Category Archives: water efficiency

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

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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.

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Go there and read. More tomorrow.

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

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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.

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Go there and see. More tomorrow.

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

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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:

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

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I Love The Way Large Solar Facilities Look From The Sky – This one is kinda square

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This was proposed in 2009 so I imagine it is operational by now. I found this amazing document that I need to look at more, but it is a listing of all the large solar facilities maybe in the world? Anyway if you want to see cool photos go to the site because pictures are a pain.

http://www.energy.ca.gov/sitingcases/abengoa/

General Description of Project

On August 10, 2009, Abengoa Solar Inc., the sole member of Mojave Solar LLC, filed an Application For Certification (AFC) for its Abengoa Mojave Solar Project. The proposed project is a nominal 250 megawatt (MW) solar electric generating facility to be located near Harper Dry Lake in an unincorporated area of San Bernardino County. The project would be located approximately halfway between Barstow, CA and Kramer Junction, CA, and is approximately nine miles northwest of Hinkley, CA.

The project will implement well-established parabolic trough technology to solar heat a heat transfer fluid (HTF). This hot HTF will generate steam in solar steam generators, which will expand through a steam turbine generator to produce electrical power from twin, independently-operable solar fields, each feeding a 125-MW power island. The sun will provide 100 percent of the power supplied to the project through solar-thermal collectors; no supplementary fossil-based energy source (like natural gas) is proposed for electrical power production.

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Go there and read. More tomorrow.

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OK Back To The Solar Installments Around The World – Just a brief stop Friday

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Now that we know that humans are going to be in pretty bad shape because of climate change, let’s go back to the meditation on what could have saved us if we would have started building them sooner. Large Solar Power Plants. I am not posting any pretty pictures, just the test.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39836641/ns/us_news-environment/t/worlds-largest-solar-plant-gets-us-ok/#.UA2duaCkNyU

World’s largest solar plant gets U.S. OK

$6 billion project in Calif. aims to power at least 300,000 homes

msnbc.com staff and news service reports

updated 10/25/2010 6:07:03 PM ET

WASHINGTON — Calling it a major milestone, the Obama administration on Monday approved what investors say will be the world’s largest concentrated solar power plant and one that more than doubles all of U.S. solar output and can power at least 300,000 homes.

The project in the Mojave Desert near Blythe, Calif., is the sixth solar venture authorized on federal lands within the last month. All are in desert areas.

“The Blythe Solar Power Project is a major milestone in our nation’s renewable energy economy and shows that the United States intends to compete and lead in the technologies of the future,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in announcing the approval.

Construction on the $6 billion plant is expected to start by the end of 2010, with production starting in 2013. Developer Solar Millennium, a company based in Germany, says the plant will generate 1,066 construction jobs and 295 permanent jobs.

The project had run into opposition by some environmentalists due to wildlife concerns.

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Go there see the pictures and read. More tomorrow.

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This Is The Start Of A Solar Power Meditation – Harvesting the power of the sun

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This is just such a beautiful installation. It takes up too much bandwidth to show pictures but here is a written description.

http://www.torresolenergy.com/TORRESOL/gemasolar-plant/en

Gemasolar is the first commercial-scale plant in the world to apply central tower receiver and molten salt heat storage technology. The relevance of this plant lies in its technological uniqueness, since it opens up the way for new thermosolar electrical generation technology.

Characteristics of Gemasolar:

  • Rated electrical power: 19.9 MW
  • Net electrical production expected: 110 GWh/year
  • Solar field: 2,650 heliostats on 185 hectares
  • Heat storage system: the molten salt storage tank permits independent electrical generation for up to 15 hours without any solar feed.

The prolongation of the plant’s operating time in the absence of solar radiation and the improvement in efficiency of the use of the heat from the sun makes Gemasolar’s output much higher than that which is delivered by other technologies in a facility with the same power.

The notable increase in the plant’s power efficiency guarantees electrical production for 6,500 hours a year, 1.5 to 3 times more than other renewable energies. The plant will thus supply clean, safe power to 25,000 homes and reduce atmospheric CO2 emissions by more than 30,000 tons a year.

The power generated by Gemasolar will be sent through a high-tension line to the substation of Villanueva del Rey (Andalusia, Spain), where it will be injected into the grid.

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Go there, read and see the pretty pictures. More tomorrow.

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When The Oil Runs Out – Capitalism goes down with it

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People are always playing out this dystopian vision of what the world will look like if there is a sharp break in the availability of fossil fuels. Most people imagine guys with guns will control their chunk of the world and abuse everyone in it for the own good. Or that we will break into semi-dead towns and farm life like 200 years ago. But, I usually say, what if it is slower than that and what if people cooperate instead of foolishly compete. Then life might look like this, which sounds kinda fun.

http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/07/ithaca-ecovillage-forges-a-path-to-sustainable-living/

Ithaca Ecovillage Forges a Path to Sustainable Living

By Coralie Tripier

ITHACA, New York, Jul 16 2012 (IPS) – Ecovillage at Ithaca (EVI), located in the beautiful Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, is an intentional community of 160 people striving for greater sustainability, a better quality of life, and perhaps even a new model for urban planners the world over.

Enjoying breathtaking surroundings, residents wander around the village on pedestrian-only streets, swim in the pond, share meals in the common house, and spend a small amount of their time working together for their community.

EVI’s residents have to volunteer for two hours every week in one of the six work teams – the cooking team, the dishwashing team, the common house cleanup team, the outdoor maintenance team, the regular maintenance team, or the finance team.

“If you had a house, you would have to do that anyway, so why not do it for the broader community and make friends at the same time,” Ashley Click, a young mother and new resident at EVI, told IPS.

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Go there and read about a grand life. More tomorrow.

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Is Tidal Energy Coming – According to this the answer is yes

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Tapping The Source: The Power Of The Oceans

Posted by Big Gav in , , , , , ,

Last year I came across the story of Dutch company Kema and their energy island idea – basically a variant on the usual pumped hydro energy storage concept where water is pumped out of a space below sea level then allowed to flow back in, generating power as it does. The “island” uses wind power to pump water out of the enclosed area. An obvious extension to this idea would be to harness ocean energy as well – letting wave and/or tidal power supplement the output of the wind turbines. An attraction of this concept is that it potentially allows a large amount of new energy storage to be brought online – and this storage would be along the world’s coastlines, where most of the population lives.


Another form of energy island has been in the news recently, this one a substantially more ambitious proposal which envisions artificial islands to collect wind, wave, ocean current and solar power in the tropics, along with a more unusual energy source – harnessing the difference in water temperatures between the warm surface and the cold depths using a technique called OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion). These islands are being proposed by architects Dominic Michaelis and his son Alex Michaelin as a response to Richard Branson’s Virgin Earth Challenge, which offers $25 million in prizes for innovative solutions for combating global warming.

While the practicality of these particular proposals has yet to be put to the test, the various forms of ocean power are probably the most overlooked of the big 6 renewable energy sources (along with solar, wind, geothermal, biomass and hydro).

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Go there and read. More next week.

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2013 Is The Time For The Solar Decathlon – If I was in college I would be there

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Most colleges could stand to turn the energy spotlight on themselves. The University of Illinois for instance is still using a coal fired boiler from the 50s. Still this is a step in the right direction.

http://www.livescience.com/20710-solar-decathlon-nsf-bts.html

Planned For Solar Decathlon 2013

Monica Kanojia , National Science Foundation
Date: 01 June 2012 Time: 05:24 PM ET

This Behind the Scenes article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation.

Every two years, the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon encourages competing collegiate teams to design energy-efficient homes that use solar energy.

Launched in 2002, the Solar Decathlon is both an educational and workforce-development program. The competition enlists nearly two dozen teams of students, from various academic backgrounds, who design sustainable homes from the ground up, engineering them with materials provided by major corporate sponsors.

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More tomorrow.

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Solar Power In The Mohave Desert – What a great use of a resource

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It doesn’t hurt that they got an environmental award as well. This the way it should be done.

http://www.brightsourceenergy.com/the-ivanpah-solar-project-named-2012-energy-project-of-the-year

The Ivanpah Solar Project Named 2012 Energy Project of the Year

April 24, 2012

Project recognized for its innovative approach, job creation and scale of clean energy production

(LOS ANGELES, Calif.) April 24, 2012 – NRG Energy, Google, BrightSource Energy and EPC partner Bechtel announced that the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (Ivanpah SEGS) received the 2012 Energy Project of the Year Award by the USC CMAA Green Symposium. Ivanpah SEGS in California’s Mojave Desert is currently the world’s largest concentrating solar power (CSP) plant under construction. When completed, it will nearly double the amount of solar thermal electricity produced in the US.

“The sheer magnitude of the Ivanpah project is reinforcing California’s position as the leader of renewable energy in the United States,” said Caroline Fletcher, USC Green Symposium Co-Chair. “The project has demonstrated an innovative approach to partnerships and is significantly contributing to job creation in the region. We’re very pleased to honor this important project with our 2012 Energy Project of the Year Award.”

“Ivanpah is a flagship project, widely recognized for its environmentally-responsible design, and lauded for its role in helping to grow Southern California’s High Desert economy,” said Joe Desmond, SVP of Government Relations and Communications, BrightSource Energy. “We look forward to completing this important solar power facility and help California meet its economic and clean energy goals.”

“We are pleased to be a part of this award-winning project. The innovation applied to the engineering and construction of Ivanpah will help advance the renewable energy industry and make solar energy a viable option for more people,” said Jim Ivany, president of renewable power at Bechtel.

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Go there and read. More tomorrow.

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