| Nearly 200,000 GW of Solar Possible for United States, Finds New Study
Posted: 29 Jul 2012 02:47 PM PDT via CleanTechnica The report is titled, U.S. Renewable Energy Technical Potentials: A GIS-Based Analysis. In Table 1, it provides a number of very interesting figures. Chiefly, that it is rural utility-scale solar that could be dominant in the future, with 153,000 GW of potential. Texas accounts for about 14% of all the rural solar potential for the whole country. It also has about 20% of all the concentrated solar power potential for the nation. So, it appears this single, huge state could have a very bright future in terms of solar power development, and therefore in economic growth as well. Typically, Texas is thought of mainly for oil and cattle, but sometime in the not so distant future, it might become a clean energy powerhouse. (These kinds of very large infrastructure changes have been speculated to have significant cultural implications. For example, the construction of a huge, underground sewer system in Victorian London was said by at least one scholar to have social psychological implications, and at the very least was a part of a different perception of public hygiene and public health.) The same type of PV, in urban areas, they found to have a potential of 1,200 GW. Rooftop PV potential they rated at 664 GW. Offshore wind was 4,200 GW, and enhanced geothermal was GW 4,000. It was concentrated solar power, at 38,000 MW, that was in second place to rural utility-scale solar’s dominance. It will be fascinating to see if the development of renewable energy in rural areas, where the potential is tremendous, will change the cultural views of some of the people there. For example, recently, a relative and friend of hers, who is an Iowa farmer, picked me up at the airport in a new Hybrid Prius to drive us back to a tiny farming community. If some of these rural areas become the “energy basket,” so to speak, of America, will they be perceived in a more esteemed way by people living in large cities and on the coasts, who might tend to use words like ‘redneck’? Often, these renewable energy news stories contain technical specifications and cost information, which is useful, but what about some of the cultural implications of the transition away from fossil fuels? Every state in the US has notable solar power potential, according to the study. Image Credit: Larry D. Moore CC BY-SA 3.0.
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Top 10 Cleantech Stories for 2011
These are excerpts from CleanTechnica’s Zachary Shahan 2011.12.30
1. 40% drop in cost of solar. This tremendous drop in the cost of solar was, to say the least, massively influential. It helped tons of people and businesses to go solar for less, increased work for numerous solar installers, and helped to put some companies out of business who were working on alternatives to traditional solar PV. The full ramifications are still unclear, but recent reports have shown that solar is now at grid parity in some places (even without proper accounting of the health, environmental, and grid security cost of coal, nuclear, and natural gas). This has also led to some solar thermal power plants switching to solar PV, as well as an ongoing solar trade dispute between Chinese, U.S., and German solar companies.
2. Wind energy driving down the price of electricity. We’ve written several stories this year on how cheap wind energy is driving down the price of electricity. This is happening in the U.S. and around the world. As noted just earlier today and earlier this month, 80% of the power contracts in Brazil’s latest energy auction went to wind energy, and this follows an announcement earlier this year that wind is cheaper than natural gas there and an announcement that the country would be focusing on wind energy in its 10-year energy plan.
3. The Solyndra non-scandal. One business hit hard by the drop in PV costs, as well as other factors, was the now infamous Solyndra. But the real scandal in this story was not anything on Solyndra or the U.S. government’s side, but the way certain politicians and members of the media used a single company failure (partly related to the success of other solar industry players) to demonize the solar industry and a wildly successful U.S. government loan guarantee program. Using this bankruptcy to do the bidding of the fossil fuel industry, these politicians ad media have put a huge dent in one of the most popular things (and the most popular energy option) in the the country.
4. Solar energy industries employ a ton of people. Sort of as an addendum to the above, the U.S. solar industry, the German solar energy industry, and other solar energy industries around the world are now a significant source of jobs for hundreds of thousands of people. The U.S. solar energy industry and the German solar photovoltaic industry each employ over 100,000 people. For comparison, the U.S. iron and steel industries employ about 84,000, in total.
5. Google & Facebook going clean. Google invested a tremendous amount of money in clean energy in 2011, continuing several large 2010 investments. In total, Google invested nearly one billion ($1,000,000,000) in clean energy in 2011. With a ton of pressure from Greenpeace and about a million people (including all those who set a world record for Facebook comments on a single page in one day — over 100,000), Facebook has finally decided to go the renewable energy route.
6. Electric vehicles (EVs) and EV charging stations roll out. 2011 saw a big roll out of electric vehicles of all sorts and EV charging stations of all sorts. I feel like I saw news about new vehicles or installations every day this year. But we’ve still got a looooong way to go. Only about 20,000 Nissan Leafs and fewer than 10,000 Chevy Volts were sold globally in 2011.
7. Lack of strong federal clean energy policy. No one was expecting it, of course, given the completely dirty Congress we have today, but this is still a top story of the year I think. While Australia, China, the EU, and South American countries move forward with strong clean energy policies, the U.S. is stuck in a paralysis of sorts, or is being held hostage by the rich and powerful fossil fuel industry and their minions in Congress. Unfortunately, attacks also seem to be picking up on the state level, which means that we clean energy advocates really need to step up our game in 2012!
8. Wind penetration hitting record levels in U.S. and abroad. As noted in AWEA’s 2011 wrap-up post, wind penetration has risen above 20%, overall, in two U.S. states now and broke 50% (hit 55.6%) wind penetration at one time in Colorado. Additionally, wind helped to keep the lights on in Texas earlier this year when over 50 power plants went offline due to extreme weather. What’s that about reliability?….
9. Fukushima. Yeah, this should have been high up. While the nuclear industry really can’t compete with cheaper energy options anyway (without tremendous government subsidies), the Fukushima disasters that went on for months (and, truthfully, are still ongoing) have effectively put the nail in the coffin of the so-called ‘nuclear renaissance’. The public backlash against nuclear has been strong and worldwide, with countries such as Germany, Switzerland, and Belgium decided to ditch nuclear 100%, and even the nuclear-leading French “thumbing their nose” at the technology.
10. Better Buildings Initiative. The Obama administration and former president Bill Clinton, sidestepping a less-than-cooperative Congress, found a way to promote energy efficiency BIG TIME with the Better Buildings Initiative this year. The initiative includes $2 billion of U.S. government investments in energy efficiency retrofits of federal buildings and another $2 billion or so of investments from the private sector in such projects.”Businesses are projected to save a total of about $40 billion a year from the energy savings from this initiative.” The U.S. government would save a similar amount. And tens of thousands of jobs will be created in the hard-hit building sector.
Bonus: geothermal getting some attention. Geothermal energy, a cheap clean energy option, is getting more and more attention. And, a landmark study funded by Google found that there’s enough geothermal potential in the U.S. to power… the entire U.S.! Of course, it will never power the whole country, but the potential for geothermal growth is tremendous.
Image Credits: Wind turbines via shutterstock; Solyndra sign screenshot of energyNOW! video; Solar panels image via shutterstock; Google Going Solar photo via H2SO4; EV charger via OregonDOT; Congress approval rating chart by Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO); Wind turbines from side via shutterstock; UK nuclear activists via Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament; Better Buildings images via the White House; U.S. geothermal map modified from image courtesy of SMU Geothermal Laboratory / Google Earth.
Source: Clean Technica (http://s.tt/152vB)
EIA Report: Renewables Surpass Nuclear!
Washington, D.C., United States – According to the most recent issue of the “Monthly Energy Review” by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), renewable energy has passed a milestone as domestic production is now greater than that of nuclear power and is closing in on oil.
During the first quarter of 2011, renewable energy sources (biomass/biofuels, geothermal, solar, water, wind) provided 2.245 quadrillion Btus of energy or 11.73 percent of U.S. energy production. More significantly, energy production from renewable energy sources in 2011 was 5.65 percent more than that from nuclear power, which provided 2.125 quadrillion Btus and has remained largely unchanged in recent years. Energy from renewable sources is now 77.15 percent of that from domestic crude oil production, with the gap closing rapidly.
Looking at all energy sectors (e.g., electricity, transportation, thermal), production of renewable energy, including hydropower, has increased by 15.07 percent compared to the first quarter of 2010, and by 25.07 percent when compared to the first quarter of 2009. Among the renewable energy sources, biomass/biofuels accounted for 48.06 percent, hydropower for 35.41 percent, wind for 12.87 percent, geothermal for 2.45 percent, and solar for 1.16 percent.
Looking at just the electricity sector, according to the latest issue of EIA’s “Electric Power Monthly,” for the first quarter of 2011, renewable energy sources (biomass, geothermal, solar, water, wind) accounted for 12.94 percent of net U.S. electrical generation — up from 10.31 percent during the same period in 2010. Non-hydro renewables accounted for 4.74 percent of net U.S. electrical generation.
In terms of actual production, renewable electrical output increased by 25.82 percent in the first three months of 2011 compared to the first quarter of 2010. Solar-generated electricity increased by 104.8 percent, wind-generated electricity rose by 40.3 percent, hydropower output expanded by 28.7 percent, and geothermal electrical generation rose by 5.8 percent. Only electricity from biomass sources dropped — by 4.8 percent. By comparison, natural gas electrical output rose by 1.8 percent and nuclear-generated electricity increased by only 0.4 percent while coal-generated electricity dropped by 5.7 percent.
US Recovery Act Savings Jobs …
On Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 Vice President Joe Biden and the Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) Chair Christina Romer released CEA’s new fourth quarterly report on the economic and job creation impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
Clean energy investments are an important element of ARRA, and provide over $90 billion in “government investment and tax incentives to lay the foundation for the clean energy economy of the future,” much of which is in these key areas:
$29 billion for Energy Efficiency, including $5 billion to pay for energy efficiency retrofits in low-income homes;
$21 billion for Renewable Generation, such as the installation of wind turbines and solar panels;
$10 billion for Grid Modernization to develop the so-called “smart grid” that will involve sophisticated electric meters, high-tech electricity distribution and transmission grid censors, and energy storage;
$6 billion to support domestic manufacturing of advanced batteries and other components of Advanced Vehicles and Fuels Technologies;
$18 billion for Traditional Transit and High-Speed Rail;
$3 billion to fund crucial research, development, and demonstration of Carbon Capture and Sequestration technologies;
$3 billion for Green Innovation and Job Training to invest in the science, technology, and workforce needed for a clean energy economy;
about $2 billion in Clean Energy Equipment Manufacturing tax credits.
Clean tech VC investment bounces back to record levels
BusinessGreen 01 Jul 2010
Venture capital investment in clean tech firms during the first half of the year has bounced back to record levels, climbing 65 per cent year on year to more than $4bn (£2.6bn). According to new preliminary figures from analyst Cleantech Group and consultancy Deloitte, venture capital clean tech investment across North America, Europe, China and India narrowly beat the previous record of $4.02bn set in the first half of 2008, reaching $4.04bn. The record was set after the second quarter of the year repeated the success of the first three months of the year, with total investments reaching $2.04bn, an improvement of 43 per cent on the second quarter of last year. “In spite of the persistence of wider concerns about the strength and sustainability of the global recovery, the strong flow of investment dollars to clean tech growth companies has continued in 2Q10, with clean tech venture investment in the first half of 2010 edging slightly ahead of the record total recorded during the first half of 2008,” said Richard Youngman, head of global research at the Cleantech Group. He attributed the strong performance to the resurgence of investor interest in solar firms and a high volume of follow-on rounds, including a number of ” blockbuster deals”. However, he also offered a note of caution for the market, arguing that the large sums invested in follow-on investment rounds was partly a response to the “lacklustre and unpredictable state of the cleantech IPO market”, which has seen companies such as Goldwind and Solyndra withdraw IPO plans while Tesla defied expectations with a stellar public listing this week. The report said the investment arms of multinational firms were also playing a growing role in the market, with Intel Capital, GE Capital, Shell, Alstom and Cargill Ventures all involved in the second quarter’s top 10 deals. It added that utility companies were similarly increasing investments in low-carbon infrastructure, with the amount of renewable energy acquired through power purchasing agreements more than doubling during the first half of the year. “The significant strengthening of corporate and utility investment into the clean tech sector, relative to 2009, is very encouraging, given the key role they will play in enabling broader adoption of clean technologies at scale,” said Scott Smith, Deloitte’s clean tech leader in the US. “Major US utilities are increasing direct investments in wind and solar due to improving cost scenarios, favorable tax credits and incentives, and evolving pressure to meet renewable portfolio standards. Meanwhile, the largest global companies are seeing the business case for operational clean tech integration, leading to record corporate investment.” He added that the uptick in investment was being driven by solid business factors such as the desire to “improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions in order to reduce operational costs, mitigate energy price volatility risk, drive sustainable growth and comply with existing and pending regulations around carbon and climate change risk disclosure”. According to the preliminary figures, the solar sector continue to dominate the market, pulling in $811m in venture capital investments during the second quarter, while biofuels took second place with $302m and smart grid firms completed the top three, attracting $256m. On a regional level the US remained entrenched as the leading clean tech venture capital market, accounting for 72 per cent of all investment. In contrast, Europe and Israel accounted for 24 per cent of investment, India three per cent and China just two per cent. Permalink: http://www.businessgreen.com/2265817
What happened in Durban? More of the same …
Climate Change remains a very serious threat to our planet! Our world leaders failed to agree on mandatory reductions of dangerous greenhouse gases (GHG) in Copenhagen in December, 2009. What will the world decide to come after Kyoto Protocol in 2012. We need to stimulate growth in our world economy within a “low carbon, green growth” framework quickly before global temperatures rise further!~ We are now in 2012 and the Climate Change meetings in Durban, South Africa failed to come up with a new framework … only to push the deadline out further. China and the US emit more than 50% of the world’s GHG but they have not committed to reducing their emissions!! And, scientists keep warning us that we will soon enter into a stage of irreparable damage to the planet. What are we waiting for??
Here are some facts:
6.5 billion is the population of the world placing more and more stress on the earth’s precious and depletable resources
28 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent (greenhouse gas emissions) in 2005 were emitted in the world. China, U.S., India, Brazil, South Korea being among the top 10 emitters in the world.
20-30% reduction in GHG emissions by 2020 sought by the Kyoto Protocol member states, primarily the EU countries. Will this be enough?
80% reduction in GHG emissions by 2050 sought by the G8 nations. Will this be enough? Compare this to 80% reduction in GHG emissions by 2020 strongly urged by Dr. Lester Brown’s Earth Policy Institute or else we may have irreparable damage to our Planet!
40% of greenhouse gas emissions are from real estate. 50% reduction of GHG in the real estate industry by 2010 is targeted by the American Institute of Architects and carbon neutral buildings by 2030.
