Archive for the ‘solar’ tag
Building Renewables, at Long Last
Over the past week or so, we’ve seen some developments suggesting wind power and solar photovoltaics (PV) are catching on with some big companies.
Computer builder Dell and California utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PG & E) announced plans to get serious about renewables. Dell is partnering with the local utility in Oklahoma City to supply 100 percent of its campus there with electricity generated from wind.
Utility PG & E has committed to 500 MW of PV electricity with half of it coming from small-producer contracts and the other half coming from utility-scale projects. Other utilities recently announcing new PV capacity are Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric, Duke Energy, and PSE&G in New Jersey. California and “sunny” New Jersey are number one and two, respectively, in PV power generation.
Manufacturer Johnson Controls has just finished a 1,500 panel solar array at its headquarters in Wisconsin. That company looks like it’s positioning itself for production of renewable energy and battery technologies. Triple Pundit has more here
Associated Press reports here the German chemical manufacturer Wacker Chemie AG announced their intention of building a $1 Billion facility in Tennessee to make polycrystalline silicone for photovoltaic panels and semiconductors.
Paul Gipe reports here that the City of Gainesville, Florida quickly reserved its target of 4 MW of solar PV contracts after passing a renewable energy payment plan that will pay PV power producers $0.32 per kWh.
Today after church, we drove the kids down to Bowling Green to see four Vestas wind turbines running near the city landfill off of Route 6. Parked about 100 yards from the nearest tower my wife was especially impressed with the size and power of the blades sweeping the sky.
She asked, “Why has it taken so long to do this?”
Go Nuclear? Steve Huntley Overlooks Many Problems
In his Chicago Sun-Times editorial Steve Huntley makes a weak case for solving our energy problems by going nuclear. Steve supports this claim largely by citing a former Greenpeace leader who’s had a pro-nuclear epiphany.
Huntley does not mention any of the inconvenient truths associated with the nuclear fuel cycle, which is not a true cycle, like the water cycle, as it does not end with the same stuff it started with. It ends with highly radioactive nuclear waste for which the government and nuclear industry are yet to find a final means of disposal.
A summary of the nuclear “cycle” is available here. Basically, the nuclear process begins with mining and proceeds through milling, enrichment, fuel fabrication, fuel rod assembly, plant operation and maintenance, temporary storage, transportation, vitrification and final disposal or reprocessing. A biproduct of the fuel “cycle” is plutonium, which can be made into nuclear bombs. These processes do not all happen at the same place, so that nuclear material has to travel from one facility to another for various stages of the process. There are hazards associated with each step, and each transition.
In 2003, President Bush launched an invasion of Iraq. The justification had something to do with “a smoking gun in the form of a mushroom cloud.” Anyone worried about nuclear proliferation should beware of an expanded nuclear power industry.
The Carbon Cost of Nuclear Power
One of the most misleading claims made by the pro-nuclear lobby is its “zero emitting” attribute. This is false. Each step of the nuclear fuel “cycle” consumes fossil fuel. There is an excellent analysis of the carbon cost of nuclear power available in this powerpoint presentation produced by PeakOil. According to two IPCC physicists cited by PeakOil, depending on the grade of uranium ore, nuclear power has just as high of carbon cost as conventional coal power plants!
Solutions?
The cleanest, cheapest and most immediate solutions to our energy problems are fuel conservation, electricity conservation, solar and wind power. There’s no good reason why Americans can’t drive cars that get 45-miles per gallon, better than twice the current rate. We waste about half the electricity produced in the United States. Wind power can provide reliable base load.
