solar voltaic power

The Amish dig it

The Amish affinity for solar says something essential about the difference between fossil and renewable fuels. Not quite sure I know how to put it into words, though.

Population is not the short-term problem

Now and again some commentator will claim that we lack to resources to support our population sustainably -- either today or in the near future. But the fact is, even with current technology we have plenty of sustainable resources for our ~7 billion population and for the ~10 billion we expect in the future. What prevents this is not scarcity but folly and cruelty.

What are the constraints usually cited? There is soil and sustainable food production. But as I recently documented, we can feed ten billion sustainably if we choose to. There is freshwater, but as I documented, we have sustainable ways to deal with that as well.

What about energy? Right now we use about 14 terrawatts total primary energy world wide. The most conservative estimates of potential efficiency increases say we can double efficiency. And the most conservative estimates overlook stuff we are doing in some places at this very moment, including the potential for changes in material intensity and savings in thermal losses by producing electricity from mostly non-combustion sources.

But of course we are also going to have increased population and a lot of poor people who want to get richer. So it is not unreasonable to assume that a ten-billion-population world that consumes energy thriftily but lives a decent lifestyle with indoor plumbing, hot water, refrigerators, basic electronics, enough to eat, enough work, enough leisure, and plenty to do with that leisure will consume around 25 average terawatts worldwide.

A story from Tanzania

Interesting story on a Michigan State University project to help test and improve locally made solar cookers in Tanzania:

Man, that’s the worst headline ever

Here’s a short but fascinating BBC story about a ginormous (11MW, with plans for expansion) concentrated-solar power plant in Seville, Spain — the first commercial concentrated-solar plant in Europe. Hundreds of mirrors reflect sunlight at a single point at the top of a tower, where the heat boils water for stream that drives a generator. […]

Goin’ new school

Old school Cossacks: thundered off the steppes in bloodthirsty hordes, fearsome warriors, rumored to tuck ears of enemies under saddleblankets in lieu of provisions during raids.

New-school Kossacks: more tippety-tap than thundering, not so much with the ear eating, fearsome and effective in rallying support for renewable energy.

HR 550 is the largest, most important piece of solar legislation ever introduced in the U.S. Here is a story about how they are making it happen:

Hybrid power plant

I guess as a blogger in good standing I should have some kind of instant opinion on this, but I don’t: California approves the first "hybrid power plant" — 90% natural gas, 10% solar. So why did Inland Energy decide to make solar a relatively small part of its plant rather than the main power […]

Ahh, democracy

Last night the Maryland legislature passed a world-class solar program -- 1,400 MW of solar on rooftops over the next 15 years, putting Maryland in the upper echelon of solar-supporting states. Kudos, congrats, and thanks to the Maryland advocates that made this happen.

That this passed is a good thing. But how it passed is a lesson that bears wider dissemination.

Act nowor forever hold your pleas

The battle over the TXU coal plants has been well chronicled on these pages.

As an elegant companion to the efforts to shut down coal, there's a proposal in the Texas Legislature -- sitting in committee right now -- that would develop a world-class solar energy program for Texas.

All signs are positive

Solar power is going mainstream! So they have said, anyway, for about 30 years now. This time, however, there are good reasons to believe the hype. As Adam keeps reminding us, solar is incredibly popular — huge majorities favor it, and favor gov’t incentives to support it. Prices have been falling for years, orders are […]