Solar Energy Drawing New Light

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Solar Energy is a no-brainer in terms of energy production. It is plentiful and clean. There are still issues concerning available sunlight, times of day, and the technology currently available. But those issues will lessen as consumer demand increases. Cost is another concern at this time. But there are some interesting realities coming about and some that are in the talks that could make 2008 a great year for solar energy.

The Nevada Solar One project has now become the world’s third largest solar plant in the world. Solar One uses parabolic mirrors to heat tubes of liquid. As you can see from the video below, the plant is enormous. And it can also produce energy at night by storing it in phase-changing molten salts that can be extracted later.

A similar solar project that is underway is that of Ausra. Ausra recently moved from Australia to Silicon Valley. And they got major backing, to the tune of $40 million, by green tech investors Vinod Khosla’s Khosla Ventures and Venture Capitalists Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. Ausra has said that they will be announcing big deals with major US power companies very soon.

Very recently, startups GreenVolts and CleanTech announced deals with California power company PG&E. Those startups will be building small solar plants to the tune of 2-5 megawatts to offset usage during peak times. That’s the start of power companies using solar energy in that type of way. Though the Mojave desert has been home to large solar facilities for years, these developments show that power companies are willing to invest in smaller, supplemental plants closer to urban areas.

But one of the more interesting ideas being batted around is that of space solar collection. The Pentagon’s National Security Space Office (NSSO) issued a 75 page report this month highlighting the feasibility of such an effort.

The basic idea is very straightforward: place very large solar arrays into continuously and intensely sunlit Earth orbit (1,366 watts/m2) , collect gigawatts of electrical energy, electromagnetically beam it to Earth, and receive it on the surface for use either as baseload power via direct connection to the existing electrical grid, conversion into manufactured synthetic hydrocarbon fuels, or as low-intensity broadcast power beamed directly to consumers. A single kilometer-wide band of geosynchronous earth orbit experiences enough solar flux in one year to nearly equal the amount of energy containe within all known recoverable conventional oil reserves on Earth today. This amount of energy indicates that there is enormous potential for energy security, economic development, improved environmental stewardship, advancement of general space faring, and overall national security for those nations who construct and possess a SBSP capability.

As you can see, solar energy is being seriously considered and, in some instances, implemented with great effectiveness. Maybe 2008 will see even more advancements.

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