California Solar Startups Might Get Help in Unlikely Places

SAN FRANCISCO — California’s solar power market and its startups stand to gain from utilities making a direct play into renewable energy development, a prominent industry representative said in an interview yesterday.

Sue Kateley, executive director of the California Solar Energy Industries Association, said she welcomes Pacific Gas & Electric Co.’s decision this week to launch a five-year effort to build and own solar-run power plants totaling 250 megawatts. The deal, she said, is a sign that the state’s installers, distributors and manufacturers could find enough work to weather the economic downturn.

“It’s a win-win on either side,” said Kateley, who represents solar companies all along the supply chain.

San Francisco-based PG&E has backed its ownership plans with a second track under which the utility intends to help finance another 250 MW of development. PG&E CEO Peter Darbee said the company expects to spend $1.4 billion to see the entire 500 MW online by 2015.

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California Governor Schwarzenegger’s Green Challenge

California Governor Says He’ll Stick To Environmental Plans, Despite Economic Crisis

President-elect Obama is 30 days from office. For a window on his future, turn west for a moment to a chief executive who is already up to his neck in the nation’s troubles.

This month, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger warned of financial Armageddon, as California faced a potential $40 billion deficit that threatened jobs, roads, schools and public safety. At the same time, he’s pushing some of the world’s toughest environmental laws to make California a leader on climate change.

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California Utilities Commission Approves Disputed Sunrise Powerlink Solar Power Line

The first skirmish in what promises to be a war of attrition between groups that want maximum supplies of renewable energy and groups that want maximum protections for landscapes and endangered wildlife ended Thursday when the California Public Utilities Commission, in a 4-to-1 vote, approved a 123-mile, $1.9 billion power line from El Centro to northwestern San Diego.

The line from the desert sands of the Imperial Valley would bring in enough energy - wind and solar energy, the commission expects - to power more than half a million homes and businesses in San Diego.

The Sunrise Powerlink Transmission Project proposed by San Diego Gas and Electric Co. provoked anger among local environmental groups, which were successful in persuading the commission not to allow the line to run through the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

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BrightSource Energy Signs Contract With Siemens for Largest Ever Fully Solar-Powered Steam Turbine Generator

Turbine Generator to Be Operated at BrightSource’s Ivanpah Solar Power Complex

OAKLAND, Calif., Dec 09, 2008 — BrightSource Energy, Inc., developer of large-scale solar thermal energy plants, has signed a contract with Siemens to purchase the steam turbine generator for BrightSource’s first 100MW plant at its Ivanpah Solar Power Complex in California’s Mojave Desert. The purchase marks another key step in BrightSource Energy’s path to construct the state’s first large-scale solar thermal power plant in nearly thirty years.

The contract with Siemens is for the supply of a 123 MW fully solar-powered steam turbine generator. When completed, the turbine is expected to be the largest fully solar-powered steam turbine generator to date.

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The Energy Debates: Solar Farms

The Facts

The amount of energy from the sun that falls on Earth is staggering. Averaged over the entire surface of the planet, roughly each square yard collects nearly as much energy each year as you’d get from burning a barrel of oil. Solar farms seek to harness this energy for megawatts of power.

There are two ways solar power is used to generate electricity. Solar thermal plants - also known as concentrating solar power systems - focus sunlight with mirrors, heating water and producing steam that drives electric turbines, while photovoltaic cells directly convert sunlight to electricity.

Altogether, solar currently makes up less than 1 percent of U.S. energy, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. The nation now has just two large-scale solar thermal systems - one 354-megawatt set of facilities has run continuously in the Mojave Desert in California for about 20 years, and another 64-megawatt plant came online in Nevada last year. When it comes to solar photovoltaics, the largest system in the nation so far is the 14-megawatt plant at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.

However, more solar farms are rapidly under construction. Utilities in California and Florida have announced plans for at least eight new solar thermal power stations totaling more than 2,000 megawatts, while two photovoltaic projects are currently under development in California that would bring a total of 800 megawatts of power.

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Turning Glare Into Watts

BOULDER CITY, Nev. - At first, as he adjusted pumps and checked temperatures, Aaron Boucher looked like any technician in the control room of an electrical plant. Then he rushed to the window and scanned the sky, to check his fuel supply.

Mr. Boucher was battling clouds, timing the operations of his power plant to get the most out of patchy sunshine. It is a skill that may soon be in greater demand, for the world appears to be on the verge of a boom in a little-known but promising type of solar power.

It is not the kind that features shiny panels bolted to the roofs of houses. This type involves covering acres of desert with mirrors that focus intense sunlight on a fluid, heating it enough to make steam. The steam turns a turbine and generates electricity.

The technology is not new, but it is suddenly in high demand. As prices rise for fossil fuels and worries grow about their contribution to global warming, solar thermal plants are being viewed as a renewable power source with huge potential.

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