Thanks to Luke Walker for alerting me to this:
ABC News: Solar takes off with US power supply deal
Extracts:
Two of America's biggest power utilities have unveiled plans for a multi-billion-dollar expansion of solar power supply, backing the argument that solar energy can indeed become a viable alternative to coal-fired electricity.
The company at the heart of the development is Ausra. It was started by Australian solar expert David Mills, who left this country for California earlier this year to pursue the further development of his ground-breaking work.
What makes the announcement more significant is that the utilities are confidently predicting that their solar power will soon be providing baseload electricity - that is, day and night - at prices competitive with coal.
Australian technology
The solar technology developed by Dr Mills already exists here in Australia, in the form of small pilot plants attached to the Liddell coal-fired power station in the New South Wales Hunter Valley.
A plant officer explains that the system's emphasis is on simplicity, with near-flat mirrors on giant hoops tracking the sun.
"Sunlight, on a clear day like this, strikes those mirrors and is gathered up onto the tower, and there's an absorber underneath that tower," he said.
Out comes steam, ready to drive a conventional power turbine. This is on a small scale; the new US company started by Dr Mills and Mr Khosla, Ausra, is now planning plants far bigger.
Dr Mills says the first plant size is more than two square kilometres in area and will generate 175 megawatts of power.
"But really we want to aim for gigawatt-style plants, and they're much bigger than that," he said.
Assumptions overturned
The coal and nuclear industries have long asserted that baseload power cannot be supplied by renewable energy. That mantra is oft repeated by Australian politicians like federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
"You cannot run a modern economy on wind farms and solar powers. It's a pity that you can't, but you can't," he said.
Prime Minister John Howard says solar is "a nice, easy soft answer".
"There's this vague idea in the community that solar doesn't cost anything and it can solve the problem," he said.
"It can't. It can't replace baseload power generation by power stations."
But baseload power supply is just what Ausra is now being contracted to supply for the insatiable US market. It says that within two years it will be able to economically store its hot water for more than 16 hours.
Dr Mills says there is a convenient correlation between humans' power consumption and the sun's power supply.
"We get up in the morning everyday, we start using energy, we go to sleep at night," he said.
"And the presence of the sun, that's natural. And that correlation means that we can get away with a lot less storage than we might have thought."
Better than coal or nuclear
Dr Diesendorf says the huge US investment into solar will soon make talk of clean coal and nuclear as solutions to climate change redundant.
"Basically, the solar thermal technology will be on the ground, certainly in the United States and many other countries long before so-called clean coal and nuclear power," he said.
Mr Khosla says solar power is developing rapidly and will be cheaper than either nuclear power or 'clean' coal.
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Ender,
My understanding is the same as at the start of this discussion and it is you who seems to jump the gun. The meaning of availability capacity factor, continuous rating, baseload requirements and what is actually stated in the article which I have discussed with you haven't changed.
The Ausra plant seems like a fairly versatile system which may supply a fairly consistent power source if they are solving any storage technology (likely). The real benefit is the is that it doesn't seem to use very energy intensive processes to make the components unlike some photo voltaic systems
Don't be to sure about the environmental costs I am sure governments will find other ways of taxing even "environment friendly" plant due to their influence on the environment (to top up their budgets. Now I am cynical.)
Be aware of the externalising of environment costs due to the fact that basically very little business is truly willing to "internalise" their environmental costs.
Oh by the way at least in the Western world coal fired plant do reduce some of their external environmental conditions, believe me if you they didn't the particle pollution, sulphur and nitrous emission would be a lot worse. I know you will say that society has made them but then society is what sets the benchmark, whether in industry, law, morals, art the list goes on.
Peak oil the only thing I know is that there have been many claims of when peak oil would occur.
The last thing is that the electric car will become a common technology when the battery/storage system and associated support(charging, changeover and disposal)are dealt with while maintaining low cost (primarily purchase price to that of its petrol driven cousin).
Peter - "So what after all this is your problem with my statement that the Ausra 1000Mw plant with the restrictions given in the article and had to operate day and night at a consistent output (using some form of storage)which is their aim that it would be approximately equivalent to 335Mw coal fired low cost plant baseload plant with an ACF of 85%"
None at all except that at least now you are understanding the concepts of capacity factor and peak power etc. However you still comparing apples with oranges. Just because the solar plant has a lower capacity factor does not mean that it is inferior. The only reason that a coal plant can be low cost and operate 24X7 is by externalising all environmental costs and using highly concentrated stored sunlight at fuel.
At last coal operators are going to have to start paying for external cost that up until now they have been able to avoid. In this regime the solar plant's zero CO2 and aerosol emissions make up for it's lower capacity factor. As long as sufficient storage is provided in both thermal and electrical means then electricity will be available when it is needed. Additionally if we drive the storage around as well, as we will when vehicle to grid cars come on the market, we can solve the other major problem we are facing, that of Peak Oil.