Major companies race to build solar power plants.

Hopefully Chevron is turning around, after their partial ownership in Cobasys allowed them to stop the use of NiMH batteries in BEVs.

Solar thermal has a lot of promise. For one thing, you can store heat and make electricity on demand a lot better than storing electricity.

 

My 20 year old scientific solar powered calculator still works fine.

 

This is the beginning of "Peak Everything" paradigm shift. The two most critical resources are oil and water, followed by food. We look forward to renewable energy (wind, solar, hydro, geothermal) with photovoltaic panels on every roof, carport and along every highway (as in Germany). We will see a cost effective move to greater efficiency and light and high speed rail.

 

Let me provide another aspect. Investing in alternative energy is not noble action (yet it is advertised as such). It is simply the best money making course they see, nothing else.

 

These technologies are great and do offer a real change from the status quo. The limiting factor has not been that they don't work, but they "can't compete with pulverized coal"

We need to get past the idea that cheap energy is indeed cheap! If we were to pay the real cost of coal fired electricity (air and water pollution, global warming, health care cost due to emissions etc) it would be very much more expensive!

I always chuckle when I read how many homes could be powered by a given plant, or technology. When are people going to realize that their cheapest energy dollar is the one spent on conservation. With out disrupting our "standard of living" one bit we could reduce consumption dramaticly. How many buildings you you see that have way too many lights burning too much of the time. How many grocery stores still use open case freezers? How many people don't realize that CFL's come in all sizes, shapes and output colors (K)? How many people still keep their electronics on 24/7, including the wall wart power sucking power supplies?

We live quite comfortably. Our electric bill is about ~$35/month. The biggest uses are the shop tools and the luxury of the electric heated hot tub! With all the lights on in the house we are burning less than 200 watts!

We need to embrace these technologies no matter who produces them, and encourage our leaders and the market that "cheap energy" needs to have it's costs paid up front.

Icarus

 

once again because big business is running the operation, the only thing that "matters" is the per unit cost to market. (which includes startup costs...the biggie) future investment, cost to maintain, damage to the environment with the current power generating options is ignored.

what if the same ideology was in place here in the 1920's and 30's???

ok... that would mean no hydroelectric power because no private venture would have considered building a single dam anywhere... so instead of having dirt cheap, clean power that has returned its investment several times, we would all be smoking up the joint...

man we are pathetic

 

So does mine. Bit it takes less energy to power an 8-digit LCD than a 5-passenger car.

True. But it's a real sea change that they are finally seeing that! And if enough of them see it, and invest enough in the high-profit-potential arena of sustainable energy, we might delay the total collapse of civilization for a couple of years.

 

But I would contend that they "see it" because people like you and others took the lead in driving electric and other actions that are making it apparent. The Prius being a best seller for almost a decade are now known because a lot of (smart) folks bought one as the best alternative available. We know that whoever brings out a real viable, widely available, electric car should be successful since it is even a better alternative.

 

Regarding Chevrons committment, it may be instructive to see how many solar-related openings Chevron has posted. A quick check of Chevron's web site shows sort of 10 solar related openings (in the USA) out of 365 total job openings with all of the solar jobs oriented towards construction instead of research. I guess 10 new jobs counts as committed?

 

Solar thermal is exciting technology. And it looks like it is really beginning to happen now. Here's a link to an excellent NPR Science Friday piece on it that was aired on March 14th. You can listen to the program by clicking on "Listen" in the upper left area of the screen.
Science Friday Archives: Solar Power Scales Up

Also, check out the websites for Abengoa and Ausra. They're the real heros here. Not Chevron.
Abengoa Solar :: Solar Power for a Sustainable World
Ausra.com

 

Hi All,

The thing is Coal has to be transported from Wyoming to SoCal. Just like it is to Chicago outside my window (coal trains about 2 or 3 a day).

And that transportation requires diesel. Which is going up in price. So at some point, solar will be match and then go cheaper. The Mojave desert is not too far from LA or San Diego or Phoenix. So electrical transport is practical.

What might compete with this is Coal Liquidfication. If Coal is liquified for transportation fuel, then the money from motorists could capitalise the pipe line, and which then would be cheaper for power plants too.

 

As I have stated too many times before, there is way too much evidence that any further reliance on coal for any energy source is a fools choice,,even "clean coal", carbon sequestration etc.

If we were paying the the full cost of coal now, (environmental, health etc) solar becomes very competitive. With some targeted subsidies, and some efficiency of scale, along with some increase in the retail price of electricity per KWH solar is already makes sense in just dollars and cents.

We just need to get past the mind set that " the problem is too big to solve,," Or " it would take too many square feet of panels to power the US,,," Or " Solar won't work when it is cloudy" If you have enough panel capacity, scattered through out the grid through the country, the average of where it is sunny vs where it is not comes into basic balance.

Icarus

 

Which makes it inevitable, as we are a nation of fools.

 

I believe there is a paradigm shift, which may already be happening. It will be in full swing as soon as Bush leaves office. There is a recognition in big corporations it's a matter of survival. Business will be ahead of the politicians. I suspect the oil companies are already deep into alternate energy sources.

Watch for the May Prius sales. Something big happened about the 2nd week of May. That's when everybody suddenly wanted a Prius.