Renewable Generation

Renewable Generation
The Problem: Today’s power sector emits large quantities of greenhouse gases and relies heavily on carbon-based fuels with volatile and rising prices. The current system is unsustainable, both economically and environmentally. Electricity generation accounts for approximately one-third of America’s global warming pollution. Scientists urgently warn such pollution must be sharply reduced to avert the most serious consequences of climate change. Meanwhile, viable, non-polluting generation alternatives exist to deliver reliable, cost-effective power to meet America’s needs.

The Solution: Generate 100% of US electricity from truly clean carbon-free sources. Renewable energy generation technologies like solar thermal, photovoltaics, wind, geothermal and biomass have been adding clean, reliable power to the grid for more than a decade. This includes solar and geothermal plants in the southwest, biomass in the northeast and southeast, and wind farms through the Midwest corridor. It is now time to dramatically ramp-up the contribution of renewables to the energy mix. And the circumstances are just right:

Technology maturity – The renewable power technologies featured in Repower America are in the 2nd, 3rd or 4th generation of development and come with the associated reliability and enhancements mature technology offers.

No fuel costs – At a time when fossil fuel prices are volatile and will inevitably rise, shifting to power sources with free and limitless fuel inputs makes sense.

Investor support – During the past few years, clean energy has been among the fastest growing sectors in the venture capital and investment banking worlds – in 2007 global investment in clean energy climbed 60% to $150 billion.

1 Utility understanding – Virtually every state now has experience in integrating renewable electricity into its energy mix. Twenty-eight states now have renewable energy portfolio standards.

Resource availability – Whether it is solar, wind or geothermal, each of these renewable resource types could on its own theoretically meet all of the nation’s power demands, now and well into the future.

Materials availability – There are no limiting material constraints with any of the renewable generation technologies comprising the Repower America scenarios. Key inputs are steel, concrete and glass. Wind turbines blades also use carbon fiber or fiber glass and PV cells rely on specialized materials, none of which will be limited at the levels and timeframe for Repower America.

Workforce availability – Manufacturing of components and construction of the renewable power plants themselves are skills that can be learned and are easily transferable from other sectors. In Pennsylvania former steel workers are now building wind turbine components. In Iowa, former appliance manufacturers are doing the same. In California and New Jersey, former construction workers are now installing rooftop solar PV. And clean energy programs are already emerging at colleges and trade schools around the nation.

Growth histories and trajectories – US installed capacities of solar photovoltaic and wind power have been growing at annual rates of 20 and 30 percent respectively; solar thermal has just begun rapid expansion; and the geothermal industry is booming with 97 projects under development in thirteen states.2

The Benefits: Existing, proven renewable power technologies rely on fuels that are free and limitless. They emit no CO2. They eliminate the uncertainty of volatile fossil fuel prices. And, they’re a promising engine of job creation: a $100 billion investment in a clean energy economy over two years would create 2 million new jobs with a significant portion of these jobs helping to revive struggling construction and manufacturing sectors.3 Research indicates that renewable electricity capacity at levels similar to Repower America would employ 6 million American workers.

4 How We Get There
Accelerate the ramp-up of clean, renewable electricity sources through new policies and increased private and public investment in technologies that work. These technologies already exist and have been expanding, but effective policies must be implemented to unleash their potential.

Key Sources of Energy in a Repowered America

Wind Power: Enough wind blows through the Midwest each day to supply all of America’s electricity. And US businesses have already been capitalizing on this potential: for three years in a row, the US has led the world in wind power installations, and our capacity is growing – we are now the world leader in wind electricity generation and 2008 will be another record year for new wind energy projects.5 In addition to hundreds of companies directly involved in wind energy today, there are more than 16,000 companies employing over 1 million people that manufacture products for industries that could support wind components.6

Solar Thermal Power: Concentrated solar thermal power systems, also known as solar thermal power, covering a parcel of land fewer than 100 miles on a side in the Southwest could theoretically supply 100% of America’s electricity needs.7 A proven technology just beginning to scale up in the US, solar thermal power already produces enough electricity for about 100,000 homes and large-scale projects by eight different companies are underway with major utilities to power 10 times that many homes in the next three years. Industry engineers project that plants put into operation after 2013 – and perhaps sooner – will come equipped with 6-8 hours of energy storage, allowing them to continue to provide power after the sun goes down.

Solar Photovoltaics: Photovoltaic (PV) technology converts sunlight directly into electricity. Solar PV can be mounted on rooftops, integrated into roof tiles, or placed in empty fields, and can produce electricity even on cloudy days. Germany is a great testament to PV generation potential under cloudy skies: Germany’s solar resources (see map below) are similar to those of Alaska’s, one of the US’s least desirable solar regions. Yet, Germany currently has eight times the installed solar capacity of the entire US due to its supportive policy framework.8 With vastly better solar resources in the US and continued innovations and price reductions in solar technologies, the domestic photovoltaic industry has already begun to take off. The solar PV industry is projected to continue its explosive growth, expanding at 40% annually until 2010. Worldwide investments in the production of PV are estimated to rise to the same level as those for semiconductor manufacturing by 2010 and global manufacturing capacity is projected to increase from 90-100 production lines (greater than 1MW capacity) to 400.9 There are currently thousands of companies developing, producing, installing, and maintaining PV systems in the US.


Geothermal Power: The United States is already the world leader in geothermal electricity generation, producing enough electricity from geothermal systems to power approximately 1.5 million homes. Industry experts project that geothermal development can expand to provide 15-30 times as much power over the next few decades due to recent advances in enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) that can harness heat energy stored up to 10km below the surface. According to an MIT study, 100,000 megawatts of electricity could be installed by 2050 with EGS technology that could power over 70 million homes. In fact, the US government recently issued permits for geothermal project development on 190 million acres of federal land in twelve states.10 This potential just scratches the surface of a massive amount of recoverable heat energy in America that is equivalent to 2,000 years worth of 2005 US electricity consumption.11

Other Renewable Generation: Other renewable generation includes biomass power, which can encompass many sources of carbon-free electricity like agricultural or wood residues and municipal waste. Advanced hydropower technologies are emerging that harness the energy from waves, currents, and tides.
Join us: "I want to Repower America with 100% clean electricity within 10 years."

Signed,

Renewables in the News
Wind
The world’s largest wind farm, the Titan Wind Project, will be built in South Dakota - the 2,000 turbine, 5,050 MW wind farm will provide enough energy to power 1.5 million homes—more than five times the amount needed to power every home in South Dakota.12
The first US offshore wind farm is scheduled to be completed in 2012. Bluewater Wind is building the project near Rohoboth Beach, Delaware, capitalizing on Delaware's coastal winds, which are capable of producing a year-round average output of over 5,200 MW, or four times the average electrical consumption of the entire state. The project will produce just over $2 billion in annual revenue on the wholesale electricity market, create hundreds of new union jobs, and provide roughly $100 million in direct local union construction wages.13
North Dakota recently opened FPL Energy's Oliver County Wind Energy Center – which is capable of generating enough electricity from its 54 turbines to power more than 24,000 homes.14
Hopkins Ridge and Wild Horse wind facilities in Washington State produce enough renewable energy to meet the needs of approximately 100,000 homes – combined, the two facilities have paid more than $3.3 million in state, county and local taxes since going into operation, and additional turbines are being planned.15
Right in the heart of the oil patch, Houston has started receiving about 25 percent of its electricity from wind – the city council decided to take action to provide cleaner and cheaper energy to its citizens after Hurricane Katrina damaged oil and gas infrastructure, increasing the price of natural gas.16
Solar Thermal
Spanish engineering firm Abengoa Solar and Arizona Public Service Co. plan to build a 280-megawatt solar thermal plant – producing enough electricity for about 60,000 homes and creating 2,000 construction jobs near Phoenix.17
The US Army plans to install a 500-megawatt solar thermal power farm at Fort Irwin, California, as part of its bid to reduce a $3 billion annual energy bill – the Mojave Desert plant would feed electricity to the grid by 2014, achieving savings of $21 million and 4 million tons of CO2 over 25 years.18
Ausra Solar officially opened the first U.S. solar thermal power manufacturing plant in May 2008 – the Las Vegas facility will employ a staff of 50. At full capacity, it will annually produce more than 700 megawatts of solar collectors – enough to power nearly half a million homes, and keep 1,400 construction workers employed building solar power plants.19
The largest single source of solar energy in the world is located in the Mojave Desert – the site has 400,000 mirrors laid over an area of 1,000 acres.20
Solar PV
Solar companies SunPower and Optisolar have jointly announced plans with the California utility PG&E to build the largest solar PV plant in the world, 800 megawatts in total, powering 239,000 homes.21
Thin-film solar startup Konarka converted a 250,000 square foot advanced Polaroid printing facility into its new manufacturing plant in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Konarka retrofitted much of the old printing equipment for solar fabrication and hired the technology and process engineering teams from Polaroid. The company plans to add over 100 employees as production increases over the next 2-3 years.22
Using solar PV systems, the roofs on FedEx Corp’s Fontana and Whittier distribution facilities now provide about half of their annual energy needs.23
Geothermal
The geothermal industry is booming with 97 projects under development in thirteen states that, together, are expected to double US geothermal generating capacity.24
In August, Raser Technologies announced construction on New Mexico's first commercial 10-megawatt geothermal power plant – producing enough electricity to power approximately 1.5 million homes.25
Construction has begun on a 100-megawatt geothermal plant on Shoshone tribal land in Box Elder County, Utah – nearly two-thirds of the energy generated at the plant will be delivered to Riverside, California where it will account for 20% of the city's base-load energy.26


References
1.UNEP. http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=538&ArticleID=5849&l=en
2.Earth Policy Institute. http://www.earthpolicy.org/Updates/2008/Update77_data.htm
3.Center for American Progress. "Green Recovery." October 2008.
4.Roger Bezdek. "Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency: Economic Drivers for the 21st Century." Prepared by Management Information Services for the American Solar Energy Society. 2007. (Note: figure specific to renewable electricity)
5.http://www.awea.org/newsroom/releases/Wind_Installations_Surpass_20K_MW_03Sept08.html
6.US DOE. "20% Wind Energy by 2030 Report". 2008.
7.Based on CSP resource potential analysis from NREL in ASES, “Tackling Climate Change in the US: Potential Carbon Emissions Reductions from Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy by 2030.” 2007. http://www.ases.org/climatechange
8.Solar Energy Industry Association. "US Solar Industry Year in Review 2007."
9.Dr. Henning Wicht. "Market Watch: Solar Cell Investments to Reach Parity with Semiconductor Industry by 2010". June 23, 2008. http://www.isuppli.com/marketwatchdetail.aspx?id=38
10.US Department of Interior, http://www.doi.gov/news/08_News_Releases/102208b.html
11.MIT. "The Future of Geothermal Energy." 2006.
12.Clipper Wind, http://www.clipperwind.com/pr_073008.html; http://www.census-charts.com/HF/South_Dakota.html
13.New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/magazine/14windt.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&ref=magazine&pagewanted=all
14.FPL Energy (June 24,2008) http://www.fplenergy.com/news/contents/2008/062408.shtml
15.PSE, http://www.pse.com/newsarchive/Pages/NewsMegawattMilestone.aspx?navpath=/InsidePSE/newsroom
16.Chapman, Lindsey. “Houston turns to wind for power, savings.” Finding Dulcinea. http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/business/July-08/Houston-Turns-to-Wind-for-Power--Savings.html
17.Christa Marshall, “Huge solar projects at risk by failure to extend tax credit” 07/07/08, http://climatewire.net/
18.CnetNews.com, http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10060244-54.html
19.“Ausra opens first U.S. solar thermal power factory” 06/30/2008 http://www.ausra.com/
20.EcoWorldly, http://ecoworldly.com/2008/04/12/mega-solar-the-worlds-13-biggest-solar-thermal-energy-projects/comment-page-4/
21.The Mercury News, http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_10262551
22.Earth2tech.com http://earth2tech.com/2008/10/07/konarka-turns-on-1gw-thin-film-solar-printing-press/
23.RenewableEnergyWorld.com http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/partner/story?id=53501
24.Lester Brown, “New Energy Economy Emerging in the United States,” http://www.earthpolicy.org/Updates/2008/Update77.htm
25.Department of Energy, http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/archive.cfm/pubDate=%7Bd%20'2008-09-10'%7D#11970
26.Marketwatch.com, http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/northwestern-band-shoshone-nation-announces/story.aspx?guid=%7BC676D0AD-8B5A-487B-A07B-443087E99C10%7D&dist=hppr
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