Two Solar Energy Breakthroughs

by Robert Wilkinson

This is a good news Friday! Today we have two fantastic stories about the shrinking cost of solar energy that indicate we’re very close to making solar cheaper than coal, oil, and other dirty forms of energy. In fact, we may be on the front edge of solving the clean energy needs of the entire world!!

First, from Reader Supported News.org, in a story by Juan Cole titled The Incredible Shrinking Cost of Solar Energy, we read that the cost of solar power is falling dramatically. From the story:

In many countries– Italy, Spain, Germany, Portugal — and in parts of the US such as the Southwest, solar is at grid parity. That means it is as inexpensive to build a solar plant as a gas or coal one. The pace of technological innovation in the solar field has also accelerated, so that costs have started falling precipitously and efficiency is rapidly increasing. By 2015, solar panels should have fallen to 42 cents per watt. Reneweconomy.com says that the best Chinese solar panels fell in cost by 50% between 2009 and 2012 ....

... Important new research also shows that hybrid plants that have both solar panels and wind turbines dramatically increase efficiency and help with integration into the electrical grid. Earlier concerns that the turbines would cast shadows and so detract from the efficiency of the solar panels appear to have been overblown. Because in most places in the US there is more sun in the summer and more wind in the winter, a combined plant keeps the electricity feeding into the grid at a more constant rate all year round, which is more desirable than big spikes and fall-offs.

It seems that besides Germany and China, Japan, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Israel and India are also going all-out in solar development. By all means, check out the whole story, since there’s more!

In our second story, a very sharp innovator seems to have found an answer to making solar inexpensive and ubiquitous that has eluded the industry before now. In a story from McClatchy News titled Patent filing claims solar energy ‘breakthrough’ we read “Ronald Ace ... said his flat-panel "Solar Traps," which can be mounted on rooftops or used in power plants, will shatter barriers that have stymied efforts to make solar energy cheap, clean and reliable.” From the story:

… a recently retired congressional energy adviser, who has reviewed the invention’s still-secret design, said it’s “a no brainer” that the device would vastly outperform all other known solar technology.

Ace said he is arranging for a national energy laboratory to review his calculations and that his own crude prototypes already have demonstrated that the basic physics for the invention work.

If the trap even comes close to meeting his futuristic vision, its impact could be breathtaking: It could reorder the world’s energy landscape, end the global economic drag of soaring energy costs, and eventually curb greenhouse gas emissions that are blamed for climate change.

That all might sound rather rosy, since the previously undisclosed invention has yet to be constructed and fully tested. But John Darnell, a scientist and the former congressional aide who has monitored Ace’s dogged research for more than three years and has reviewed his complex calculations, has no doubts.

“Anybody who is skilled in the art and understands what he’s proposing is going to have this dumbfounding reaction: ‘Oh, well it’s obvious it’ll work,’” said Darnell, a biochemist with an extensive background in thermodynamics.

“Ron has turned conventional wisdom about solar on its head,” he said. “He thinks outside the box....”

In recent interviews and redacted excerpts from his patent application, he said that his invention can be used to retrofit conventional nuclear- or fossil fuel-fired power plants to produce electricity at about 2 cents per kilowatt-hour. That alone would be a staggering advance, slashing the average wholesale cost of power by two-thirds and the cost of solar energy by up to ninefold – estimates that Ace called conservative....

A separate rooftop version, which Ace believes ultimately will power most homes and businesses, would initially provide cheap heating and hot water. Soon, he said, equipment for those traps will be able to convert solar energy to electricity, air conditioning and, if enough panels are installed, to produce excess energy to sell to utility companies. Consumers will be able to reap enough savings on their utility bills to recover their costs within two to four years, a performance that far surpasses photovoltaic solar panels that are gaining a market toehold worldwide, Ace said.

His traps also could for the first time provide a viable way to operate power plants by collecting energy above 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit – the heat needed to drive the turbines that generate electricity. Such high-temperature plants would significantly top the efficiency of conventional nuclear-, coal- and gas-powered plants, further reducing costs, he said.

There’s a lot more in the story, so please go to the link and check it out. If this invention works, solar will be universal, inexpensive, and put individuals in charge of their own energy generation, taking us off the grids that dominate our lives.

While it likely will take some decades before the oil and coal industries are out of business, we can still encourage these types of breakthroughs, since it’s our future. Oil, coal, and nukes are obsolete!

Comments

Yaaaay!!! I know that it takes materials for panels and all that. But I got my old granary raised and it is perfectly located for panels. But when I have talked to energy people about it, they look at my scant electrical bill and say it's not worth it, why even consider? How it is working in my locale is that the energy generated goes to the grid and I am paid for it. To put in energy storage and a converter to ac is another big expense. I've been told it is difficult to get DC appliances unless they are motor home appliances. What a racket that AC. How disabling.

I read an article some years ago that some scientists in Australia were working on panel materials that could generate power from lower level light like on a cloudy day.

Posted by: caliban | May 17, 2013 at 08:55 AM

Indeed things are moving. The problem is the established energy business interest that reach into so many aspects of our economy. Yet, they know the availability of oil and coal is limited and prices will raise to a level of not making it affordable. So, alternatives are needed and will come through. What we can do is help them happen sooner rather than later. Communication, lobbying and using the power of our purse when possible are just some ways to get new energy alternatives going.
Love the solar energy, (and the wind and wave,....)
Cheers,
Nic

Posted by: Nic | May 18, 2013 at 04:50 AM