THIN FILM SOLAR PANELS

Archive for December, 2010

The midsection of the country is being gripped by ferocious winter weather, but that hasn’t stopped Indiana from virtually blooming with alternative energy news. Just yesterday CleanTechnica posted a story about the development of the biggest thin film solar plant in the U.S. in Tipton, Indiana and now the state has become the first in the U.S. to take delivery of new domestically manufactured THINK electric vehicles for its fleet – equipped with made-in-the-U.S.A. batteries, of course.

Clean Electric Vehicles for Indiana Parklands

To ice the green jobs cake even more, the new THINK electric vehicles were manufactured in Elkhart, Indiana. Its lithium ion batteries were also manufactured in Indiana, by the company Ener 1, Inc. The fleet of fifteen cars will be under the purview of the state’s Department of Administration, which has assigned them mainly to the Department of Natural Resources to be used in the state’s parks. Not only are there certain operational logistics that make parklands an ideal proving ground for electric vehicles, but they will also enable visitors to see how super quiet, zero emission vehicles improve the park-going experience.

Electric Vehicles and Project Plug-IN

None of this happened by accident, of course, and Indiana has already begun the planning needed to prepare a reliable, convenient network of plug-in opportunities. The initiative, Project Plug-IN, is a program of the state’s Energy Systems Network, which in turn is a new clean tech initiative of a business group called the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, which aims to make Indiana a “center for energy innovation” that attracts new investment and creates new green jobs across the board in wind, solar, biofuel, smart grid technology and more. That’s pretty ambitious, given the stinkeye that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has cast upon clean energy initiatives but then again, when was the last time a Hoosier backed down from a tough game?

Image: THINK electric vehicle by KF60AK on flickr.com.

Somewhere out there in Oregon, green job seekers are cheering. The world’s largest wind farm has just cleared another hurdle, with yesterday’s announcement by U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu that a partial guarantee for a $1.3 billion (yes, billion) loan has been finalized.  The 845-megawatt behemoth, called the Caithness Shepherds Flat project, will be sited in eastern Oregon and bring hundreds of new construction jobs to the area.

Hundreds of Green Jobs for Oregon

The new wind farm is a project of Caithness Energy, LLC and GE Energy Financial Services, with GE also supplying 338 of its 2.5xl wind turbines, which are the next-generation version of its popular 1.5-MW model  (and they’ll be made at a GE facility in the U.S, by the way). These particular turbines haven’t been used in North America yet, so that’s another first.  The project is expected to put 400 people to work during construction, and then provide about 35 permanent positions.

Millions of Megawatts of Clean Energy for the U.S.

CleanTechnica covered the new wind farm when it was first confirmed back in 2008, and the project is on track to meet its goal of completion in 2012. It’s big all right, but it’s almost a drop in the bucket compared to all the clean energy projects for which the U.S. Department of Energy has issued loan guarantees or other forms of support in just the last few years. So far there are sixteen projects totaling more than 37 million megawatt-hours, though that figure rather optimistically includes a 2,200 megawatt nuclear plant (good luck with that!).

Image: Welcome to Oregon by H Dragon on flickr.com.

California regulators have just approved yet another 650 MW of solar thermal power for the state.

The California Energy Commission (CEC) has voted to license the 500-MW Palen project and the 150-MW Rice  project in Southern California, which now brings to nine the number of solar thermal power projects approved in the last four months.

Altogether the solar projects comprise 4,142.5MW of solar thermal power to be added to the California grid and will provide more than 8,000 jobs in initial construction, and then more than 1,000 ongoing jobs in operations.

Both projects still require decisions in 2011 from the federal Bureau of Land Management, which approves the use of federal public lands, before they can proceed. The Rice project also requires approval from the Western Area Power Administration. But with the CEC approval before December 31st, they qualify for federal stimulus funds.

Both projects are solar thermal.
Unlike solar PV, utility-scale solar thermal projects basically work the same way as traditional power plants: driven by steam-powered turbines, except using just the sun’s power to heat a liquid. (Instead of burning gas, coal or oil).

The more interesting and novel of the two is the brainchild of (literally) rocket scientists. The Rice Solar Energy Project about 40 miles northwest of Blythe in eastern Riverside County, has storage included, using molten salt, so that it will be able to keep sending solar power into the night.

A large field of mirrors concentrates and focuses the sun’s energy onto a central receiver high up on a tower. Solar energy is captured and retained in the molten salt heat transfer fluid. That gets routed to heat exchangers to heat water and produce steam, which generates electricity in a conventional steam turbine cycle. The molten salt stores heat long after the sun goes down, so it can keep driving turbines after sunset.

The 500 MW Palen Solar Power Project is part owned by Chevron, making it a first for an oil company. It uses the solar parabolic trough to focus the radiation on a receiver tube located at the focal point of the parabola. A heat transfer fluid (HTF) is heated to high temperature (750 degrees Fahrenheit) as it circulates through the receiver tubes. The heated HTF is then piped through a series of heat exchangers where it releases its stored heat to generate high-pressure steam. The steam is then fed to a traditional steam turbine generator where electricity is produced.

The other seven projects the CEC approved in an unprecedented burst since August are Abengoa’s Mojave (250 MW), Beacon Solar (250 MW),  Tessera Solar’s Calico Project (663.5 MW) Genesis Solar (250 MW), the (using the Stirling technology)  Imperial Valley Solar (709 MW) Brightsource’s Ivanpah SEGS (370 MW), and the world’s largest solar thermal project: Blythe Solar Millennium (1,000 MW).

Can’t wait for all of us Californians to get powered by our big blue skies!

Image: Ben Neine
Susan Kraemer@Twitter

When I was invited on a cleantech blogger tour of clean tech in Finland this summer, one thing that took me by surprise was the gorgeous Finnair Oy airplane that took me the last leg from New York to Finland. I haven’t been on any airplanes except US flights in… practically forever, and was completely unprepared for the clean, spacious, luxurious design of the interior and the sumptuous airline food – in economy class.

Of course the guilt of taking an airplane and racking up the carbon miles tempered my enjoyment… but that won’t be for long.

Finnair Oy is to switch to using a bio-kerosene manufactured by Neste Oil. Finnair’s sleek commercial airline is to fly on a a biofuel from wood waste from their forests.

If you’ve ever been suspended over Finland in an airplane you will know that the whole country except for Helsinki is pretty much entirely forest, and so I was told, sustainably managed. Although 90% of it is cut, something like 91% gets replanted each year, so it remains nearly all forest.

“It will be the first time that NexBTL aviation fuel, this Finnish hi-tech solution, will be used in commercial service.  We’re not talking any longer of a trial, but of commercial flights”, says Neste Oil CEO Matti Lievonen.

Commercial flights will start as soon as the certification agency, ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) approves the bio fuel for commercial use.

Initially flights between Helsinki and London or Singapore will use fuel manufactured from waste made from cutting wood.  The company will also start to use bio fuels from renewable raw materials.

“We are planning to start commercial operations as soon as we get certification.  We’re talking of a significant percentage of our daily flights”, commented Finnair’s Environmental Director Kati Ihamäki to YLE’s news service.

Demand for Neste Oil’s bio-kerosene is expected to rise as it is one of very few refineries capable of making bio fuels for the aviation industry.  Neste’s bio fuel can be used to replace fossil-based aviation fuel entirely.

At the moment, the bio fuel costs twice as much as fossil fuel. But there is no carbon cost to the climate. The EU has already made it illegal to land in Europe on high carbon fuels by 2012. Finns are good at engineering solutions to technical issues. No bellyaching from dirty industry about costs. They roll up their sleeves and find a solution. By using renewable fuels, Finnair will still fly really friendly skies.

::Finnairgroup

Nevada’s Nellis Air Force Base flipped the switch on its first solar power installation in 2007, a 14-megawatt behemoth that was the largest of its kind at the time. The Air Force must have been pleased with the performance of solar energy in the three years since then, because according to Las Vegas Sun reporter Steve Kanigher serious consideration is being given to adding another 18 megawatts of solar energy to Nellis by the end of next year.

The U.S. Air Force and Solar Energy

The Air Force has a history with solar energy that goes back at least to the 1970′s, when the U.S. Air Force Academy installed a model solar house at its facility in Colorado. The idea of a solar house soon succumbed to the McMansion generation, but ironically a new three-megawatt solar installation is now planned for the Academy. Counting its new wind turbines and solar installations at other bases, the Air Force has become a top purchaser of alternative energy in the U.S., and it’s been eagerly pursuing jet biofuel for fighter planes. Among other innovative projects the Air Force is also developing a transportable solar array that can be tucked into a standard shipping container.

More Sustainable Energy for the U.S. Military

Kanigher reports that planning for the new array is still preliminary, but the prospects look good and he captures the money quote from Air Force engineer Maj. Gen. Timothy Byers: “Sustainable installations provide an operational advantage to our force.” That goes for all the branches of the armed services, which are rapidly turning away from the risks, expense, and logistical complications of fossil fuels.  The Army, for example, is moving forward with new geothermal projects that will help take some of its bases off-grid in the near future.

More Sustainable Energy for Civilians, Too

Given the vast potential for alternative energy generation on military property, the Department of Defense is beginning to envision a future role for itself as a major supplier of secure, domestically produced, job-creating sustainable power to the civilian grid, in addition to supplying its own facilities. What was that about drill, baby, drill again?

h/t: movebeyondgreen.com, a “sustainable community of interest” sponsored by the Army Environmental Policy Institute.

Image: Nellis AFB Thunderbirds by Ken Lund on flickr.com.