QUICK NEWS, 6-15: BILL GATES WANTS NEW ENERGY; S. DAKOTA GROWS WIND; STORING SUN IN STEAM; THINGS THAT COULD TAKE DOWN THE GRID

BILL GATES WANTS NEW ENERGY
US must invest in clean energy research: Bill Gates
June 13, 2010 (AFP)

"Microsoft founder Bill Gates urged the United States to invest billions of dollars a year to bring about a clean energy revolution that would free it from dependence on oil.

"…Gates said the disastrous oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico raises the question "how did we get an energy infrastructure that is this fragile?"

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"Gates and his American Energy Innovation Council [AEIC] last week called for an 11-billion-dollar increase in annual investment in research and development into clean energy technology to 16 billion dollars a year."

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[Bill Gates, founder, Microsoft:] "You know, we've got a supply chain where we send a billion dollars a year overseas and you can imagine that there will be disruptions…But, in fact, the only real solution is to take American ingenuity and fund R&D to get energy in different forms (so) that we're not sending this much money away and that it's stable and reliable…"

"…[A Business Plan for America’s Energy Future] called for a public commitment to funding innovation in clean energy sources, arguing that individual companies are unlikely to make huge investments needed to make new energy sources commercially viable…But Gates acknowledged that the US budget was tight."

[Bill Gates, founder, Microsoft:] "The question is can the energy sector finance its own revolution and create these great R&D jobs here in America?…The only way you get those things is through the breakthroughs. And I'm optimistic they're there, but we're not making the investment…Today we spend only about four billion dollars on energy R&D compared to 30 billion dollars on health, 80 billion dollars on defense."


S. DAKOTA GROWS WIND
Slowly growing: Wind farms gradually increasing in South Dakota
Emily Arthur-Richardt and Scott Waltman, June 13, 2010 (American News via iStockAnalyst)

"By year's end, the amount of wind energy produced in South Dakota will be enough to power just more than half of the homes in the state…And, Dusty Johnson added, the wind farms planned for northeast South Dakota could make the $1 billion industry investment in the past two years look like peanuts.

"…Transmitting the energy that wind farms produce is [however] a huge problem…Capacity is limited, and building more is very expensive…That's why Steve Wegman, executive director of the South Dakota Wind Energy Association, said growth will be gradual…"

South Dakota has the wind. (click to enlarge)

"There are 413 megawatts of installed wind energy across South Dakota. There are another 300 megawatts under construction…Texas had 9,405 megawatts of wind energy installed at the end of 2009. Even fellow Midwest state Iowa had 3,670 megawatts…One megawatt of wind capacity is enough to supply 240 to 300 average American homes…South Dakota's wind energy potential, on the other hand, brings more promise, ranking fourth in the nation behind North Dakota, Texas and Kansas…Sometimes having good wind just isn't enough…

"NextEra recently completed construction the Day County Wind Energy Center in northeast South Dakota. At 99 megawatts, the project is the largest wind farm operating in the state, although that should change in the next few years as more construction is finished…[T]he company has no current projects…[but] continues to pay attention to what's happening in the state…[awaiting better transmission and other favorable factors]…"

New transmission could deliver Midwestern winds to the energy-hungry East. (click to enlarge)

"Many planned wind farms were going to tap into the Big Stone II coal-burning power plant [transmission system]…Before it was stymied by out-of-state environmental groups…Governmental, utility and wind power officials still hope to increase transmission capacity, but there are serious concerns about who will pay…

"The $12 billion Green Power Express, which would ship electricity from the middle of the country to Chicago, is another possible solution to the transmission problem. But, again, finding somebody to pay for the undertaking is a stumbling block…[A] proposal that would spread about 80 percent of the cost over a multi-state area based on load…would be favorable to South Dakota, but it's not finalized…"


STORING SUN IN STEAM
Direct steam generation: Full steam ahead for grid parity
Eric Jaques, 11 June 2010 (CSP Today)

"…[T]he synthetic oil…coursing through the world’s concentrated solar power (CSP) plants’ absorber tubes…[is flammable] and toxic..[and] hampering the technology’s mainstream prospects, breaking apart at 400° Celsius and effectively imposing a temperature limit on solar installations.

"With sheer cost curtailing CSP’s utilitarian evolution, many experts are eyeing direct steam generation (DSG)…No heat exchange systems, no oil costs, and the removal of several thermodynamically compromising steam production steps means solar field investment costs could be cut by around 15 percent…What’s more higher temperatures will result in greater power cycle efficiencies and lower fluid pumping parasitics."

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"Power towers such as PS10 and PS20 already produce direct saturated steam at around 250°C, but the key superheated technological battle is likely to be waged between parabolic trough and linear Fresnel, both of which are starting to dream beyond the pilot plant realm…

"Leading the way for parabolic trough is the Spanish consortium of CIEMAT, IDEA, and Iberdrola, which is aiming to build a 3 MW plant in the municipality of Puertollano, Spain, by 2012. Last year the project stalled due to lack of public funding, but the green light is back on after consortium members agreed to foot the bill."

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"As for Fresnel, Ausra, a major player owned by French nuclear giant Areva, was recently selected as the solar steam boiler supplier for the proposed 100 MW JOAN1 concentrated solar thermal power project in Ma’an, Jordan…The project is expected to go live in 2013 as the largest DSG CSP project in the world…

"…Solar Power Group, which unveiled the first large-scale pilot plant in 2000 and has long since gained first-mover advantage in the 450°C space…is currently developing four new projects…[and may] hit the market with approximately 15% cheaper electricity costs than equivalent parabolic trough systems…"


THINGS THAT COULD TAKE DOWN THE GRID
US Officials Look At How To Respond To Threats To Electric Grid
Mark Peters (w.Siobhan Gorman), June 2, 2010 (Wall Street Journal)

"Officials in charge of the reliability of the U.S. electric grid are taking a closer look at how to respond to cyberattacks and other possible catastrophic events.

"The North American Electric Reliability Corp., or NERC, and the U.S. Department of Energy in [High-Impact, Low-Frequency Event Risk to the North American Bulk Power System] call for a range of steps-- from increasing communication to ensuring the supply of transformers and other equipment--to mitigate what they described as a "high-impact, low-frequency" event on the nation's power system."

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"The report looked at a cyberattack, a pandemic and the detonation of a nuclear bomb at high altitudes among other possibilities. The catastrophic events the report examines aren't necessarily the most probable, yet officials say cyberthreats are being detected currently on the nation's grid…"

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"The report highlights how new technologies to upgrade the grid and enable better coordination and control--often referred to generically as a smart grid--create potential new vulnerabilities. Additionally, the report states it's unclear to what extent utility networks already have been infiltrated…[C]yberspies have penetrated the grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system.

"The NERC report list a series of steps that should be taken to mitigate the possible threats, including supporting research and development of tools to detect cyberattacks and ensuring the availability of vaccinations for key grid workers…[It] will be used by government and industry officials to produce specific plans."