. My solar thermal panels are a bust. Only 6 hours of sun in Dec-Jan 2007-8 froze things up and my pipes, not designed with enough drainage slope, broke. I will return to this when I get time (probably with a glycol system), after major house issues are resolved...ten to fifteen years yet?..LOL **sigh**
BTW: My wind turbine has been dismanted for a few years. One guy line was in the way for my foundation excavation but will return once my electrical inspection is completed. The agreements are complicated with Hydro One and windmills are not as appreciated. Windmills are also scary! I had some mechanical problems keeping my blades balanced, had a loose connection on one phase, had wind gusts here to about 120km/h and always needing a load on a turbine to absorb the ecess energy became a nightmare in my location.
I don't want to scare anybody off but these things need more engineering expertise than most can find online. Either much of this is not well known or the installers want to keep it secret. And you have to pay attention to the warnings that come with the expertise you can find...LOL
Larry - I understand there are three generations of PV while most sales are still the first generation. Presumably the efficiency has increased along with battery technology.
Photovoltaic Cells
There have been a lot of rumblings over the last 20 years about solar PV cell technology. Every few years some company announces they have a breakthrough that will revolutionize the solar world. None have ever succeeded to produce their new technology in product quantities, as yet, that I have heard of.
From the information I have seen there are two basic types of PV cells and the type only affects the power linearity curve of the cell for the middle of the range light intensities. The watts / cm^2 (power/area) is almost identical for both types. PV cell peak about 14% eficiency from the solar radiation falling on each cell. This is based on 20c at sea level and the equator location at solar noon or something like that. How the cells are arranged (or how much gap for conductors and mounting) in the panel determines the efficiency of the PV panel. This is typically between 11% to 13%, based on power/area again.
I am told that NASA uses some other PV technology that nobody else can afford. I have no details about the chemistry of them but rumour has it they run about 40% efficiency...look out petroleum industry if that gets out!
PV panels love the cold. Many people comment, in the summer how much energy (they say power) my solar panels must be producing. Fact is: They become inefficient as the temperature goes up and the efficiency goes down. Mid summer I get about 80% of the the rated power output. Freezing January (Canuckistan weather) produces panels running about 125% of rated output. Of course the clear skies (high UV), cold temperatures to cool them, and light reflections off the snow are all factors increasing efficiency.
Battery technology
Battery technology has been holding back the electric vehicle industry for a long time.
Lead acid batteries have become lead calcium types, lead acid gel units and AGM (absorbed gas material) sealed lead acid units have uses in rooms without ventilation for sensitive equipment and human lungs.
Ni-cad (nickle cadmium) batteries have become NiMh (nickle metal-hydride) with less memory effects and much larger capacities. Thes batteries can withstand cold temperatures without losing their capacity. Your lead acid car battery only puts out about 40% of it's capacity in the deep winter months.
LioN (lithium Ion). This is the new kid on the block. Appaerntly these were held back when a few airline cockpits blew off the pad from improperly charges LioN batteries in flight recorders. This has been resolved with complex chargers today. these celles have a larger caacity and can hold their charges for years without self draining.
I am not sure what battery types are used in the Toyota hybrids. Toyota has been the most successful with their designs yet and will most likely lead the way in battery technology.
Non-rechargable types have not ben mentioned.
Thank you very much for this informative post...