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Scientific American's Solar Grand Plan
Maria Energia writes "Scientific American Magazine proposes a huge, far-reaching plan to get solar energy powering 69% of America's electricity needs by 2050. The costs and technology are ready, they say, but huge changes to our transmission system will be needed."
I remember way back in high school (okay 4 years ago) and in some college classes the teachers were always talking about how the US power grid was a joke even compared to some 3rd world countries. And now with the whole terrorism thing, it's even worse to have a crappy power grid. I read a thing about how other countries have way better and more adaptive and efficient and safe power grids like Japan and stuff. We needed to replace it like decades ago but nobody ever wants to pay for it. So I figure if we need to gut 90% of the system anyway, why not do it when we really ought to switch to solar at the same time too. That's gotta save money doing them both at once.
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I thought the plan sounded pretty cool, but couldn't help but to think they had glossed over some details that are likely to make the total cost of the plan skyrocket, like the current production rates on Solar Cells or the cost of replacing them every 25 years as they degrade. The biggest problem is that the whole plan is so grandiose and expensive that it would be impossible to get through Congress, even if it does end up saving bucketloads of money in the end. The plan also handwaved through the "What if it's really cloudy over the entire Western US in the middle of winter?" question.
I do have to say that this was thought out more than most grand energy plans I've seen, but it still smells only maybe 3/4 baked.
I read the internet for the articles.
I wrote an article on my blog with some related thoughts about solar. In particular, I've considered installing solar panels on my roof, but my geographical region has a tendency to accumulate dust very quickly, so I'd be out on the roof cleaning the panels all the time if I were to have any chance of breaking even.
So my thought was that some enterprising company should buy up a few acres of land (or rooftops), and let individual homeowners sponsor small batches of solar panels, like 5kw or 10kw, in exchange for some sort of credit on their electric bill. A system like this would dramatically reduce the barriers to entry for individuals who'd like to pay for solar power, as well as vastly increase the economies of scale. Does any system like this currently exist?
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...after being a subscriber for 21 years.
They had exhibited a definite political point of view, no doubt due to the change of editorship. I noticed the new 'tone' of their articles for several months before writing them in 2003, telling them that as a longtime subscriber I was unhappy with the polemic, political stance that they'd decided to take. By 2005, I'd had enough - they no longer were simply describing science or explaining the cutting edge of science discourse; they had decided to become a liberal advocacy magazine and I decided my subscription was better spent on what I was looking for. I've found it in the excellent and much more timely Science News - no political crap, just an update on the newest SCIENCE.
Hey, they don't need my paltry subscription; I'm sure that despite the two letters I sent, they couldn't care less that I'm gone. But I did what I felt was right, and I'm happy about that.
-Styopa
Here's a plan for solar power for California that could actually work.
Goal: power 100% of Southern California's air conditioning load from solar energy within eight years.
Why Southern California? Because there's enough sunlight for solar power to work well. Why air conditioning? Because peak air conditioning load and peak solar power output happen at the same time. Peak power load for all of California is about 42 gigawatts, and about a quarter of that is Southern California air conditioning. So we need about 12GW of solar panel capacity.
Technical approach. Applied Materials says they're ready to build the first "gigawatt" solar panel plant. By that they mean a plant that produces in one year enough panels to generate a gigawatt of peak power. Two such plants can make enough panels to do the job in six years. No new technology is necessary.
Paying for it Raise electric rates on hot summer afternoons. Anything bigger than a 3-bedroom house has to have time-of-day metering.
Of course, some stupid HOAs will probably scream about it because solar panels don't meed their aesthetic guidelines.
Check out solar PV Shingles.
Life is not for the lazy.