Solar Thermal arrives from Ausra....

Today’s post: Wednesday, 10-29-2008

As I’ve already posted about in this blog before, I was lucky enough to see a presentation made by one of the founding executives of Ausra, a California company that builds solar thermal “farms’ to make electricity from solar heat in hot sunny places.

Ausra’s recent opening of a 5 megawatt solar farm built by Ausra in Bakersfield in Southern California made our local newspapers.

But both stories left out the three most critical facts that explain why this event was so incredibly important. It was so important that California’s governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger was there. But the news stories did NOT say WHY this event was so important.

That’s the subject of today’s post. We list the 3 key reasons this event was so important.

(The quotes below are from Ausra’s Press releases on its website www.ausra.com .)

Here are those 3 points.

1. Solar thermal farms make a 100 % renewable economy a real possibility.

“PALO ALTO, Calif.—March 6, 2008—Ausra Inc., the developer of utility-scale solar thermal power technology, has published a peer-reviewed study showing that over 90 percent of the U.S. electric grid and auto fleet's energy needs could be met by solar thermal power.”

I’ll add that this means that very nearly all the electricity needed to run plug-in hybrids and electric cars can come from this one renewable source.

And, when you add increasing the energy efficiency of our lights and devices that use electricity and the very nearly as large or larger potential of solar photovoltaics in all of the United States, Canada, & Mexico plus any geothermal and hydropower that proves cost effective, this means that 100 % of our electricity use now PLUS robust economic growth throughout North America AND supplying our cars can all be generated from renewable energy.

And, as you can see, solar thermal companies such as Ausra move this possibility from maybe to for sure doable.

The next point clinches that one.

2. The Ausra founding executive I heard speak explained that unlike solar photovoltaic produced electricity that is only most available at certain times of day, because the recapture of energy from the solar heated media is or approaches 96 %, solar thermal power can provide electric power about 16 hours a day.

I’ll also add that since the band of appropriate parts of North America in the Southwest United States and Northern Mexico goes from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, that means by installing solar thermal farms in each part of this region that spans three time zones and adding the appropriate transmission lines, solar thermal farms can approach supplying electricity 18 to 19 hours a day.

3. We already are using about twice our planet’s capacity to remove CO2 by our current burning of fossil fuels. And the scientists who have studied this extensively say that unless we completely turn to sources of electricity and energy that do NOT burn fossil fuels in the next 10 to perhaps 25 years, the human race and its economy may become very burned toast. Worse, the scientists say the process likely will then be irreversible.

It’s totally definite that it borders on the irresponsible to do things that increase our use of oil and coal for energy. Yet that process is still continuing in both the United States and China.

The thing that’s exciting about solar thermal power is that its potential is so huge and so realizable, adding solar thermal to the mix provides us with a viable alternative. We CAN power robust economic growth AND wean our economy away from petroleum and coal.

Even better, despite the Ausra solar thermal farm that just opened in Bakersfield being over twice as large as the Applied Materials installation that we posted about as showing the very large potential of solar parking lots, the 5 megawatt Bakersfield solar farm is only about a 35th of the 177 megawatt solar farm that Ausra will launch soon.

When you realize that it’s completely possible to open 1000 solar farms THAT size, you begin to see the real potential of solar thermal.

“In November 2007, Ausra and California utility Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) announced a power purchase agreement for the 177-megawatt power plant in central California. When completed, Ausra's Carrizo facility will generate enough electricity to power more than 120,000 homes.”

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Here are the press releases of interest on Ausra’s website.:

“10.23.2008 Solar Power Company Ausra Launches First Solar Thermal Plant in California in Nearly 20 Years

10.01.2008 Ausra Secures $60.6 Million in Funding

06.30.2008 Ausra Opens First U.S. Solar Thermal Power Factory

03.06.2008 Study: Solar Thermal Power Could Supply Over 90 percent of U.S. Grid Plus Auto Fleet”

There are several other press releases listed that you might find of interest.