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Solar Power News 2010
Solar Power is Getting Cheaper
I read an article from the LA Times by Marla Dickerson that a utilities company called Sempra Generation is using a 10-megawatt solar farm in Nevada that can power 6,400 homes. If you do the math, Sempra is using renewable energy that can meet or beat the price performance of carbon-based fuels, creating milestone grid parity, electricity from the sun, wind or other green sources matching or surpassing the price operation of traditional methods. The company can produce power at a cost of 7.5 cents a kilowatt-hour, less than the 9-cent standard for normal electricity.
The article further states that El Dorado Energy Sola, owned by Sempra, is producing electricity at costs below anything comparable to date. The company has inked a 20-year deal to sell the electricity to Pacific Gas & Electric, whose service territory covers much of central and Northern California.
I am excited to see proactive growth in renewable energy sources. Apparently, First Solar, a company that supplies Sempra with solar modules, stock went up 20 percent based on this information.
Dickerson explains that Sempra constructed the project on 80 acres next to its El Dorado Energy gas-fired power plant, located about 40 miles southeast of Las Vegas in Boulder City, Nevada. The solar facility uses photovoltaic panels similar to those mounted on homeowners' roofs, except the panels are anchored to the desert floor in long rows and there are lots of them - 167,000, to be exact.
The original method of converting sunlight into electricity by using a semiconductor, polycrystalline silicon (used in computer chips) had been pricey and in short supply. Now, a lower cost method by using a semiconductor known as cadmium telluride, thin-film cells, is a cheaper product to manufacture.
Both consumers and greenies should applaud at the decrease in cost to generate electricity through renewable energy.
Sempra is so optimistic about the cost-effective methods, the company plans to install an extra 50 megawatts of First Solar panels at the El Dorado site. Additionally, the company is planning another project near Phoenix of about 500 megawatts adjacent to its Mesquite Power Generating Station, a gas-fired plant.
Being a Californian I am proud to say that most of this expansion of renewable energy is based on a California law requiring state's investor-owned utilities to generate 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2010, a figure that's set to increase to 33 percent come 2020.
I am sure we will see more companies like Sempra to commit cutting its greenhouse gases dramatically. Clearly with the solar power costs dropping significantly throughout the industry, as consumers we'll benefit. The technology is becoming much easier to adapt while producers are becoming more proficient as they place a strong foot hold in the market to expand, grow out and service other areas as well.
News Report: Solar powered aircraft flies for over 7 days! 20/07/2010
US Representative Peter Welch Visits Green Mountain Power's New Berlin Solar Project
COLCHESTER, VT--(Marketwire - August 6, 2010) - US Representative Peter Welch today visited Green Mountain Power's new 200 kilowatt Berlin solar project, the largest permitted solar project in Vermont.
