Lost opportunities and a bright future

I attended the SC clean energy jobs forum today. Great event hosted by USC, Duke Energy and the Nature Conservency.

The panel discussions had thought leaders in business, research, energy policy, and Govt.
Despite that I came away from the event frustrated again that I missed a golden opportunity. The audience was not given the opportunity to ask questions accept through a moderator. But USC president Harris Pastides asked for anyone to stand up who knew where our future energy would come from. It was, ironically a USC professor who articulated what I already knew. The earth is a closed-system, nothing comes into or leaves our atmosphere but energy from the sun in the form of photons. Therefore we do not have sustainable sources of energy except sun based energy, period, end of story.
Every other source of energy is intermediate, if we do not figure out how to harness the sun’s energy directly before we exhaust all of the sun created fossil fuel then we will return to the stone age. This is why I support research and development for solar energy.

We have Jim Rogers whom I admire and respect talking about 250yrs of coal reserves, but this is only true if we stop exporting coal to China, can get every last lump economically and we do not increase our energy usage over time. We currently have 1.6 billion people without reliable energy on earth, I suspect we have 100yrs of coal reserves that are viable. If we invest in two more generations of coal plants we hand a defunct, combustion based generating system to our kids without a paddle.

We had wonderful and exciting discussions on nuclear energy, nuclear is a good bridge technology, something to buy us time nothing more. Nuclear fuel is challenging, not domestic and storage requires Eon’s of commitment by the federal govt which we currently don't have.

I am a realist, solar is challenging, the sun only shines on half the planet at a time, its harvesting today is inefficient compared to fossil and nuclear fuel today. Estimates from Duke are that it can supply 15% of our energy with today’s technology.

Currently in South Carolina solar provides .001% of our energy and we are a sun state!

Fossil fuel and Nuclear power don’t need our help and they don’t need to be defended and compared to solar every step of the way. We are a 95% fossil fuel economy, what we need now is for thought leaders to pave the way for serious research and development of solar in SC, NC and every other state in the nation. The clock is ticking, with 50yr energy generation cycles we can’t wait any longer.

Let There Be Light

For three years many people in South Carolina have worked to give the opportunity of affordable, clean, domestic energy to all.
We are so close to seeing this happen in 2012.

Please come to the
South Carolina Senate lobby day
On Tuesday, February 7th 2012.

We will meet at the OLD Nickelodeon Theatre (behind state house)at 11.00am

We will call out our state Senators and ask them to support Solar businesses, domestic energy and job creation in SC. This has to be a grass roots effort we need your help for one day.

If you believe that South Carolina can and should develop a portfolio of future energy supplies that will strengthen our domestic economy and lessen our dependence on finite fossil fuel sources, take a few hours out of your busy lives and let your voice be heard.

The senate is normally business attire but we want you, your kids, and your neighbors to be heard and seen. The SBA, David and I look forward to seeing you there.

Feel free to email me with questions.

Step by step

Breakthrough design will produce conversion efficiency far in excess of current solar technology




Solar3D has announced the results of a simulated test of its new solar cell design that projects the conversion efficiency to be in excess of 25%. The test results indicate that the company's innovative design will produce conversion efficiency far in excess of current solar technology.

"We are very encouraged by these test results," said Jim Nelson, President and CEO of Solar3D.

"We are now evaluating various methods of fabricating a prototype. If the results of our tests hold up in fabrication, as we expect, then our product's performance will be among the very highest conversion efficiencies achieved by silicon solar cells."

After completion of its prototype, the company's management plans to seek a manufacturing partner that will participate in bringing its 3-dimensional solar cell to market. Likely manufacturing partners include some of the world's largest semiconductor manufacturers.

Nelson continued, "These test results are very exciting and give us a great deal of confidence in the development path we have chosen. We think that our novel 3-dimensional solar cell has the potential to dramatically change the economics of solar power. A high efficiency solar cell manufactured with low cost silicon could result in the lowest cost per watt in the industry."

"Increasing conversion efficiency and reducing manufacturing costs will ultimately drive solar to economic parity with the low cost alternatives," said Nelson.

"With the increased efficiency that comes from our new design, we take a giant step in that direction."

Solardaily.com
staff article

Steep learning curve

811MW of solar installed in the use in the 4th quarter of 2011. That is almost the equivalent of a nuclear reactor. While today's grid tied solar only has a 25% capacity factor; meaning it is producing peak electricity only 6hrs a day, this is a significant amount of power. 1MW powers approximately 200 US homes.

In the 4th quarter of 2011 South Carolina approved installs for approximately 90kw that's 1000th of the overall US market. California is still the US leader with 38% of the US market. NJ is 11% of the overall market leaving the 47 remaining mainland states to divide up 51%. Assuming the top 5 of those take 8% each that leaves 11% for the remaining 42 states. That is a 1/4% for each state. That gives SC a target of 2MW a quarter and 8MW a year goal to be considered even thinking of contributing to a domestic energy policy. That's a steep curve but one we could easily achieve if we worked together.

In Q3’11, the US PV market grew by 32% from Q2’11 and could reach 1.9 GW for the year, which would mean that the market has doubled in size for the second consecutive year. For large-scale non-residential and utility-scale projects in Q3’11 and Q4’11, the scheduled expiration of the US federal cash grant has encouraged progress to meet qualifying requirements; ongoing installation will continue throughout 2012, stimulated by the progress requirements for these cash grants.