Category Archives: electricity

Solar Power In New Mexico – What better of a place to set up shop

Posted on by
Reply

Yes I know about the fire at the Chevron Plant in the Bay area and what that adds to the idea that the oil and gas industry is purposely taking gasoline processing capacity offline as demand for gasoline falls to keep prices high. But solar is so much more peaceful and zen like.

This type of progress is just stunning. We are on the way to becoming a renewable country. Now if the rest of the world will follow suit.

http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S2296947.shtml

New Mexico’s largest solar plant opens in Carlsbad

Posted at: 09/22/2011 6:10 PM | Updated at: 09/22/2011 6:16 PM
By: Joe Bartels, KOB Eyewitness News 4

Carlsbad officials unveiled the largest solar power project in New Mexico on Thursday.

Three of the five solar power plants in Southeast New Mexico went online, feeding enough electricity over the next 20 years to power almost 200,000 homes.

Eddy and Lea counties added the additional energy source to their already impressive portfolio.

“We have, of course, nuclear, we have bio fuels being produced down here, a vibrant oil and gas industry that’s doing fantastic and now we have solar,” said John Waters of Eddy County Economic Development.

The 100 acres of photovoltaic panels will track the sun’s movement in the sky for the next 20 to 30 years.

It’s all part of a plan to create clean, renewable energy and jobs.

“What we have is a facility that employed people for a significant amount of time, and will continue to do so over the next 20 to 30 years,” said Robert Reichenberger, Sun Edison spokesperson. “These panels and this facility are expected to last that long so we will continue to need people on the jobsite to monitor the project.”

Out of the three power plants online, two of them are in Jal and one is in Carlsbad.

The two offline – in Eunice and Monument – are expected to be generating power by the end of 2011.

“It shows we’re ahead of the rest of the state in this type of energy production and we like to think of ourselves in Southeastern New Mexico, particularly Eddy County as being a major contributor to the energy industries across the country,” said Waters.

:}

Go there and watch the video. More tomorrow.

:}

Solar Power Plants In China – They are beating us like a broken drum

Posted on by
Reply

Because of the power of the coal industry and the oil industry, China is so far out in front of American that it is not even funny. It so pitiful that we let all of this happen under George Bush’s watch. He built the biggest wind farms in Texas and then dropped the ball at the Federal level. We never may actually be able to catch up.

http://www.sungrowpower.com/sungrow-english/product.php?page=6&menu=1&cate=1&case=1&item=16

Project name: Shilin 10 MW Model PV Power Plant Project of Yunnan Provincial Power Investment Co., Ltd.
Location: Shilin, Yunnan
Installation capacity: 4MW
Model: SG500KTL
Brief introduction: On May 25th, 2010, Kunming Shilin solar energy PV grid connected experimental model power plant with a designed installation capacity ranking the first in Asia had the first-stage project connect the grid officially. The model power plant has a gross installation capacity of 166 MW, which is invested and developed by Huaneng Group and Yunnan Provincial Power Investment Co., Ltd. Large grid connected inverters of Sungrow series independently developed by Sungrow Power Supply Co, Ltd have been used in this grid connection. These inverters have reached international advanced level in terms of reliability, conversion efficiency, power quality and other technical indexes and could satisfy the latest demand of State Grid. They have passed Golden Sun, CE, KEMA and other product certifications and have been successfully applied in many large PV power projects including Shanghai Expo, Dunhuang franchise bidding 20MW model power plant, Ningxia Sun Mountain, Ningxia Shizuishan, etc.
20 MW project in this grid connection uses large grid connected inverters of Sungrow series independently developed by Sungrow Power Supply Co, Ltd. These inverters have reached international advanced level in terms of reliability, conversion efficiency, power quality and other technical indexes and could satisfy the latest demand of State Grid. They have passed Golden Sun, CE, KEMA and other product certifications and have been successfully applied in many large PV power projects including Shanghai Expo, Dunhuang franchise bidding 20MW model power plant, Ningxia Sun Mountain, Ningxia Shizuishan, etc.

:}

Go there and check the whole site out. More tomorrow.

:}

Even In Botswana They Like Solar – Though this one is smaller than the first proposal

Posted on by
Reply

About 2 years earlier there is evidence in the literature that the Botswana government let bids for a 200 megawatt facility. So why this one is for a little over a meg., I got no idea. And there are no pretty pictures either.

http://www.botswanaguardian.co.bw/newsdetails.php?nid=3400&cat=BG%20News

Category Name BG News
News Name Solar plant boosts relations with Japan
Author BY LETTY MASUNGA
Date 17-02-2012

BG correspondent The P85 million 1.3MW Photovoltaic Power station in Phakalane will not only serve to diversify the country’s energy sources but also boost the country’s economic relations with Japan. The Japan-sponsored clean energy plant is expected to be complete in September this year. The plant is part of government’s investment in the energy sector. Speaking during a progress tour of the Power Station on Wednesday, Mineral and Water Affairs minister, Ponatshego Kedikilwe said: “This arrangement will not only boost our economic relations with Japan but will be beneficial in the diversification of energy sources,” as it will lessen the pressures of rampant energy shortage. Phillimon Dhafana, the Manager of the Planning and Projects in Rural business unit from Botswana Power Corporation, explained that the power plant would generate uncultivated solar power. Dhafana told the Botswana Guardian that, “our country experiences plenty of heat that these power plant will harness and convert to solar energy that will benefit the whole country.”

Dhafana said the difference between Morupule power station and this new project is that the solar power plant produces clean energy while the Morupule plant emits coal gases, which destroy the greenhouse. The power station is expected to be complete in September.

:}

More next week.

:}

Solar Powered Fruits And Vegetables – Two facilities in a row, that is amazing

Posted on by
Reply

Yep, it is true. This company has an incredible commitment to the environment or is it cheap power. Maybe it is both. Who cares? Lets hope it spreads.

http://www.pv-magazine.com/services/press-releases/details/beitrag/usa–34-mw-conergy-plants-for-largest-carrot-producer-worldwide_100007946/#axzz22Ox7OYNk

USA: 3.4 MW Conergy plants for largest carrot producer worldwide

31. July 2012 | By:  Conergy

Conergy is achieving additional successes in global solar growth markets. In the USA, the system supplier secured two major orders for three power plants with a first phase total capacity of 3.4 megawatts for the world’s largest carrot producer Grimmway Enterprises Inc.

Additional plants totaling 2.3 megawatts may follow at other Grimmway facilities in the future. In 2010, Conergy already helped Grimmway to produce ‘greener carrots’ by installing a 230 kilowatt plant in Arvin, California. At 3.4 megawatts, the new order is 14 times the size of the first Conergy power plant on the Grimmway farm.

30% of the power demand of the Grimmway farms covered by Conergy power plants

By the end of 2012, Conergy will have completed construction of the first three solar power plants with a total capacity of 3.4 megawatts on three carrot plantations in the Californian Central Valley, in Malaga, Bakersfield and Lamont. In a second phase, two other solar energy plants with a total capacity of 2.3 megawatts may follow at other Grimmway facilities. The 4,760 Conergy PM modules at the three power plants will be producing millions of kilowatt hours of clean power every year. This will allow the company to reduce its electricity costs, and it will cover 30% of the power demand at its carrot farms, including its 100% organic farm. In addition, the power plants will prevent the emission of more than 2,700 tonnes of damaging CO2. This makes for ‘greener carrots’ in two ways: through purely organic growing methods and through clean energy generation.

:}

Go there and read. More tomorrow

:}

Finally A Solar Facility In New Jersey – Well the plant is in New Jersey

Posted on by
Reply

The actual facility will be in Jordan but the panels, in the beginning, are made in New Jersey. Once their factory is up and running then America loses out. Now if America just got as serious about solar power plants as the folks in the middle east. Kind of ironic don’t you think?

http://www.solardaily.com/reports/Gigawatt_Scale_PV_Power_Project_Initiated_In_Jordan_999.html

Gigawatt-Scale PV Power Project Initiated In Jordan

by Staff Writers
Amman, Jordan (SPX) Dec 08, 2008

The Al-Husseini Group and Amelio Solar have announced a joint venture to bring large-scale photovoltaic energy production capacity to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in cooperation with the government and the national utility.

The joint venture has launched a multi-year project to construct a one-gigawatt (1GW) photovoltaic power generation plant in Jordan, including an integrated two hundred megawatt (200MW) thin-film photovoltaic module factory that will serve as a dedicated, low-cost source of Amelio Solar thin-film photovoltaic modules to supply the power plant.

The joint venture first will deploy and operate a factory in Jordan to produce thin-film amorphous silicon, CIGS (copper-indium-gallium-diselenide) and related hybrid photovoltaic modules using a manufacturing platform created and installed by Amelio Solar.

:}

Go there and read. More tomorrow.

:}

Over 900 Million People Without Power – 3 times the number of people in the US

Posted on by
Reply

I think somewhere the God’s are laughing at me. Really, I keep trying to post stories about large solar facilites and the news gets in the road. I mean this is actually a huge story. I can not remember a time that this many people who had electricity lost it.

http://www.startribune.com/business/164247506.html?refer=y

Power grids across northern and eastern India fail in massive, cascading blackout

Article by: RAVI NESSMAN , Associated Press

NEW DELHI – India’s energy crisis cascaded over half the country Tuesday when three of its regional grids collapsed, leaving more than 600 million people without government-supplied electricity in one of the world’s biggest-ever blackouts.

Hundreds of trains stalled across the country and traffic lights went out, causing widespread traffic jams in New Delhi. Electric crematoria stopped operating, some with bodies half burnt, power officials said.

The massive failure — a day after a similar, but smaller power failure — has raised serious concerns about India’s outdated infrastructure and the government’s inability to meet its huge appetite for energy as the country aspires to become a regional economic superpower.

Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde blamed the new collapse on states taking more than their allotted share of electricity.

“Everyone overdraws from the grid. Just this morning I held a meeting with power officials from the states and I gave directions that states that overdraw should be punished. We have given instructions that their power supply could be cut,” he told reporters.

The new power failure affected people across more than a dozen states — more than the entire population of the European Union. The blackout was unusual in its reach, although its impact was softened by Indians’ familiarity with frequent blackouts and the widespread of backup generators for major businesses.

:}

Go there and read. More tomorrow.

:}

Koch Brothers Mouthpiece Changes His Tune – So Global Warming is actually real

Posted on by
Reply

That is the bitch about science. Over time it is always right. The Catholic Church was very slow to get this. RJ Reynolds eventually got it but it cost it billions. All of the asbestos people eventually got it too. But the Koch Brothers were just gona prove them wrong. I do not know whether it is endemic  to capitalism but this “prove them wrong” phase is what the space exploration crowd is experiencing right now. Call it the Buck Rogers phenomena but private companies will fail to develop space much like Climate Change needed to stop 30 years ago.  30 years from now the space people are going to be wondering what happened to their dreams…if any of us are still left alive.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/29/koch-funded-climate-scientist-i-was-wrong-humans-are-to-blame/

Koch-funded climate scientist: I was wrong, humans are to blame

By Jonathan Terbush
Sunday, July 29, 2012 14:16 EDT

The founder and director of a climate change study project funded heavily by the Koch brothers, who last year reversed course and said he believed global warming was real, has gone one step further, writing in a weekend op-ed in the New York Times that he is now convinced the phenomenon is caused by humans.

In a piece titled, “The Conversion of a Climate-Change Skeptic,” Richard A. Muller, a University of California, Berkley physicist who founded the Berkley Earth Surface Temperature study (BEST) wrote that his, “total turnaround, in such a short time,” was driven by a new report from the group that concluded for the first time that global warming is a man-made problem. That revelation brings Muller essentially full circle from his stance a few years ago, when he criticized other global warming studies as flawed and questioned whether the Earth was even warming abnormally, dangerously fast at all.

“Science is that narrow realm of knowledge that, in principle, is universally accepted,” Muller wrote. “I embarked on this analysis to answer questions that, to my mind, had not been answered. I hope that the Berkeley Earth analysis will help settle the scientific debate regarding global warming and its human causes.”

The BEST study, he wrote, found that the Earth had warmed by about two and a half degrees over the past 250 years, with the bulk of that spike occurring in the past 50 years. Moreover, he found that, “essentially all of this increase” was likely due to greenhouse gas emissions, a point climate change believers have accepted as fact for years.

:}

Go there and crow. More tomorrow.

:}

Spanish Solar Facilities Are Cool – They claim the rain in Spain

Posted on by
Reply

falls mainly on the plain. But really it is the sun casting photons from afar that has the biggest impact.

http://www.solarserver.com/solar-magazine/solar-news/current/abengoa-solar-inaugurates-second-generation-high-temperature-solar-power-tower.html

Abengoa Solar inaugurates second-generation high-temperature solar power tower

Abengoa Solar’s (Seville, Spain) first high-temperature power tower, dubbed “Eureka,” was unveiled on June 19th, 2009 by Martín Soler Márquez, Director of Innovation, Science and Enterprise for the Andalusian Regional Government, the company reports in a press release. According to the press release, this power tower is intended to test a new type of receiver on an experimental basis and it is expected that the receiver can achieve the higher temperatures needed for higher-efficiency thermodynamic power cycles. The aim of this new technology is to increase plant performance, thereby reducing generating costs as well as the area of the solar field, Abengoa reports.

The new experimental plant occupies a 16,000-squarefoot portion of the Solúcar Platform and uses 35 heliostats and a 164-foot tower which houses the experimental superheating receiver. The capacity of the experimental plant which features a thermal energy storage system is estimated to be about 2 megawatts (MW).

Solúcar Platform solar thermal and PV installation complex to offset 185,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year.

:}

Go there and see the pretty picture. More next week.

:}

Large Solar Facilities In China – As the green clean wars heat up

Posted on by
Reply

 

I have included a picture here because it is a small one and the plant will not be operational until next year.

http://www.renewablesinternational.net/esolars-chinese-partner-makes-a-successful-bid-for-solar-thermal-project-in-fuxin-city/150/510/30493/

eSolar’s Chinese partner makes a successful bid for solar thermal project in Fuxin City

Just three months ago, California CSP manufacturer eSolar licesed its power tower technology to China’s Pengai Electric – the partnership has born fruit. The partnership has announced its second CSP project in northern China.

 - eSolar's Sierra SunTower in Lancaster, CA has been delivering power to the grid since mid-2009
eSolar’s Sierra SunTower in Lancaster, CA has been delivering power to the grid since mid-2009
Source: eSolar

Shandong Penglai Electric Power Equipment Manufacturing (SPEPEMC), the Chinese partner company of Pasadena power tower developer eSolar, signed a cooperation agreement in mid-March with the City of Fuxin, Liaoning Province to build the Fuxin Solar Thermal Power Project. Pengai Electric will build the plant in three phases. When complete the solar thermal power station will have a generation capacity of 300 MW. The Fuxin project is the second for Penglai Electric since the privately-owned power company signed a licensing agreement with California company eSolar last January. Under the terms of the agreement, the Chinese company comitted to building 2 GW of solar thermal power stations in China by 2021 using eSolar’s power-tower technology. The first plant slated for construction is a 92 MW CSP plant to be located at the 66-square-mile Yulin Energy Park in the Mongolian desert.

In eSolar’s power towers, flat mirrors focused on two recievers at the top of a tower heat water directly to produce steam and drive the plant’s turbine. The Chinese plants will combine the eSolar technology with biomass-fired power plants to produce electricity in poor weather conditions and after sundown.

:}

Go there and see. More tomorrow.

:}

I Keep Trying To Post Solar Facilities – But life gets in the way

Posted on by
Reply

I Keep trying to put posts about large solar facilities up here in one meditation, but then I see something really interesting and I want to post it before I forget it. In this case it is related however.

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/ngreene/first_us_tidal_power_project_l.html

Nathanael Greene’s Blog

First U.S. Tidal Power Project Readies for Launch in Maine

Posted July 24, 2012 in Solving Global Warming

The ocean is a tremendous bank of energy. Covering more than two-thirds of our planet, the amount of energy embodied in the ocean’s tides, currents, and waves, not to mention temperature and salinity gradients, could power the world—if we were able to commercialize the technology to harness its renewable power.

While technologies harnessing energy from tides and currents have been domestically discussed for decades, no project has ever reached commercial development, and been connected to the grid in the United States. In Eastport, Maine, however, that changed today that will change around mid-August with the launch of the Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC) TidGen Cobscook Bay tidal energy project. Harnessing the power of the massive tidal shifts in Cobscook Bay, an inlet connected to the much larger Bay of Fundy, the project is the first in the U.S. to receive a FERC license, negotiate a power purchase agreement, and install and operate a power-producing tidal generator.

As clean energy advocates, we are excited to highlight new, innovative projects that inject clean power and jobs into communities, deploy American ingenuity and know-how and utilize smart clean energy policies. The DOE invested $10 million in the project as part of its larger water power program that aims to better understand the environmental impacts that come with harnessing ocean energy, as well as refine, and make more cost-effective, the technologies that do so.

In addition to harnessing local sources of energy, the project apparently:

:}

Go there and read. Back to solar tomorrow I hope.

:}