QUICK NEWS, May 23: AN ‘UNPRECEDENTED’ MOVE TO NEW ENERGY; BRAINTRUST GOES AFTER SOLAR PRICE; INTERIOR APPROVES WIND ON INDIAN LAND

AN ‘UNPRECEDENTED’ MOVE TO NEW ENERGY PJM Interconnection Putting More Solar Power On The Grid

21 May 2012 (Solar Industry)

“PJM Interconnection, the operator of the high-voltage electric power grid on much of the Atlantic coast and in parts of the Midwest, says it procured 56 MW of solar power during its most recent capacity auction - an increase of 22% over last year...The capacity auction also procured 796 MW of wind power (a 15% increase) and 14.8 GW of demand response resources…”

click to enlarge

“…Terry Boston, president and CEO of the grid operator, noted that PJM is currently confronting an ‘unprecedented change in fuel mix’ as more first-generation coal-fired power plants are being retired from service…PJM serves 60 million people in all or parts of Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.”

Tweet

BRAINTRUST GOES AFTER SOLAR PRICE Bay Area Photovoltaic Consortium announces $7.5 million in grants to lower the cost of large-scale solar power; The university-industry consortium led by Stanford and UC-Berkeley aims to make utility-scale solar energy cost-competitive by 2020.

Mark Shwartz, May 17, 2012 (Stanford University News)

“The Bay Area Photovoltaic Consortium (BAPVC) – an industry-supported program led by Stanford University and the University of California-Berkeley – has announced its first research grants aimed at making utility-scale solar power cost-competitive by the end of the decade.

“A total of $7.5 million will be given to 18 research teams at BAPVC partner institutions Stanford, UC-Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory…to develop new technologies that significantly reduce the cost of photovoltaic modules and make large-scale solar technology cheaper for electric utilities by 2020…More than two-dozen corporations participate in the consortium…including GE, DuPont, HelioVolt and Corning…”

click to enlarge

“The BAPVC is a key part of the DOE SunShot Initiative to reduce the installed price of large-scale photovoltaic systems from $3 per watt to $1 per watt by 2020 without government subsidies…Today, less than 1 percent of the electricity generated in the United States comes from solar power. But at $1 per watt, solar-generated electricity would be comparable in cost to electricity produced from coal-powered power plants. That would give utilities a strong economic incentive to begin installing photovoltaic systems across the country, which in turn would dramatically increase the percentage of solar-generated power in the United States, according to DOE projections.

“In a utility-scale photovoltaic system, about half of the installed cost goes into permits, power electronics, mounting hardware and other on-site construction costs. The solar module itself accounts for about half of the cost…To address the DOE's price-cutting challenge, the consortium has adopted a whole-module approach to its research effort…”

Tweet

INTERIOR APPROVES WIND ON INDIAN LAND Ocotillo wind project advances despite tribal objections

Morgan Lee, ay 12, 2012 (San Diego Union-Tribune)

“…Interior Secretary Ken Salazar signed off on [the construction of a large-scale wind energy project across 10,000 acres of public lands on the outskirts of the desert town of Ocotillo]…Environmental Impact Statement over the objection of Native American tribal officials who remain concerned about the aesthetic impact of the project on ancestral lands and the potential for disturbing cultural and archaeological artifacts, including possible cremation sites.

“The Bureau of Land Management said it worked closely with Native American tribes and neighboring residents to minimize impacts of the project…[which] would form a crescent shape around Ocotillo in Imperial County, providing electricity to customers of San Diego Gas & Electric in San Diego and southern Orange counties. The power plant was designed to generate enough electricity to supply about 95,000 homes…[and] will tie into a major transmission project, the Sunrise Powerlink, that is slated for completion as soon as June.”

click to enlarge

“…Pattern Energy…is developing the project under a 20-year power purchase agreement with SDG&E. Terms of the agreement will not be public for several years under regulations intended to encourage a competitive bulk power market…The energy pact should count toward aggressive state requirements…[for investor-owned utilities] and other retailers [to] procure 33 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2020.

“Native American tribal officials remain concerned about artifacts as well as the basic visual intrusion on a landscape tied to the creation stories of several nearby tribes…BLM officials say nearly nearly 2,300 acres were excluded from the project because of concerns about cultural resources. The number of turbines was reduced from 155 to 112 to avoid blocking views that are important to the tribes. The agency conducted four site visits and dozens of consultation meetings with representatives of 10 tribes…”

Tweet