QUICK NEWS, April 8: THE IMMINENT SOLAR POWER TOWER ACHIEVEMENT; CAPE WIND AWAITS FEDS’ LOAN GUARANTEE; THE EXPANDING BIOFUELS MARKET

THE IMMINENT SOLAR POWER TOWER ACHIEVEMENT Ivanpah and the Future of Big Solar

Jim Rossi, March 21, 2013 (Nevada Institute for Renewable Energy Commercialization)

“…[BrightSource Energy’s Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System may be about to change the world…At 377 net megawatts, the Ivanpah project is an order of magnitude bigger than any solar tower project constructed before. If successful, even bigger projects will follow…[BrightSource’s] predecessor, Israeli solar thermal company Luz…built the first big solar plant in the Mojave—the Solar Electric Generating Stations (SEGS)…in the 1980s. Nearb, the U.S. Department of Energy…[pioneered] both the solar tower design and the use of molten salt to store sunlight for nighttime electricity use…[Decades later] Silicon Valley entrepreneurs including Google seede… BrightSource…

“…Ivanpah employed over 3,000 workers at the height of construction to build three 450-foot towers—each topped with an inside-out heat-trapping boiler. The towers are surrounded by three fields with a total of 173,500 heliostats (high-performance sun-tracking mirrors). The site spans over 3,600 acres, controlled by four control rooms (one for each tower and another command center), which use a proprietary computer system called SFINCS (Solar Field Integrated Control System) to operate the heliostats through 2,000 kilometers of wires. The project totals 22 million parts, not including the rivets.”

click to enlarge

“Two fields [will] sell their power to Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), the other to Southern California Edison. The total project was budgeted at nearly $2.2 billion, including almost $1.4 billion from a federal loan guarantee. BrightSource’s future—and maybe that of the entire solar thermal industry—has been riding on the plant’s success…BrightSource hopes to deploy storage…[in upcoming projects]…Those plants will also have taller towers…and control the heliostats wirelessly…[Such] steps expected to ‘scale up’ and significantly lower the per kilowatt-hour costs.

“BrightSource employed dozens of field biologists to [protect and] relocate desert tortoises…[and installs the heliostats in a way] which allows most of the area’s plant life to simply be trimmed down instead of uprooted. The plant uses expensive dry-cooling technology, making its total annual water use only about…equivalent to the water used to maintain two holes of a golf course…[Ivanpah is] scheduled to power up this year…as the world’s largest solar thermal power plant.”

Tweet

CAPE WIND AWAITS FEDS’ LOAN GUARANTEE Mass. Lawmakers Urge Energy Department To Approve Cape Wind Loan Guarantee

5 April 2013 (North American Windpower)

“The entire Massachusetts congressional delegation, including the state's nine U.S. representatives and two U.S. senators, has sent a joint letter to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) [and the White House Office of Management and Budget] urging the department to approve the delayed loan guarantee for the Cape Wind offshore wind project…

“…[T]he call for action comes two years after the DOE eliminated the Section 1705 loan-guarantee program and informed developer Cape Wind Associates that its application could not be processed by the program's Sept. 30, 2011, deadline. The application has been on hold ever since.”

click to enlarge

“The letter…[touts] the potential economic and environmental benefits of Cape Wind, which is planned for Nantucket Sound…[It] will create up to 1,000 jobs in Massachusetts during its construction and build a supply chain for the emerging offshore clean energy industry…[and, according] to the lawmakers, the Cape Wind project is construction-ready and represents a new era for the U.S. wind industry…

“…Cape Wind is the first U.S. offshore wind farm to secure all of its federal, state and local permits and to have received a commercial lease and approval of its construction and operations plan…[after a] 10-year regulatory review…”

Tweet

THE EXPANDING BIOFUELS MARKET Market Data: Biofuels; Ethanol, Biobutanol, Biodiesel, Green Diesel, Synthetic Gasoline, and Renewable Biojet Consumption and Production from Biomass Resources: Global Market Sizing, Segmentation, and Forecasts

1Q 2013 (Navigant Research)

“Biofuels are becoming big policy and big business as countries around the world look to decrease petroleum dependence, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the transportation sector, and support agricultural interests…

“…After more than a decade of healthy growth for conventional biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel, the next wave of advanced biofuels is currently on the cusp of commercial scale-up. Cellulosic ethanol, biobutanol, biodiesel, green diesel, synthetic gasoline, and renewable jet fuel are among the emerging class of advanced biofuels poised for growth…”

click to enlarge

“Conventional and advanced biofuels both face a number of headwinds, however, that will cause production to miss policy targets currently in place in more than 65 countries and territories…

“Navigant Research forecasts that global biofuels production will reach 61 billion gallons by 2023, replacing nearly 6% of global transportation fuel production from fossil sources and generating $70 billion in new revenue over the next decade. Leading this expansion will be advanced drop-in biofuels production, with a compound annual growth rate of 14% between 2013 and 2023. The United States, Brazil, and the countries of the European Union are expected to remain the leading biofuels markets worldwide…”

Tweet