Good news from Nanosolar Blog

Greetings, All -- Below is an article related to the emerging debate on distributed versus centralized clean energy systems from our friend Bill Brown at New Mexico Global Warming up in Taos, New Mexico.

Bill Brown writes that this "article treats the debate, and argues for (1) strong development of distributed systems with less need for new transmission lines in the short term, and (2) centralized systems with long distance, high voltage lines only after 80 percent of the electricity the transmission lines carry come from clean, renewable sources. [Note the author's significant comment re electrically powered transportation: "We don't know what the future will bring. Plug-in hybrids or all-electric vehicles could provide sufficient storage to miniaturize the grid while allowing the grid to handle a much higher proportion of intermittent electric generation."...]

"The reality of clean energy development currently lies between the extremes of fully centralized and fully distributed solar and wind systems. Clearly, distributed solar panels and residential wind turbines continue to be employed by individual property owners throughout the country. Equally clearly, large centralized solar and interconnected wind power systems continue to be built throughout the country. However, an emerging middle ground is being considered (and constructed) via community or municipal sized clean energy power systems.

Nanosolar of California, for example [in an April 16, 2008 press release] believes "... meaningful scale for solar will come foremost from utility-scale solar power plants, in particular from municipal solar power plants of 2-10MW (two to ten MegaWatts) in size. These are rows of solar panels mounted onto the ground of free fields at the outskirts of towns and cities, feeding power directly into the municipal electricity grid." Such power plants -- and they could also be wind power plants -- could provide communities with more cost effective clean energy solutions than fully decentralized systems, e.g., solar panels or wind turbines on every property. Nanosolar, re solar panels, comments: "While rooftops are surely a good application too for solar panels, it is a business that’s difficult to scale rapidly in a truly meaningful way. Crawling onto rooftops and mounting solar panels in compliance with building codes is fundamentally always a somewhat more expensive proposition." Further, "By feeding power directly into the (local) distribution grid, they (utility scale solar power plants) avoid the (long-haul) transmission grid which tends to be heavily taxed in many regions of the world."
[See the full Nanosolar Press Release at: http://www.nanosolar.com/blog3/2008/04/16/municipal-sol...]

Many possibilities for our nation, communities, and individuals in terms of a new, clean energy future and economy are apparent within this debate. In my next post, I hope to treat some of these possibilities, many of which are being turned into reality by those looking ahead to a future free of the inefficiencies, escalating costs, hidden costs, and overall problems with old technology, obsolescent fossil fuels.



-- Bill Brown
www.nmglobalwarming.org

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from TouchArt.net and OneEarthBlog.blogspot.com
in New Mexico where solar energy can boom and Earth Day is every day.