Posted by: Desh
May 17 2010
Wind speed is never static. It goes unusable at times when it blows below 9 mph or splinters beyond 29 mph as in most parts of North America. Hoping to provide a sensible solution to the problem, Windtronics introduces Honeywell Wind Turbine that carries a unique Power Blade System that creates energy from magnets at the blade tips. The technology reduces the resistance of a central gear and shaft to gain maximum cost- and energy-efficiency.
The rooftop wind turbine, designed for homes and businesses can work in wind speeds as low as 2 miles per hour. It resembles a six-foot-diameter bicycle wheel. Containing a computerized Smart Box that repositions the turbine for safe wind capture, the Honeywell can withstand high winds (above 40 mph) easily. The 170 pounds wind turbine will retail at $6,495 at local ACE Hardware stores starting in August; you need to pay more for installation though. However, the federal and state energy tax rebates will cover 30% to 80% of the cost.
Tuesday, 18 May 2010
Solar Charger Swaps Power Bills for Sunshine
Chinavasion releases a solar-powered charger that will power virtually any electronic device.
By James Mulroy, PC World
May 17, 2010 10:32 AM ET
Share/EmailTweet ThisCommentPrintHave you been wanting to save money and go off the electrical grid? Now might be your chance to do just that with Chinavasion's High Capacity Solar Charger and Battery. Chinavasion added the powerful device to its catalogue last Thursday, May 13.
The green device has a powerful 20,000 mAH battery and even comes with 29 unique adapter tips giving you the capabilities to power just about any electronic you own. It's also very easy to use. All you need to do is put it in the sun to recharge and it can store battery power for when you need it. Next just set your voltage, place on any of the easy-to-swap adapter tips, and plug in!
Five Steps to Successful IT Consolidation: Download nowApart from solar power, the battery can also be recharged by using the included AC Power Adapter or Car Cigarette Power Adapter, making it great power storage for any trip. The battery will take fewer than three hours to charge using the AC adapter and around eight to ten hours in direct sunlight.
At $148.04, using the solar power daily to power your laptop you could easily save on your electricity bill.
By James Mulroy, PC World
May 17, 2010 10:32 AM ET
Share/EmailTweet ThisCommentPrintHave you been wanting to save money and go off the electrical grid? Now might be your chance to do just that with Chinavasion's High Capacity Solar Charger and Battery. Chinavasion added the powerful device to its catalogue last Thursday, May 13.
The green device has a powerful 20,000 mAH battery and even comes with 29 unique adapter tips giving you the capabilities to power just about any electronic you own. It's also very easy to use. All you need to do is put it in the sun to recharge and it can store battery power for when you need it. Next just set your voltage, place on any of the easy-to-swap adapter tips, and plug in!
Five Steps to Successful IT Consolidation: Download nowApart from solar power, the battery can also be recharged by using the included AC Power Adapter or Car Cigarette Power Adapter, making it great power storage for any trip. The battery will take fewer than three hours to charge using the AC adapter and around eight to ten hours in direct sunlight.
At $148.04, using the solar power daily to power your laptop you could easily save on your electricity bill.
New York Ramps Up Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard
SustainableBusiness.com News
New York State's landmark Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (EEPS) is expected to be in full swing this summer with 90 individual programs supported by about $922 million of ratepayer funding.
The Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (EEPS) is one of the most comprehensive and aggressive energy efficiency initiatives in the nation. Last week the Public Service Commission staff completed a first quarter report on the EEPS.
To date the Commission has approved 90 individual programs supported by about $922 million of ratepayer funding to be collected through the end of 2011. Future steps will include the evaluation of existing programs and the extension of successful programs through 2015. Over 60 of the approved programs are reporting implementation-related activity, and 23 programs are reporting energy savings; the bulk of the remaining programs are expected to become operational by the summer.
Through March, EEPS program administrators report that approximately $53.4 million has been expended for EEPS program implementation and another $17.1 million has been committed, mostly through contracts or agreements with vendors. Electric energy efficiency measures installed to date will reduce average annual consumption by 158,591 MWhs, enough to meet the electricity needs of approximately 24,400 homes. Gas energy efficiency measures installed so far will reduce average annual natural gas usage by 489,990 dekatherms, which would meet the energy annual gas usage of approximately 5,850 homes each year. It is expected that expenditures and MWh savings will continue to ramp up during 2010.
The fundamental objective of EEPS is to put in place new energy efficiency programs that will help reduce New York's electricity usage by 15% of forecast levels by 2015, with comparable results in natural gas efficiency, and to provide a variety of other environmental and economic benefits to New Yorkers. Programs under EEPS are available from State’s electric and gas utilities as well as the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).
“In reviewing energy savings achieved through the first quarter, it is important to realize that many of the programs are just beginning to offer services to customers, and many more programs will begin offering these services in the next few months." Commission Chairman Garry Brown said." We expect to see steady increases in the reported energy savings.”
According to the report, most program administrators anticipate the program will meet their overall 2011 energy savings targets which would reduce annual electricity consumption for utilities regulated by the Commission by approximately 3,569,000 MWhs.
The greatest market response thus far has been with the upstate gas companies’ residential HVAC programs offering assistance with furnace and boiler replacements. Meanwhile, the successes in the electricity efficiency programs are expected to rise in the near future. The top 10 largest electric programs in terms of funding comprise about 70% of the total funding for EEPS electric efficiency programs. All of the highest-funded electric efficiency programs should be engaging the market by mid-year 2010 and many already are accepting applications and installing measures.
Despite the initiatives overall success, the current economic climate is having an impact on program implementation. The degree to which the economy has had, and will continue to have, an impact on EEPS implementation is unknown. Meanwhile, coordinating the deployment of Commission-approved efficiency programs with efficiency programs being initiated at federal, state, and local levels is an increasing challenge.
Staff’s report, when issued, may be obtained by going to the Commission Documents section of the Commission’s Web site at the link below.
Website: www.dps.state.ny.us
New York State's landmark Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (EEPS) is expected to be in full swing this summer with 90 individual programs supported by about $922 million of ratepayer funding.
The Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (EEPS) is one of the most comprehensive and aggressive energy efficiency initiatives in the nation. Last week the Public Service Commission staff completed a first quarter report on the EEPS.
To date the Commission has approved 90 individual programs supported by about $922 million of ratepayer funding to be collected through the end of 2011. Future steps will include the evaluation of existing programs and the extension of successful programs through 2015. Over 60 of the approved programs are reporting implementation-related activity, and 23 programs are reporting energy savings; the bulk of the remaining programs are expected to become operational by the summer.
Through March, EEPS program administrators report that approximately $53.4 million has been expended for EEPS program implementation and another $17.1 million has been committed, mostly through contracts or agreements with vendors. Electric energy efficiency measures installed to date will reduce average annual consumption by 158,591 MWhs, enough to meet the electricity needs of approximately 24,400 homes. Gas energy efficiency measures installed so far will reduce average annual natural gas usage by 489,990 dekatherms, which would meet the energy annual gas usage of approximately 5,850 homes each year. It is expected that expenditures and MWh savings will continue to ramp up during 2010.
The fundamental objective of EEPS is to put in place new energy efficiency programs that will help reduce New York's electricity usage by 15% of forecast levels by 2015, with comparable results in natural gas efficiency, and to provide a variety of other environmental and economic benefits to New Yorkers. Programs under EEPS are available from State’s electric and gas utilities as well as the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).
“In reviewing energy savings achieved through the first quarter, it is important to realize that many of the programs are just beginning to offer services to customers, and many more programs will begin offering these services in the next few months." Commission Chairman Garry Brown said." We expect to see steady increases in the reported energy savings.”
According to the report, most program administrators anticipate the program will meet their overall 2011 energy savings targets which would reduce annual electricity consumption for utilities regulated by the Commission by approximately 3,569,000 MWhs.
The greatest market response thus far has been with the upstate gas companies’ residential HVAC programs offering assistance with furnace and boiler replacements. Meanwhile, the successes in the electricity efficiency programs are expected to rise in the near future. The top 10 largest electric programs in terms of funding comprise about 70% of the total funding for EEPS electric efficiency programs. All of the highest-funded electric efficiency programs should be engaging the market by mid-year 2010 and many already are accepting applications and installing measures.
Despite the initiatives overall success, the current economic climate is having an impact on program implementation. The degree to which the economy has had, and will continue to have, an impact on EEPS implementation is unknown. Meanwhile, coordinating the deployment of Commission-approved efficiency programs with efficiency programs being initiated at federal, state, and local levels is an increasing challenge.
Staff’s report, when issued, may be obtained by going to the Commission Documents section of the Commission’s Web site at the link below.
Website: www.dps.state.ny.us
Algae Biofuel Production Targets Waste
.Analysis by Alyssa Danigelis
Mon May 17, 2010 07:04 PM ET
On the surface, algae is an attractive fuel source, especially since it doesn't cut into food crops. The problem isn't that the algae doesn't grow quickly--the high yield is remarkable--it's that production still requires lots of water and nutrients. An unlikely resource might be the answer.
Earlier this year, a group of scientists from the University of Virginia made waves when they found that between the water and nutrients, algae fuel production can end up generating more greenhouse gas emissions than it promises to prevent. Groan. Not what algae fuel proponents wanted to hear. Andres Clarens, an assistant professor of environmental and water resources engineering at the university who worked on that research, told me that his group is now evaluating two leading techniques for producing the fuel: closed photobioreactors and open ponds.
Open ponds are self-explanatory but photobioreactors tend to be large transparent tubes, often arranged in arrays, where the algae is cultivated. The idea behind these reactors is that since the process is closed there won't be evaporation, therefore saving water so algae can grow at higher concentrations. While Clarens is careful to say that their research is ongoing, preliminary results are showing that the reactors might not be as advantageous as they seem. For logistics reasons, the largest swaths of land that could house them affordably would be in sparsely populated areas.
"Imagine putting a large glass tube out in the desert," Clarens says. "You'd have algae soup." Keeping the reactors at the right temperature requires energy, adding to the expense. Open ponds have their own drawbacks, too, including that you probably wouldn't want to live right next door to one.
So where's the good news? Well, Clarens and his fellow scientists suggest that a smart way to reduce costs would be to pair production with wastewater bioremediation. Algae can handle chemicals that we want to avoid, making it a useful filter. "It's a two-for-one benefit," Clarens says. While securing acres of land for algae production next to wastewater treatment plants won't be easy, this is a case where constraints are leading to creative problem-solving. A first-of-its-kind pilot facility that was announced last year in Logan, Utah, aims to turn a 460-acre money-draining wastewater lagoon full of phosphates into an algae farm. There are thousands of these problematic lagoons across the country just waiting for help. I'm confident that a mixture of technology and algae can come to the rescue.
Mon May 17, 2010 07:04 PM ET
On the surface, algae is an attractive fuel source, especially since it doesn't cut into food crops. The problem isn't that the algae doesn't grow quickly--the high yield is remarkable--it's that production still requires lots of water and nutrients. An unlikely resource might be the answer.
Earlier this year, a group of scientists from the University of Virginia made waves when they found that between the water and nutrients, algae fuel production can end up generating more greenhouse gas emissions than it promises to prevent. Groan. Not what algae fuel proponents wanted to hear. Andres Clarens, an assistant professor of environmental and water resources engineering at the university who worked on that research, told me that his group is now evaluating two leading techniques for producing the fuel: closed photobioreactors and open ponds.
Open ponds are self-explanatory but photobioreactors tend to be large transparent tubes, often arranged in arrays, where the algae is cultivated. The idea behind these reactors is that since the process is closed there won't be evaporation, therefore saving water so algae can grow at higher concentrations. While Clarens is careful to say that their research is ongoing, preliminary results are showing that the reactors might not be as advantageous as they seem. For logistics reasons, the largest swaths of land that could house them affordably would be in sparsely populated areas.
"Imagine putting a large glass tube out in the desert," Clarens says. "You'd have algae soup." Keeping the reactors at the right temperature requires energy, adding to the expense. Open ponds have their own drawbacks, too, including that you probably wouldn't want to live right next door to one.
So where's the good news? Well, Clarens and his fellow scientists suggest that a smart way to reduce costs would be to pair production with wastewater bioremediation. Algae can handle chemicals that we want to avoid, making it a useful filter. "It's a two-for-one benefit," Clarens says. While securing acres of land for algae production next to wastewater treatment plants won't be easy, this is a case where constraints are leading to creative problem-solving. A first-of-its-kind pilot facility that was announced last year in Logan, Utah, aims to turn a 460-acre money-draining wastewater lagoon full of phosphates into an algae farm. There are thousands of these problematic lagoons across the country just waiting for help. I'm confident that a mixture of technology and algae can come to the rescue.
Cornwall wave energy hub has summer target
The 12-tonne hub will be filled with resin to stop leaks
An electrical "socket" linking wave energy machines off the Cornwall coast is to be put in place this summer.
The yellow steel structure, about the size of a van, is part of a £42m scheme which is expected to start delivering power to the National Grid in 2011.
It will sit on the seabed in 50m (164ft) of water 10 miles off Hayle and be covered in several metres of rock.
It will feed power from four wave energy machines to an electricity sub-station at Hayle.
'Hugely satisfying'
The Wave Hub project, developed by the South West Regional Development Agency (RDA), is designed to test various wave energy machines.
Some of them could be used off the north coast of Scotland where the first commercial licences have been announced.
A connection block inside the 12-tonne hub will be filled with resin to ensure it remains watertight and the whole structure is designed to last at least 25 years.
Guy Lavender, Wave Hub's general manager at the RDA, said: "After seven years of planning it's hugely satisfying to see the cable and hub actually taking shape.
"We're on course for deployment this summer and extensive testing will take place before we welcome our first wave energy devices at Wave Hub, which we expect in 2011."
Wave Hub is being funded with £12.5m from the RDA, £20m from the European Regional Development Fund Convergence Programme and £9.5m from the UK government.
An electrical "socket" linking wave energy machines off the Cornwall coast is to be put in place this summer.
The yellow steel structure, about the size of a van, is part of a £42m scheme which is expected to start delivering power to the National Grid in 2011.
It will sit on the seabed in 50m (164ft) of water 10 miles off Hayle and be covered in several metres of rock.
It will feed power from four wave energy machines to an electricity sub-station at Hayle.
'Hugely satisfying'
The Wave Hub project, developed by the South West Regional Development Agency (RDA), is designed to test various wave energy machines.
Some of them could be used off the north coast of Scotland where the first commercial licences have been announced.
A connection block inside the 12-tonne hub will be filled with resin to ensure it remains watertight and the whole structure is designed to last at least 25 years.
Guy Lavender, Wave Hub's general manager at the RDA, said: "After seven years of planning it's hugely satisfying to see the cable and hub actually taking shape.
"We're on course for deployment this summer and extensive testing will take place before we welcome our first wave energy devices at Wave Hub, which we expect in 2011."
Wave Hub is being funded with £12.5m from the RDA, £20m from the European Regional Development Fund Convergence Programme and £9.5m from the UK government.
Michael McCarthy: This is no forecast. Climate change is here and now
Tuesday, 18 May 2010
"New studies confirm that Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to climate variability and change because of multiple stresses and low adaptive capacity," the report said. "Some adaptation to current climate variability is taking place; however, this may be insufficient for future changes in climate."
The "multiple stresses" include increased water shortages, severely compromised agricultural production and more widespread disease; and also, as the report noted presciently, "local food supplies are projected to be negatively affected by decreasing fisheries resources in large lakes due to rising water temperatures, which may be exacerbated by continued overfishing."
For more than 20 years the world's attention has been largely focused, as far as global warming is concerned, on predictions: forecasts by supercomputer models of what the world's climate is likely to do, where, and when.
Now the predictions are starting to be replaced by happenings: melting ice; trees coming into leaf three weeks earlier than in the 1950s; birds laying their eggs a week to 10 days earlier than they used to do. The warming of Lake Tanganyika was a prediction; now it is a happening, and a signal of many more happenings to come.
"New studies confirm that Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to climate variability and change because of multiple stresses and low adaptive capacity," the report said. "Some adaptation to current climate variability is taking place; however, this may be insufficient for future changes in climate."
The "multiple stresses" include increased water shortages, severely compromised agricultural production and more widespread disease; and also, as the report noted presciently, "local food supplies are projected to be negatively affected by decreasing fisheries resources in large lakes due to rising water temperatures, which may be exacerbated by continued overfishing."
For more than 20 years the world's attention has been largely focused, as far as global warming is concerned, on predictions: forecasts by supercomputer models of what the world's climate is likely to do, where, and when.
Now the predictions are starting to be replaced by happenings: melting ice; trees coming into leaf three weeks earlier than in the 1950s; birds laying their eggs a week to 10 days earlier than they used to do. The warming of Lake Tanganyika was a prediction; now it is a happening, and a signal of many more happenings to come.
US could become leader in desert solar, says IEA
As Senate considers climate law, report says desert solar farms can be as cheap as coal by 2025
(7)Tweet this (46)Comments (18) Stacy Feldman for SolveClimate, part of the Guardian Environment Network guardian.co.uk, Monday 17 May 2010 09.53 BST Article history
The United States could position itself as the global leader in producing utility-scale solar power from its vast deserts, with immediate and appropriate government support, a new report from the International Energy Agency says.
The study by the Paris–based energy policy adviser for developed nations says with R&D backing, adoption of feed-in tariffs and binding renewable energy portfolio standards, the U.S. and other sunny nations could accelerate the cost reductions needed for widespread deployment of concentrating solar power (CSP) plants.
"This decade is crucial for effective policies," said Nubuo Tanaka, executive director of IEA.
With incentives in place, investment costs for solar farms could drop by 30 to 40 percent by 2020, the energy agency, known for its conservative predictions, said.
As the Senate considers new climate law, at least one thing is certain in the U.S.: There is no lack of available land. The deserts of the Southwest could theoretically power the entire nation.
Currently, solar provides less than one percent of America's electricity supply, with about half of that coming from CSP installations. The 30-year-old CSP technology is proven. It has been generating electricity in California since the 1980s. Unlike photovoltaics, which turn the sun's rays directly into electricity in panels, CSP uses arrays of often hundreds of mirrors to magnify sunlight. The massive mirrors concentrate the sun's energy hundreds of times to generate steam in a boiler that spins a turbine.
The IEA also expects the industry to solve the problem of nightfall. The 50-page report says CSP plants will be able produce electricity around the clock in the "not-too-distant future" — even when clouds close in or the sun sets — thanks to emerging thermal storage technologies that will allow "solar plants to compete with fossil-fuel plants."
Storage technologies will amass power accumulated during daylight hours so it can be released at night or dispatched to the national electrical grid at peak periods.
"The firm capacity and flexibility of CSP plants will help grid operators integrate larger amounts of variable renewable electricity such as solar PV and wind power," Tanaka said.
As with wind farms on remote Midwestern praires, however, huge investments in long-distance electricity transmission would eventually be needed to carry the clean electricity from far-off deserts to city centers.
But ultimately, it is installation costs that will determine whether CSP technology takes off, or not.
IEA says if building costs falls as predicted, CSP would achieve grid parity by 2020 in peak and intermediate loads. For baseload power, CSP would be as cheap as coal between 2025 and 2030.
But that assumes a lot — an increase in competition, a growth in plant size, the mass production of equipment, an improvement in technology improves and a policy to put a global price on carbon.
Most importantly, though, the financial community would have to gain confidence in CSP.
Even with strong government programs, "financing of CSP plants may become difficult if investors in technology companies do not supply some equity capitalists," the report said.
Spain Leads, For Now
While other governments and the private sector have been slow to support CSP in recent years, Spain has moved ahead on its own.
Spain has taken a leading role globally in promoting solar power and other forms of renewable energy," Tanaka said, at the launch of the report in Valencia this week.
In 2005, the Spanish government passed a feed-in tariff aimed at CSP development. Because of the subsidy, the nation now has over 20 projects under construction with 1,000 megawatts of capacity that could go online by the end of this year. The country's eight operational facilities were all completed in the last two years.
It was the U.S., though, that first eyed CSP with great interest in the 1980s. And a revival is now underway.
From 1984 to 1991, the first CSP plants in the world began operating in California, fueled by federal and state tax incentives and mandatory power purchase contracts. But as fossil fuel costs dropped, so did the political will to advance clean power.
But now CSP is gaining steam in Washington once again, spurred by climate change and foreign energy dependency concerns. The U.S. Department of Energy has set an objective under its CSP research program to reach price competitiveness with dirty fuels by 2015, well ahead of EIA targets.
In February — in the government's boldest stroke yet — DOE offered BrightSource energy, an Oakland-based CSP company, nearly $1.4 billion in loan guarantees for its 400-megawatt Ivanpah CSP system. The facility is expected to be the world's largest solar project and the first CSP installation in nearly two decades. This month, DOE awarded $62 million in R&D dollars to CSP start-ups eSolar, Abengoa, Infinia and SkyFuel to help bring advanced technologies to market.
All the while, demand for CSP is continuing at record rates.
In California alone, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has received requests for the development of 34 CSP plants on 300,000 acres, totaling some 24,000 megawatts, according to figures from the California Energy Commission. In early 2010, the stock of CSP projects worldwide was only around a thousand megawatts, according to IEA.
The pace of the permitting process remains a hurdle in the U.S., though. In California, environmental analyses on federal or state land can take 18 to 24 months.
To help tackle the problem, BLM has pledgd to streamline procedures for obtaining permits for CSP plants and access lines, with 11 CSP projects now under fast-track review for approval by December 2010.
Worldwide: 11% by 2050
Globally, CSP could provide 11 .3% of global electricity by mid-century, IEA says.
While North America will be the largest producing and consuming region under this scenario, Africa, India and the Middle East are all expected to be major players.
Currently, Algeria, some Indian states, Israel and South Africa, all have feed-in tariffs or premium payments in place for CSP projects.
Northern Africa, in particular, has the potential to be a considerable CSP exporter to Europe. According to IEA, the region's "high solar resource largely compensates for the additional cost of long transmission lines."
Indeed, the biggest game changer for CSP would be the success of the Desertec initiative. The ambitious, $50 billion plan aims to build vast solar farms in the Sahara and export the electricity via high-voltage direct current transmission lines to power 15 percent of Europe by 2050.
While building the high-voltage cables remains a technological and financial challenge, IEA says at least some of the incentives to make the project affordable are already in place.
"The current feed-in tariffs in Spain or France for large-scale, ground-based solar electricity would largely cover the costs of production of electricity in North Africa," the report says.
(7)Tweet this (46)Comments (18) Stacy Feldman for SolveClimate, part of the Guardian Environment Network guardian.co.uk, Monday 17 May 2010 09.53 BST Article history
The United States could position itself as the global leader in producing utility-scale solar power from its vast deserts, with immediate and appropriate government support, a new report from the International Energy Agency says.
The study by the Paris–based energy policy adviser for developed nations says with R&D backing, adoption of feed-in tariffs and binding renewable energy portfolio standards, the U.S. and other sunny nations could accelerate the cost reductions needed for widespread deployment of concentrating solar power (CSP) plants.
"This decade is crucial for effective policies," said Nubuo Tanaka, executive director of IEA.
With incentives in place, investment costs for solar farms could drop by 30 to 40 percent by 2020, the energy agency, known for its conservative predictions, said.
As the Senate considers new climate law, at least one thing is certain in the U.S.: There is no lack of available land. The deserts of the Southwest could theoretically power the entire nation.
Currently, solar provides less than one percent of America's electricity supply, with about half of that coming from CSP installations. The 30-year-old CSP technology is proven. It has been generating electricity in California since the 1980s. Unlike photovoltaics, which turn the sun's rays directly into electricity in panels, CSP uses arrays of often hundreds of mirrors to magnify sunlight. The massive mirrors concentrate the sun's energy hundreds of times to generate steam in a boiler that spins a turbine.
The IEA also expects the industry to solve the problem of nightfall. The 50-page report says CSP plants will be able produce electricity around the clock in the "not-too-distant future" — even when clouds close in or the sun sets — thanks to emerging thermal storage technologies that will allow "solar plants to compete with fossil-fuel plants."
Storage technologies will amass power accumulated during daylight hours so it can be released at night or dispatched to the national electrical grid at peak periods.
"The firm capacity and flexibility of CSP plants will help grid operators integrate larger amounts of variable renewable electricity such as solar PV and wind power," Tanaka said.
As with wind farms on remote Midwestern praires, however, huge investments in long-distance electricity transmission would eventually be needed to carry the clean electricity from far-off deserts to city centers.
But ultimately, it is installation costs that will determine whether CSP technology takes off, or not.
IEA says if building costs falls as predicted, CSP would achieve grid parity by 2020 in peak and intermediate loads. For baseload power, CSP would be as cheap as coal between 2025 and 2030.
But that assumes a lot — an increase in competition, a growth in plant size, the mass production of equipment, an improvement in technology improves and a policy to put a global price on carbon.
Most importantly, though, the financial community would have to gain confidence in CSP.
Even with strong government programs, "financing of CSP plants may become difficult if investors in technology companies do not supply some equity capitalists," the report said.
Spain Leads, For Now
While other governments and the private sector have been slow to support CSP in recent years, Spain has moved ahead on its own.
Spain has taken a leading role globally in promoting solar power and other forms of renewable energy," Tanaka said, at the launch of the report in Valencia this week.
In 2005, the Spanish government passed a feed-in tariff aimed at CSP development. Because of the subsidy, the nation now has over 20 projects under construction with 1,000 megawatts of capacity that could go online by the end of this year. The country's eight operational facilities were all completed in the last two years.
It was the U.S., though, that first eyed CSP with great interest in the 1980s. And a revival is now underway.
From 1984 to 1991, the first CSP plants in the world began operating in California, fueled by federal and state tax incentives and mandatory power purchase contracts. But as fossil fuel costs dropped, so did the political will to advance clean power.
But now CSP is gaining steam in Washington once again, spurred by climate change and foreign energy dependency concerns. The U.S. Department of Energy has set an objective under its CSP research program to reach price competitiveness with dirty fuels by 2015, well ahead of EIA targets.
In February — in the government's boldest stroke yet — DOE offered BrightSource energy, an Oakland-based CSP company, nearly $1.4 billion in loan guarantees for its 400-megawatt Ivanpah CSP system. The facility is expected to be the world's largest solar project and the first CSP installation in nearly two decades. This month, DOE awarded $62 million in R&D dollars to CSP start-ups eSolar, Abengoa, Infinia and SkyFuel to help bring advanced technologies to market.
All the while, demand for CSP is continuing at record rates.
In California alone, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has received requests for the development of 34 CSP plants on 300,000 acres, totaling some 24,000 megawatts, according to figures from the California Energy Commission. In early 2010, the stock of CSP projects worldwide was only around a thousand megawatts, according to IEA.
The pace of the permitting process remains a hurdle in the U.S., though. In California, environmental analyses on federal or state land can take 18 to 24 months.
To help tackle the problem, BLM has pledgd to streamline procedures for obtaining permits for CSP plants and access lines, with 11 CSP projects now under fast-track review for approval by December 2010.
Worldwide: 11% by 2050
Globally, CSP could provide 11 .3% of global electricity by mid-century, IEA says.
While North America will be the largest producing and consuming region under this scenario, Africa, India and the Middle East are all expected to be major players.
Currently, Algeria, some Indian states, Israel and South Africa, all have feed-in tariffs or premium payments in place for CSP projects.
Northern Africa, in particular, has the potential to be a considerable CSP exporter to Europe. According to IEA, the region's "high solar resource largely compensates for the additional cost of long transmission lines."
Indeed, the biggest game changer for CSP would be the success of the Desertec initiative. The ambitious, $50 billion plan aims to build vast solar farms in the Sahara and export the electricity via high-voltage direct current transmission lines to power 15 percent of Europe by 2050.
While building the high-voltage cables remains a technological and financial challenge, IEA says at least some of the incentives to make the project affordable are already in place.
"The current feed-in tariffs in Spain or France for large-scale, ground-based solar electricity would largely cover the costs of production of electricity in North Africa," the report says.