NewEnergyNews: ANOTHER LOOK AT SPACE BASED SOLAR/

NewEnergyNews

Gleanings from the web and the world, condensed for convenience, illustrated for enlightenment, arranged for impact...

The challenge now: To make every day Earth Day.

YESTERDAY

THINGS-TO-THINK-ABOUT WEDNESDAY, August 23:

  • TTTA Wednesday-ORIGINAL REPORTING: The IRA And The New Energy Boom
  • TTTA Wednesday-ORIGINAL REPORTING: The IRA And the EV Revolution
  • THE DAY BEFORE

  • Weekend Video: Coming Ocean Current Collapse Could Up Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: Impacts Of The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current Collapse
  • Weekend Video: More Facts On The AMOC
  • THE DAY BEFORE THE DAY BEFORE

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 15-16:

  • Weekend Video: The Truth About China And The Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: Florida Insurance At The Climate Crisis Storm’s Eye
  • Weekend Video: The 9-1-1 On Rooftop Solar
  • THE DAY BEFORE THAT

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 8-9:

  • Weekend Video: Bill Nye Science Guy On The Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: The Changes Causing The Crisis
  • Weekend Video: A “Massive Global Solar Boom” Now
  • THE LAST DAY UP HERE

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 1-2:

  • The Global New Energy Boom Accelerates
  • Ukraine Faces The Climate Crisis While Fighting To Survive
  • Texas Heat And Politics Of Denial
  • --------------------------

    --------------------------

    Founding Editor Herman K. Trabish

    --------------------------

    --------------------------

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, June 17-18

  • Fixing The Power System
  • The Energy Storage Solution
  • New Energy Equity With Community Solar
  • Weekend Video: The Way Wind Can Help Win Wars
  • Weekend Video: New Support For Hydropower
  • Some details about NewEnergyNews and the man behind the curtain: Herman K. Trabish, Agua Dulce, CA., Doctor with my hands, Writer with my head, Student of New Energy and Human Experience with my heart

    email: herman@NewEnergyNews.net

    -------------------

    -------------------

      A tip of the NewEnergyNews cap to Phillip Garcia for crucial assistance in the design implementation of this site. Thanks, Phillip.

    -------------------

    Pay a visit to the HARRY BOYKOFF page at Basketball Reference, sponsored by NewEnergyNews and Oil In Their Blood.

  • ---------------
  • WEEKEND VIDEOS, August 24-26:
  • Happy One-Year Birthday, Inflation Reduction Act
  • The Virtual Power Plant Boom, Part 1
  • The Virtual Power Plant Boom, Part 2

    Tuesday, May 19, 2009

    ANOTHER LOOK AT SPACE BASED SOLAR

    A giant leap toward space-based solar power; Pacific Gas & Electric has signed a contract to buy power from an ambitious start-up that plans to launch solar power collectors into orbit to back energy as radio waves. Pie in the sky?
    Marc Lifsher, may 17, 2009 (LA Times)

    SUMMARY
    Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PG&E), among the most aggressive utilities in pursuing New Energy development, is the first to sign a power purchase agreement (PPA) for the delivery of solar energy from space.

    PG&E has agreed to buy solar energy-generated electricity from Solaren Corp.’s planned satellite array of solar panels orbiting 23,000 miles above the earth.

    Game-changer? Or pie-in-the-sky? Either way, PG&E only has to pay for the power that is delivered by Solaren so it costs PG&E’s customers nothing for the utility to give the technology this opening.

    click to enlarge

    Solaren is keeping details undisclosed and has asked the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the regulators who must approve the PG&E PPA, to do the same. In round numbers, the cost of the first space-based solar system will be $2 billion for 200 megawatts, estimated to be enough power for 150,000 homes. Solaren says it will have the system in operation by 2016.

    Space-Based Solar Power As an Opportunity for Strategic Security, a 2007 study by the National Security Space Office (NSSO), concluded the project is feasible.

    Skepticism, nevertheless, is the main response to the Solaren plans, doubt that the project can get off the ground and doubt that it can do so cost-effectively.

    Critics call PG&E’s involvement “grandstanding” and insist there are more mature and accessible New Energy sources (like wind, rooftop solar and geothermal), there are more accessible emerging technologies (like the hydrokinetic – wave, tidal and current – energies, and there is the proven-for-decades but barely developed potential of solar power plants here on earth.

    At least one energy consultant, however, considers the Solaren project "very serious" as a "trial" of the concept.

    It is a 4-decades-old scientific hypothesis that needs a proper trial to find out if it is a solution or science fiction.

    click to enlarge

    COMMENTARY
    2 points made vivid by this story: (1) Utilities will do almost anything even remotely feasible to meet California’s strong Renewable Electricity Standard (RES). (2) Utilities would really like to find big sources of New Energy, the kind of power supplies that will keep them operating under their current business model instead of having to transition to a business model incorporating millions of small sources of distributed generation.

    Many populists see solar energy as the people’s power and say the real game-changer is not the commercialization of outer space by Big Energy but a shift of big utilities toward empowerment of the community through a commitment to full-scale development of rooftop solar systems on the top of every home and business any and everywhere.

    click to enlarge

    Scientists like Cal Tech’s Nate Lewis have done calculations that show there just aren’t enough south-facing, unshaded rooftops available in the world, at the current cost and productivity of solar panels, to meet a growing and energy-hungry population's needs.

    Meanwhile, PG&E must keep the lights on. And California’s RES requires it to do so with 20% New Energy sources by 2010 and 33% New Energy sources by 2020.

    The NSSO feasibility study and the PG&E PPA should make Solaren’s pursuit of venture capital easier but the real test will be whether the CPUC gives PG&E the go-ahead. The decision is due by October 29.

    click to enlarge

    Solaren says space-based solar is really pretty simple, given the fully-familiar status of satellite communications.

    The proposed 200-megawatt array can be put in place by 4-to-5 rocket launches. The satellites’ solar panels will receive the sun’s 24-7 light and transform it into radio waves that will be sent to a rectenna, a receiving station in open country near Fresno. Diffused radio waves for TV and phones presently travel between earth and earth-orbiting satellites constantly with no harm to birds or airplanes. The rectenna will convert the radio waves to an electric current and put it into the local transmission system.

    Only this project’s proposed scale remains to be proven. NASA’s JPL beamed 1/3 of 1 megawatt a mile some years ago and last year John Mankins, a former JPL scientist, sent 20 watts, a very small amount of solar energy-generated power, 92 miles between 2 Hawaiian islands.

    click to enlarge

    QUOTES
    - Gary Spirnak, CEO, Solaren: "If our numbers are anywhere near where we think they will be, we will be able to provide power at a cost that's comparable with anything on Earth, that is much cleaner and all from space…"
    - From the NSSO feasibility study: "There is enormous potential for energy security, economic development, improved environmental stewardship, advancement of general space faring and overall national security for those nations who construct and possess a space-based solar power capability."
    - V. John White, director, Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technology: "There are a lot of speculative plays…We have a lot of PowerPoints floating around that I don't think will turn into power plants."

    click to enlarge

    - Jonathan Marshal, spokesman, PG&E: "The challenge…putting enough hardware up in space and doing it economically…There's no risk to our customers. They'll pay only for the power that's delivered…We're not investing in the project or paying advance fees."

    - Mark Toney, executive director, The Utility Reform Network: "We think the chance of this company ever getting this solar farm -- literally and figuratively -- off the ground is quite remote…"
    - Frederick H. Pickel, energy consultant/engineering economist: "If this works, it changes the whole game…If they manage to reduce the cost sufficiently for space-based solar generation, the electric game changes, the natural gas game changes and, perhaps, even the oil game changes."

    1 Comments:

    At 11:29 PM, Anonymous FAPORT International said...

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

     

    Post a Comment

    << Home