MORE NEWS, 5-14 (WILL THEY LISTEN NOW?; PG&E/BRIGHTSOURCE IN HUGE SOLAR DEAL; WIND SETS STANDARD FOR WAVES)

WILL THEY LISTEN NOW?
Carter: Energy problems will again test America
H. Josef Hebert, May 12, 2009 (AP)

"Former President Jimmy Carter left at home the cardigan sweater he wore during his fireside energy chats 32 years ago, but told a Senate hearing… the nation's energy challenges haven't changed much in that time and will test America's resolve.

"Former presidents rarely testify before congressional committees, but Carter took lawmakers through the struggles he faced as president trying to convince the public, members of Congress and entrenched and powerful interest groups of the economic and security threats of excessive dependence on foreign oil."

From associatedpress via YouTube.

"At the time the United States imported 46 percent of its oil. Today nearly 60 percent comes from sources outside the country.

"In a famous "fireside chat" in 1977 Carter donned a camel-colored cardigan sweater and spoke of the need for Americans to use less energy, turn down their thermostats and support his efforts to develop alternative energy sources…He also directed the White House thermostat be lowered to 65 degrees in the daytime and 55 degrees at night."

President Carter, in a prescient moment, put the solar panels up. President Reagan, in a shortsighted moment, took them down. Yes, the Party of No goes back that far. (click to enlarge)

"Beginning his remarks before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Carter…quoted his words of 32 years ago when he called the struggle for greater energy independence "the moral equivalent of war [that] will test the character of the American people."

"Those words still apply, he suggested, adding that as in the 1970s, entrenched vested interests are ready to fight the energy changes that are needed. More than ever, he said, reduced reliance on oil, especially imports, poses national security as well as economic risks…

"Carter argued that only the president can get the energy priority shifts that he believes are needed to keep opponents from killing the measure on a single issue…"


PG&E/BRIGHTSOURCE IN HUGE SOLAR DEAL
PG&E strikes huge solar power deal with BrightSource
Tracy Seipel, May 13, 2009 (San Jose Mercury News)

"In what is touted to be the largest solar deal in the world, Pacific Gas & Electric…has expanded a series of solar-power contracts with Oakland's BrightSource Energy for a total of 1,310 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 530,000 California homes during peak hours[noon to 7 p.m.]…The power purchase agreements, which will now include seven power plants, add to a previous contract the two companies struck last April for up to 900 megawatts of solar thermal power.

"…BrightSource now has 2,610 megawatts under contract…more than any other solar thermal company in the world and…more than 40 percent of all large-scale solar thermal contracts in the United States…[BrightSource will design, build, own and operate] the plants at a cost of at least $3 billion in the southwestern deserts of California, Nevada and Arizona. The company anticipates the first of those plants, a 110-megawatt facility at Ivanpah in eastern San Bernadino County, to begin operation by 2012."

A BrightSource DPT installation. (click to enlarge)

"BrightSource's founder and chairman is Arnold Goldman, whose now-defunct Luz International built nine solar plants in the Mojave Desert between 1984 and 1990. All of them are still operating.

"BrightSource uses what it calls distributed power towers, or DPTs, in which sunlight from thousands of movable mirrors are concentrated to heat water to more than 1,000 degrees in a boiler to make steam. That steam feeds a turbine that makes electricity… "

A BrightSource DPT installation. (click to enlarge)

"On average, half of the electricity PG&E delivers to its customers comes from carbon-free generating sources, making the company's energy among the cleanest in the nation.

"Publicly owned California utilities such as PG&E must get 20 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2010, but they can meet the requirement with contracts if the projects go online by 2013. PG&E already has contracts in hand that exceed that 20 percent goal…PG&E gets 12 percent of its energy from renewable sources now, and expects that to increase to 14 percent by the end of the year."


WIND SETS STANDARD FOR WAVES
Wave energy racing to catch up with wind
Nao Nakanishi (w/William Hardy), May 5, 2009 (Reuters)

"Wave energy could catch up with commercially more advanced offshore wind power within five years, [according to] the head of pioneers Aquamarine Power Ltd…

"Government adviser Carbon Trust has calculated marine energy could supply up to 20 percent of Britain's power but the technology is still at the prototype stage."

The UK is a hotbed of wave research because it has the resource worth the work. (click to enlarge)

"To cut Britain's greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent from the 1990 level, the government is stepping up support for new renewable technology, including marine power.

"Aquamarine Power, a privately-owned company set up in 2005 with headquarters in Edinburgh, is one of the handful of British companies already testing its marine energy device in the ocean…[and hopes to have a commercially available device and 100 megawatts of installed capacity by 2014]…"

Aquamarine's wave energy device. (click to enlarge)

"In April, it won the first electricity from its 0.5 MW hydroelectric wave energy converter, tested at the New and Renewable Energy Center (NaREC) in Newcastle since February...It plans to install the device, called Oyster, in July at the European Marine Energy Center (EMEC) in Orkney, Scotland -- seen at the forefront of marine renewable technology development…

"The converter consists of an oscillator fitted with pistons and fixed to the seabed. Each wave moves the oscillator, pumping high pressure water via a pipeline to the shore. Conventional hydroelectric generators onshore convert it into electricity…Aquamarine has invested about 20 million pounds ($30.18 million) in the device, which is about 18 meters wide and 12 meters tall…"