The State of California has granted approval for a new solar thermal power plant. The 250-megawatt Beacon Solar Energy Project is the first solar thermal power plant to be licensed in the United States in nearly 20 years. Commercial operation is expected to start by the third quarter of 2011.

Several other solar projects are also in the pipeline and seeking approval by the end of the year, including the Brightsource 400 MW solar tower. More than 4 GW of other solar thermal projects are also pending with the state.

Beacon Solar will be an array of solar focusing parabolic troughs spread over a 2,012 acre site in Kern County, California. The approval process required a solution to local residents' objections to the great amount of water the project would require. The final agreement will have the project use recycled water from a nearby community instead of drawing directly from the local aquifer. The project expects to use nearly 1600 acre feet (1.97 million cubic meters) of water annually.

The state of California has mandated that 20% of its electrical power come from renewables by 2010. While it does not look like that target is going to be met, the approval of several hundred megawatts of solar thermal power will help get the state closer to that goal.

Wind energy, which accounted for 39% of all new U.S. electric generating capacity last year, could provide 20% of the nation’s electricity by 2030 if growth trends continue for wind power installations, according to a recent study. On the down side, siting, planning and cost allocation issues remain “key barriers” to transmission investment, the study says.

It may be possible to reach the U.S. government’s goal of producing 20% of the nation’s electricity from wind energy by 2030, but the production goal it is not a shoe-in, says a recent report.  

To reach the 20% goal, installations would have to ramp up to 16 gigawatts per year by 2017 and maintain that rate for a decade, states the 88-page 2009 Wind Technologies Market Report, released this month by the U.S. Dept. of Energy.

Wind power additions in 2009 shattered old records, with roughly 10 GW of new capacity added in the U.S. and $21 billion invested. At the end of last year, cumulative wind power capacity in the U.S. stood at more than 35,000 MW, says the study, which was prepared by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, Calif.

But several forecasts suggest that wind power installations this year may range from 5,500 MW to 8,000 MW, a drop of 20% to 45% from the nearly 10,000 MW installed last year, say the report’s primary authors, Ryan Wiser, a Berkeley Lab staff research scientist, and his colleague Mark Bolinger, a research scientist.

Still, an enormous amount of wind power is under consideration. “The federal policy landscape is now more favorable to wind energy than at any other time in the past decade,” states the report, which is available at http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/ems/re-pubs.html.

At the end of last year, there were some 300 GW of wind power within the transmission interconnection systems administered by independent system operators, regional transmission organizations and utilities, say the authors. The capacity represents about 60% of all electrical power generating capacity within the queues at that time. Most of the wind farms are planned for the Midwest, Northwest, Southwest and Mountain regions, and Texas.

After four years of leading the world in annual wind-power-capacity additions, the U.S. dropped to second place last year, behind China. The U.S. has 26% of the world market; China, with 25,853 MW, has 36%. Germany, with 25,813 MW of capacity, ranks third, says the research.

The news isn’t all good. The authors report the financial crisis, lower wholesale electricity prices and lower demand for renewable energy have taken a toll on the wind power sector. Last year, orders for new turbines slowed and turbine and component manufacturers announced staff reductions.

“With federal incentives extended through 2012, there is less motivation to complete projects” this year, say the authors. But because of a deadline to start construction this year—for developers to qualify for a 30% grant from the U.S. Treasury Dept.—the authors expect many projects to start up this year.

An earlier report by DOE, called the 20% Wind Energy by 2030 Report, which is available at http://www.20percentwind.org/20p.aspx?page=Report, outlines the details of power infrastructure that must be put in place each year for the U.S. to meet DOE¹s 20% goal for wind power by 2030. Growth from 2006-2009 and projections through 2012 indicate reaching the goal is possible, but it is not predetermined, say Wiser and Bolinger.

Scientists at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters have designed a new fuel cell inspired by the brochial structure of the lungs.  The new design requires less of the expensive platinum catalyst while also boosting efficiency. The fuel cell features channels modeled after brochial tubes that supply hydrogen and oxygen to their respective electrodes.  This system spreads the gases more uniformly across the electrodes, which boosts the cell's efficiency and creates greater surface area so that less platinum is required.

Hydrogen fuel cells are still too cost prohibitive (among other things) for mass production and a lot of that has to do with the platinum catalyst.  This design is pretty exciting because it would lower the cost of the fuel cell while also boosting output.  That's a win-win.

via Engadget

A Colorado company is introducing a system that will allow wind turbines to generate power even when the wind is not blowing. The SmartGen hybrid gas-wind turbine enables wind turbines to produce energy at periods of low wind, by turning the turbine with compressed air generated at the base of the tower from a turbo-compressor that is run on natural gas or biogas.

Even more importantly, the SmartGen system can be retrofitted into existing wind turbines, allowing existing facilities to increase their performance. This is likely to be particularly compelling for installations seeking to extend their production while remaining free of fossil fuels. In areas where biogas production is also available nearby, a wind power facility that is generating renewable energy credits could likely also produce power from biogas in this manner as another form of renewable power and thereby remain 100% renewable energy based.

A smart clutch disengages the wind blades from the machinery when the compressor is engaged. The company also notes that the exhausted air from the air motor cools dramatically when it is released, which can help provide cooling for the generator nacelle and may even help prevent fires in the housing.

"Large wind turbines, even in good wind resource areas, typically generate rated power only 30% of the time because the wind blows intermittently or at a low wind velocity," according to the company. Utilizing other fuels to keep the turbines generating power means that the system better employs the investment in equipment, instead of having it sit idle for much of the time.

via: North American Windpower

Horizon Power’s Pippunyah Solar Diesel Power Station has officially been unveiled in the eastern Pilbara region of Western Australia. The plant, which is being claimed to be the world’s first hybrid solar power plant, incorporates 1350 SunPower Solar Panels that track the sun and produce 1160KW of renewable electric power.

It is expected that the plant will provide up to 89 percent of the town’s electricity needs during peak periods in summer. The hybrid power plant will also help save 1119 tons of GHG emissions each year and save between 35-40 percent diesel consumption. The power plant incorporates a single axis tracking system, which is combined with the latest diesel technology. Energy generated by the plant is stored in an innovative flywheel energy storage system.

Image Courtesy: Flickr [Under a Creative Commons License]

Via: Energy Matters