Photo courtesy of NREL/Heliostat

Posted 4/22/09 by
Yasha Husain

Increasingly, concentrated solar power (CSP), and concentrated photovoltaic systems (CPV), are coming online.

CSP plants, because of their size and cost, and the fact that they require direct radiation, or more intense sunlight for a certain number of hours in the day, are typically utility-scale projects installed in the world's sunniest places.

CPV, on the other hand, can more easily be used in diffuse radiation, or sunlight, to help municipalities, industry, and the hospitality business, meet their water heating and electricity needs.

One example of breakthrough CPV technology is from Zenith Solar:

Zenith Solar

For the latest in
solar energy
developments, visit:

National Renewable
Energy Lab

Solar Today

Renewable Energy
Advice
from Mother Earth News

Planet Ark

For a complete listing of
US local, state, and federal
solar incentives, visit:

DSIRE
Database of Incentives

Keep up-to-date
with US Policy
via:

The White House Agenda
Energy and Environment
Page

and

THOMAS:
The Library of Congress
Search Engine

Article - Energy

Where's Obama on Solar?
By Yasha Husain
First appeared at New Hampshire Independent Media Center
January 2008
 
Solar energy, one of the fastest growing sectors in the Chinese energy boom (a point that perhaps has too rarely been noted), also offers the following possibilities here at home:
 
1. An abundance of SOLAR WATER HEATERS to heat homes and office buildings. (A note on heating homes and buildings with solar power: Geothermal and wind energy are ultimately powered by the sun, too, and, like solar, are 'pay as you go' renewable energy sources.)

2. Ever-improving PHOTOVOLTAIC CELL SYSTEMS to power road, farm, and commuter vehicles, homes and office buildings, and freestanding technologies, ranging anywhere from the ferris wheel at the Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles to emergency phones along highways. (An added bonus: Nontoxic batteries are now becoming available, however so far mostly from abroad.)

3. Innovative CONCENTRATED SOLAR FARMS situated in places like the American Southwest that can supply power to a national grid, which is targeted to become digital and run on a direct current system.
 
4. PASSIVE SOLAR in buildings and vehicles that can dramatically improve the energy efficiency of infrastructures. 

5. Cutting-edge RENEWABLE ELECTROLYSIS that uses a renewable source, such as solar or wind, to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen, storing the resulting energy as a gas that can later be used to power fuel cells that power cars, and a multitude of electrical devices such as cell phones and laptops. Sources: National Renewable Energy Laboratory http://www.nrel.gov/hydrogen/renew_electrolysis.html and http://www.thamesandkosmos.com/products/fc/fc2.html

6. Visionary SOLAR ARRAYS SITUATED IN SPACE that are very large space-based satellites of photovoltaic cells capable of delivering energy to the earth, i.e. distributed solar energy to the grid in the United States, as well as to the grids of other countries around the world, helping to create peace and prosperity worldwide through partnership. 
 
In exception of the last one, all of these possibilities for creating power using clean and renewable sources have already been tested. And while research and development dollars are still needed to improve and expand the domestic solar energy industry, it's plain to see that solar energy can be a large part of the answer to the many problems we face today relative to fossil fuels and nuclear energy.
 
Even space based solar, which was first explored in-depth by NASA, and then the Department of Energy, in the 1970s, and in 2007 was reviewed by the Pentagon,* offers a promising solution for the energy crisis, with intended benefits that could enhance national security through a process of building international alliances focused on a common good.

*In October of 2007, the Defense Department issued a 75-page report on Space Based Solar Power (SBSP) to the Pentagon's National Security Space Office.

What Else Solar Energy Offers

The solar energy industry here at home, if allowed to grow to its potential, will also be a rich source of emergent middle-class and upper middle-class jobs, including in engineering, science, building and design, distribution services, management, communications and administration.
 
For those who already make it their goal to conserve, such as green architects and builders, sustainable farmers, and individuals leading holistic lives at home and work, who try to do more with less, be ecologically minded, utilize preventative measures for their health (e.g. good nutrition), and in some cases, live more independently (e.g. off-the-grid), new solar energy technologies will likely most easily be incorporated into their already green way of life.  
 
The promise of the new technologies will however also encourage those who don't already to begin thinking about the many ways they can live in closer balance with nature, as they become increasingly surrounded by advanced, 21st century energy systems. For instance, one wouldn't likely build a green home without choosing geothermal or another renewable energy, if it was available to them at cost. Those who begin receiving cost-effective renewable energy will likely start to look upon the art of conservation in a whole new light, one that seems more practical, empowering, fulfilling. Being able to implement their own energy-saving schemes around the home, people will feel as if they are a part of the solution, and realize that what it takes to begin solving the energy crisis is to be positioned to live life more wholly.  

China and International Markets
 
For all of the talk about China and its rampant growth in terms of new coal plants that come online each week, there's little said of its impressive movement toward solar energy. (There is also little said about China's growing space program. China could be one of a number of countries that contribute to the development of a future SBSP system.) According to a summary posted by Research and Markets, of the China Solar Energy Industry Research and Forecast, 2008-2010, "China is expected to emerge as one of the greatest solar energy production bases in the world after 2008." And in China, solar is looking to compete with and perhaps overshadow coal in the near future due in part to "recurrent oil and coal price spikes and power shortages nationwide". Beginning a little over a decade ago, China's domestic market for solar was developed, and it's by now already fully launched. Of all the nations in the world, China is the biggest producer and consumer of solar water heaters. It's estimated that the growth rate in these heaters in the coming years will be 20 to 30 percent, making the solar energy sector a "green gold mine" for business.
 
Also according to the report's summary, the "Chinese government plans to exploit the rich photovoltaic energy and provide electricity for remote areas before 2010. Since 2005, China has begun large-scale construction of desert power plants and rooftop photovoltaic systems combined to the grid."

Bringing it Home
 
Foreshadowing of exponential growth in solar industry sales may also be heard reverberating from experts and entrepreneurs alike who attend conferences across the United States, are quoted in news reports, and publish studies. But where do politicians stand on the use of solar technologies in America?
 
Why aren't today's presidential hopefuls, particularly Barack Obama, whose platform seems to stand tall as a beacon for positive and progressive change, discussing the near future possibilities of solar energy as much as they're promoting corn and cellulosic ethanol, nuclear, and clean coal technologies, all of which can be easily misused and stand to pose tremendous threats to our food and water supply and environment?
 
And if America loses its competitive advantage because it again didn't take the more forward-thinking course when the opportunity first presented itself (think the automobile industry and its turtle-paced move toward fuel efficient cars such as hybrids), and it overlooked solar in favor of polluting or imbalanced energy sources, all of which are backed by powerful lobbies, the nation's economy, in addition to its food and water supply, and environment, will be at serious risk.
 
So the question is: where does Obama stand on solar? And where, too, do his compatriots and fellow nominees for the presidential run stand on solar? This is too important of a question to not have answered leading up to the elections. Hopefully, all of the candidates will soon express their thoughts on the solar issue, and opportunity, more clearly.