New solar plants to increase California’s electricity from solar....

Today's post: Wednesday, 1-12-2011

We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.

At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.

And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.

Today’s post:

New solar plants to increase California’s electricity from solar....

This week Southern California Edison signed contracts with SunPower Corp for 3 solar plants producing 711 megawatts of electricity scheduled to go online by 2016 and with Fotowatio Renewable Ventures Inc for 4 solar plants producing 120 megawatts of electricity scheduled to go online by 2013 for a total of 831 megawatts.

The Los Angeles Times said that in 2009, Southern California Edison had renewable electricity which was generated by 3,296 megawatts of wind, geothermal, solar, biomass and small hydropower facilities combined, with solar contributing 382 megawatts of that capacity – “according to the utility’s website.”

So, adding this 831 megawatts of solar will increase Southern California Edison’s renewable electricity by about 25% and more than triple the amount it gets from solar based on those 2009 numbers.

Since these parts of the desert in Southern California also would work well for solar thermal plants, it’s worth noting that solar photovoltaic plants are now cost competitive even in such areas and not just in those where there’s too little sun and heat to make solar thermal work well.

SunPower’s press release had this on why it’s installation is cost effective.:

“At the sites, SunPower will deploy the SunPower Oasis™ power plant, the energy industry’s first modular solar power block that provides a cost-effective way to rapidly deploy utility-scale solar. Engineered to optimize use of available land, each SunPower Oasis power block uses high-efficiency, 425-watt SunPower solar panels with the SunPower T0 Tracker, which positions the panels to track the sun during the day, resulting in up to 25 percent more energy capture over fixed-tilt solar power systems. Additional SunPower Oasis features include pre-manufactured cabling to minimize on-site wiring, the Oasis smart inverter control system to enhance grid interoperability, and SunPower’s Tracker Monitoring and Control System for wireless control of the power plant.“

An article I saw also noted that photovoltaic plants do NOT need water as solar thermal plants do.

The 3 SunPower site contracts include:

110 MW in Los Banos, Calif., scheduled to be operational by year-end 2014.
325 MW in Rosamond, Calif., scheduled to be operational by October 2016.
276 MW in Rosamond, Calif., scheduled to be operational by October 2016.

The 4 Fotowatio Renewable Ventures Inc solar plants will produce 120 megawatts of electricity. But they are scheduled to go online by 2013.

These will be in Lamont, Arvin, Mojave, and Lancaster.

Similarly, in Sacramento, in November 2009, Aerojet, SMUD and Solar Power Inc. of Roseville inaugurated a 3.6-megawatt solar farm at Aerojet's Folsom campus. In June, 2010 the three completed a 2.4-megawatt expansion.

And, In October, solar thermal company BrightSource Energy started construction on a 392 megawatt solar thermal plant at Ivanpah, in southeastern California’s San Bernardino County, approximately 50 miles northwest of Needles, California, and about five miles from the California-Nevada border.

In such areas a very strong advantage of solar thermal, is that it can store the solar heat it collects and deliver into generated electricity on demand for several hours after sunset.

So, it is ideal that California is beginning to get both solar thermal plants and solar photovoltaic plants of decent size.

And, more is coming relatively soon.

“Ivanpah is just the first of BrightSource’s efforts. The company wants to build 14 solar power plants in the southwest by 2016, which will deliver projects meant to fulfill 2,610 megawatts in contracts with California utilities Pacific Gas and Electric Company and Southern California Edison.”

Nor is this all. Within 8 years, I think we will see much more solar at homes and businesses throughout the state. In addition, we may see thin-film solar from Nanosolar in many community locations as they are now building in Germany.