Japan's 25-year plan to put a gigawatt solar power farm in space
Scientists from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have planned a series of pilot projects which, if successful, should culminate in a 1-gigawatt space-based solar power generator within just 25 years. Its energy output would be on par with some of the largest modern conventional power plants, thanks to fact that it’s above the atmosphere, which reflects or absorbs most solar energy that falls on Earth. Collecting solar power above the atmosphere means you could have access to almost 150% of surface amounts — and if we can find a way of beaming that power back down to Earth, our reliance on every other form of energy would vanish overnight.
Here at ExtremeTech, we publish a fair number of articles about improvements to solar power. That makes sense since, until fusion power comes of age, solar will remain the only green technology that could even theoretically provide for our global power demands. The sun blasts our planet with so much power that the world’s deserts absorb more energy in a single day than the human race uses in a year. Yes, Earth’s surface is a phenomenal place to collect solar energy — but astronomers know about somewhere even better. Full Article:
Solar Power Grows 400 Percent in Only 4 Years
Driven by an explosion in photovoltaics, the U.S. solar sector has emerged "from a relatively small contributor to the nation's total electric capacity into a one of comparative significance," the Energy Information Administration reported this week in its latest Electricity Monthly Update.
Since 2010, EIA said, U.S. solar capacity increased 418 percent from 2,326 megawatts, accounting for 0.2 percent of total U.S. electric generation, to today's 12,057 MW, or 1.13 percent of U.S. generation.
More than half of that additional capacity — 5,251 MW -- has been installed by home and business owners participating in utility net metering programs that allow owners of solar systems to sell excess capacity back to their local utility at retail rates, according to EIA.
California has the largest net metered solar capacity, with 38 percent of the U.S. total, but Eastern states such as Massachusetts and New Jersey also have significant amounts of net metered solar energy, the agency said.
Utility-scale PV applications, defined as systems with 1 MW or more of capacity, have also expanded significantly and currently account for 5,564 MW, according to EIA. Such systems generally are designed to generate power for wholesale markets.
11 innovative companies giving energy storage a jolt
Technological and market forces have converged to make energy storage one of the most exciting — and potentially game-changing — opportunities for commercial and industrial facility managers, grid operators, homeowners and investors.
Forward-thinking utilities, battery suppliers, power inverter producers, system integrators and public-sector supporters are driving a massive expansion of energy storage solutions aimed at enabling the grid of the future — or even a grid-less future.
Although the energy storage value chain includes hundreds — if not thousands — of players, the following are leading the charge. Full Article:
Here are 11 innovative companies giving energy storage a jolt:
1. Aquion Energy: A cleaner chemistry
2. General Electric: A storage giant awakens
3. Green Charge Networks: Power efficiency
4. LG Chem: Leading lithium-ion battery maker
5. NEC Corporation: Global grid-scale storage
6. NRG Energy: From V2G to 'post-grid future'
7. Princeton Power: Grid-tied storage
8. Solar Grid Storage: A match made in the heavens
9 and 10. SolarCity and Tesla: A dynamic duo
11. Sonnenbatterie: From Europe with love
A blow to corn-based biofuels
Biofuels made from the leftovers of harvested corn plants are worse than gasoline for global warming in the short term, a study shows, challenging the Obama administration's conclusions that they are a much cleaner oil alternative and will help combat climate change.
A $500,000 study paid for by the federal government and published Sunday in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Climate Change concludes that biofuels made with corn residue release 7% more greenhouse gases in the early years compared with conventional gasoline.
Biofuels are better in the long run, but the study says they won't meet a standard set in a 2007 energy law to qualify as renewable fuel.
The conclusions deal a blow to what are known as cellulosic biofuels, which have received more than a billion dollars in federal support but have struggled to meet volume targets mandated by law. About half of the initial market in cellulosics is expected to be derived from corn residue.
The biofuel industry and administration officials called the research flawed. They said that it was too simplistic in its analysis of carbon loss from soil, which can vary over a single field, and that it vastly overestimated how much residue farmers would remove once the market gets underway.
Obama to challenge private companies to boost solar power use
President Obama will challenge companies Thursday to expand their use of solar power, part of his ongoing effort to leverage the power of his office to achieve goals that have been stymied by Congress. The new initiative comes as the White House is hosting a Solar Summit aimed at highlighting successful efforts on the local level to speed the deployment of solar energy.
Although some large solar plants are coming online and it is the fastest-growing source of renewable energy in the United States, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, it accounts for roughly 1 percent of the nation’s electricity generation.
“Now is the time for solar,” said Anya Schoolman, executive director of the Community Power Network, a Washington-based nonprofit group that helps communities build renewable energy projects. She will be honored at the summit Thursday.
“The costs are affordable, in reach of middle America and above. We know how to do it now, we know how to scale it, and we kind of just need people to let it go and encourage it,” she said.
In an effort to make it easier for state, local and tribal governments to expand their solar portfolios, the Energy Department is launching a $15 million-dollar “Solar Market Pathways” program.
Global Wind Power Capacity Projected To Nearly Double In 5 Years
Asia is now leagues ahead of other regions within the global wind market. Furthermore, this market is expected to grow at an annual cumulative capacity rate of more than 10 percent over the coming five years. A recent Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) report shows other significant wind energy markets of the past few years have slowed in comparison. However, overall global growth of wind energy will remain firm with a hopeful measure of expanding growth again.
The wind market for 2013 was an “off” year. Less wind energy capacity was installed in 2013 than in 2012. This disappointment saw the biggest drop in the market’s relatively short life. From 1996 through 2013, annual installed capacity for wind grew at an average rate of more than 20 percent.
CA Lottery Hits Jackpot with Solar and Ice-based Energy Storage
The Pavilion of CA Lottery Uses Ice Storage and Solar Panels to Achieve Net Zero.
Developing Renewable Energy Projects on Brownfields: Mitigating Environmental Risks & Liabilities
Although the environmental risks and liabilities associated with brownfields generally diminishes their viability as locations for such facilities, these risks and liabilities can often be sufficiently controlled and minimized through governmental and private party tools to make certain projects worth pursuing.
Half of power plant capacity additions in 2013 came from natural gas
But Solar came second - twice as much as coal - and Wind was 4th (comment from AltEnergyMag)
Why Oil Industry Estimates for Energy Reserves Can Be an X-File
Hopefully, we won't have to deal constantly with misinformation like Mulder and Scully had to when jousting with their malevolent arch-nemesis, the Cigarette Smoking Man. However, be prepared to do some digging to get at the facts.
Distributed Generations Future Impact on the U.S. Capacity Markets
As variable, distributed generation increasingly becomes a prevalent source of generation in regions, changes in capacity market dynamics will have a profound impact on generating assets and their future economic viability.
Solar Tracking Technology
The demand for trackers has expanded significantly in recent years as more reliable and cost-effective solutions come to market. According to a recent study by Transparency Market Research, the global installed capacity for solar trackers is estimated to reach almost 9 GW by 2020.
Trees go high-tech: process turns cellulose into energy storage devices
The new approach just discovered at Oregon State can produce nitrogen-doped, nanoporous carbon membranes - the electrodes of a supercapacitor - at low cost, quickly, in an environmentally benign process.
The Benefits of Power Optimizers
Power optimizers are a module-level power electronics (MLPE) solution that can be affixed on-site or embedded during the manufacturing process as a replacement for the junction box.
NextEnergy Drives Investment in Advanced Energy Technologies in Michigan
The global energy future is not about a single technology, it's about a mix of core and enabling technologies that provide a portfolio of options to meet different consumer needs in different settings.
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