The State of Solar Power 2014.

Distributed solar produces electricity outside the grid and has become one of the more polarizing topics in the power industry. Solar is here to stay in the U.S. Although the sun’s rays have been a clean energy solution since photovoltaic panels arrived in 1979, solar remains barely a blip in the U.S. power market. In 2012, solar power provided a mere 0.11 percent of U.S. electricity generation. By comparison, coal delivered 37 percent, natural gas 30 percent, nuclear 19 percent, and wind 3.5 percent. And that percentage includes utility-scale projects, like the big solar farms in California and Nevada that feed into the electricity grid, as well as distributed solar. Until recently, utilities could ignore solar.

Distributed solar could disrupt the de facto monopoly long held by regulated utilities. The solar industry is growing fast, and much of the growth is distributed solar built “behind the meter” – that is, on commercial and residential rooftops, where electricity from solar panels eliminates the need for power that would otherwise be generated and sold by the utilities. Last year, nearly 90,000 businesses and homeowners installed rooftop solar projects totaling about 1.15 gigawatts, roughly the amount generated by a large coal plant. That represented a 46 percent growth over 2011, according to the Solar Electric Power Association. By the end of last year, the number of customer-sited photovoltaic systems in the U.S. topped 300,000, the association says. 

Large solar power projects account for more than 4,700 megawatts of electricity-generating capacity in the United States. Another 27,000 megawatts of large-scale solar are under development, which means that the industrial-solar sector is on its way to providing enough electricity for more than 5 million homes. The Department of Energy's SunShot initiative project that costs will continue to drop dramatically and 329,000 megawatts of solar power are fed into the power grid by 2030, representing 13.8 percent of total electricity demand in the U.S. Of that, the Department of Energy estimates, 209,000 megawatts, or almost two-thirds, could be utility-scale solar if prices for solar technology continue to fall. "Ultimately the real beauty of solar is that every building, every car park is covered," says Dan Kammen, a professor of energy at the University of California, Berkeley. "In the decades ahead, we'll go to more and more distributed but, I think we will see more of these bigger facilities still being installed." 

Emerging technologies will enable the production of photovoltaic solar shingles made from available elements rather than rare-earth metals, an innovation that would make solar panels cheaper. A team of researchers described advances in solar cells made with the metals copper and zinc. Solar shingles that convert the sun’s energy into electricity typically must use elements that are scarce and expensive, such as indium and gallium. Recent tests suggest that materials like zinc phosphide and copper oxide could be capable of producing electricity at competitive prices within two decades. Companies are racing to find new sources of rare earth minerals, which are used in everything from solar panels to smart phones. Improved technology also can help capture heat energy not used by photovoltaic cells that only utilize part of the light spectrum while the rest escapes as heat. Harnessing waste heat adds to the harvested energy from the sun. Reprocessing waste heat can be used to generate electricity. Such savings would be especially significant at large solar power farms, where the dissipation of heat is an enormous waste of energy. 

A solar collector system to produce electricity AND clean water.

A solar collector system

This year, farmers in California's Central Valley won't receive any water through the federal irrigation program, a network of reservoirs, rivers, and canals that is normally replenished yearly by ice melt from the Sierra mountains. Crippling water shortages have made desalination technology more attractive. A solar collector system uses the sun to produce heat. The heat separates salt and water through evaporation. This has fewer environmental repercussions than traditional methods of desalination that rely on fossil fuels to generate electricity. 

In a solar collector system, a solar trough that looks like a jumbo-sized curved mirror, collects energy from the sun's rays and transfers that heat to a pipe filled with mineral oil. The mineral oil feeds the heat into a system that evaporates the salty water being treated. Steam is produced, which condenses into pure liquid water. The remaining salt solidifies and can be removed. That salts can be used in other industries as building materials, metals, or fertilizers. In order to operate continuously, the solar trough is very large so that it collects extra heat during the day. The energy is stored and used to run the system at night when the sun isn't shining.

By using sun as the fuel source, a solar collector system uses roughly one-fifth of the electricity consumed by traditional desalination plants. Less electricity means lower operating costs. With conventional desalination, electricity makes up 50-60% of the water costs. A typical desalination plant in San Diego operates at about $900 per acre-foot, while it costs around $450 to produce an acre-foot of water with a solar collector system. (An acre-foot is 325,000 gallons, or the amount of water it takes to cover an acre at a depth of one foot). A solar collector system also helps solve an issue that has long plagued irrigated land. Soils in the arid west of San Joaquin Valley naturally contain a lot of salt as well as high concentrations of metals, like selenium, which can be toxic to humans and wildlife. When the soil is irrigated, the salt, selenium, and other elements become concentrated in the drainage water that collects under the crops. In the past, drainage water have been discharged into rivers, wetlands, and aquifers in the San Joaquin Valley. Now, that otherwise unusable water can be diverted to a solar collector system and turned into irrigation water again.

During a drought-free year, the federally run Central Valley Project provides enough water to irrigate 3 million acres of agricultural land. Last year, farmers only received 20% of their allotment. The lack of water is not just worrying for growers. It affects all people who eat food. One third of the nation's produce is grown in the Central Valley — composed of Sacramento Valley in the north and San Joaquin Valley in the south — and the deep water cuts mean that more than half a million acres of crop land will be left unplanted. Some scientists predict California's drought could last as long as a century. Going forward, the state is going to need a substantial water supply that doesn't rely on the aqueduct system. However, in order to counter California's drought, the push must be toward renewable desalination plants rather than fossil-fuel dependent facilities that further contribute to climate change.

Many desalination facilities, including the $1 billion Carlsbad plant set to open in 2016, use a process known as reverse osmosis that forces seawater through billions of tiny holes that filter out salt and other impurities. This method can produce fresh water on a large scale, but has economic and environmental drawbacks. It uses an immense amount of electricity and only about half of the seawater that goes into the system comes out as clean water. The remaining half is dumped back into the ocean as salty brine where it can be harmful to marine plants and animals.  By contrast, a solar collector system has a 93% recovery rate, meaning that for every 100 gallons of water that goes in, 93 gallons of usable water are spit out.

The Panoche Water District in Central Valley is home to the first demonstration plant, a 6,500-square foot system that is capable of producing around 10 gallons of freshwater a minute, or roughly 14,000 of freshwater each day. When the demonstration plant is operating in commercial mode, running 24 hours a day, it can put out 25 to 30 gallons of freshwater a minute.

The pilot project, funded by the California Department of Water Resources, will hopefully prove that a solar collector system system is more reliable and affordable than other freshwater sources.

The water that's being treated by the pilot plant streams in from a canal that collects salty drainage water from around 200 farms in the area and brings it to a single location. In the pilot phase, the clean water that's produced is blended back in with the drainage water, but a commercial plant would send the water back to farmers through a series of canals that are already in place.

Additionally, small-scale systems could be used by individual farmers on site to recycle their own drainage water. The Sahara Forest project in Qatar and an Australian company called Sundrop Farms are using the technology to grow food in greenhouses. The goal is to eventually be able to treat salty groundwater in addition to drainage water.

The High Concentration Photovoltaic Thermal: coming to a neighborhood near you.

The High Concentration PhotoVoltaic Thermal (HCPVT) system uses a large mirrored parabolic dish attached to a tracking system to position the dish at an optimal angle to the sun. The HCPVT system concentrates solar radiation 2,000 times and converts 80 percent of the incoming radiation into useful energy.

- High Concentration PhotoVoltaic Thermal system able to convert 80% of the sun’s energy. 

- System can deliver electricity and potable water in remote locations.

- Design based on a large dish-like concentrator and cooled photovoltaic chips.

A team of researchers are working on a solar concentrating dish that will be able to collect 80% of incoming sunlight and convert it to useful energy. The High Concentration Photovoltaic Thermal system will be able to concentrate the power of 2,000 suns. As an added bonus, the researchers state that the system would be able to supply fresh water and cool air wherever it is built at one third the cost of current comparable technologies. A $2.4 million grant from the Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation has been awarded to develop the system. IBM, Airlight Energy, ETH Zurich and Interstate University of Applied Sciences will all be developing the prototypes and various components. A prototype of the HCPVT system is currently being tested at IBM Research - Zurich. Additional prototypes will be built in Biasca and Rueschlikon, Switzerland as part of the collaboration. 

"We plan to use triple-junction photovoltaic cells on a micro-channel cooled module which can directly convert more than 30 percent of collected solar radiation into electrical energy and allow for the efficient recovery of an additional 50 percent waste heat," said Bruno Michel, manager, advanced thermal packaging at IBM Research. "We believe that we can achieve this with a very practical design that is made of lightweight and high strength concrete, which is used in bridges, and primary optics composed of inexpensive pneumatic mirrors -- it's frugal innovation, but builds on decades of experience in microtechnology. 

"The design of the system is elegantly simple," said Andrea Pedretti, chief technology officer at Airlight Energy. "We replace expensive steel and glass with low cost concrete and simple pressurized metalized foils. The small high-tech components, in particular the microchannel coolers and the molds, can be manufactured in Switzerland with the remaining construction and assembly done at the installation. This leads to a win-win situation where the system is cost competitive and jobs are created in both regions." 

The solar concentrating optics will be developed by ETH Zurich. "Advanced ray-tracing numerical techniques will be applied to optimize the design of the optical configuration and reach uniform solar fluxes exceeding 2,000 suns at the surface of the photovoltaic cell," said Aldo Steinfeld, Professor at ETH Zurich. 

"Microtechnology as known from computer chip manufacturing is crucial to enable such an efficient thermal transfer from the photovoltaic chip over to the cooling liquid," said Andre Bernard, head of the MNT Institute at NTB Buchs. "And by using innovative ways to fabricate these heat transfer devices we aim at a cost-efficient production." 

The sun's rays are reflected off the mirrors onto liquid cooled photovoltaic chips; with each chip able to generate 200-250 watt hours over an eight hour day in a sunny region. More than 30 percent of collected solar radiation can be converted into electrical energy and the hundreds of chips in each unit collectively represent 25 kilowatts of electricity generation capacity. The researchers believe they can achieve a cost per aperture area below $250 per square meter, with a levelised cost of energy less than 10 cents per kilowatt hour. 

The HCPVT system is designed around a huge parabolic dish covered in mirror facets. The dish is supported and controlled by a tracking system that moves along with the sun. Sun rays reflect off of the mirror into receivers containing triple junction photovoltaic chips, each able to convert 200-250 watts over eight hours. Combined hundred of the chips provide 25 kilowatts of electricity. Replacing expensive steel and glass with concrete and pressurized foils, the HCPVT is less costly than many other similar installations. Its high tech coolers and molds can be manufactured in Switzerland, and construction provided by individual companies on-site. Through their design, IBM believes they can maintain a cost of less than 10 cents per kilowatt hour.

The entire dish is cooled with liquids that are more effective than passive air methods, keeping the HCPVT safe to operate at a concentration of 2,000 times on average, and up to 5,000 times the power of the sun. The system will also be able to create fresh water by passing heated water through a distillation system that vaporizes and desalinates up to 40 liters each day while still generating electricity. It will also be able to provide air conditioning by a thermal absorption chiller.

The liquid cooling system, 10 times more effective than passive air cooling, keeps the chips at a safe temperatures up to a solar concentration of 5,000 times. The heated liquid presents another opportunity for energy harvesting in heat recovery, with the potential for approximately 50% of the waste heat being utilised. The heated liquid can be used for desalination while still generating electricity.

   

Based on information by the European Electricity Association, IBM claims that it would require only two percent of the Sahara’s total area to supply the world’s energy needs. Cost effective and efficient, the HCPVT system could be vital to developing nations. Remote locations could also benefit from the technology, eliminating the need to build a large integrated infrastructure. Several prototypes of the dish will first be built in Biasca and Rüschlikon, Switzerland.

Background – Today solar photovoltaics (PV) remains the fastest growing power generation technology by installed capacity in the world. Yet, the technology has its limitations, most importantly its low efficiency (around 15% for direct solar irradiation) compared to other power generation technologies. A substantial improvement of this efficiency is obtained by the Concentrating Photovoltaics (CPV) technology. Optical concentrators are used to increase the solar radiation density on the PV cell, which leads to a reduction of cell area needed for the same amount of power production. Since concentrators (e.g. parabolic dishes) use cheaper materials and are often easier to manufacture than PV cells, there is a notable potential for overall cost reductions. Furthermore, CPV uses the more expensive triple junction PV cells that reach comparatively high efficiencies, especially at high solar concentrations. Using the same amount of land, CPV systems can produce more electricity, more efficiently and using much less PV material than conventional PV systems.

While High Concentration PhotoVoltaic (HCPV) systems achieve high conversion efficiencies, the cost of produced electricity remains comparably high. Main reasons are the high cost of involved materials (PV cells and concentrator) and system complexity due to tracking and cooling. An approach to reduce the cost of electricity generation is to utilize the thermal energy harvested during the cooling of the PV cell.

Goal – The goal of the project is to realize a cost-competitive High Concentration PhotoVoltaic Thermal (HCPVT) system able to convert 80% of the collected solar energy into useful electrical and thermal output. Materials for a low-cost large dish-like concentrator and a high performance receiver are exploited for mass-production. The main commercial goal is a solar technology that increases the conversion efficiency from solar-to-electrical beyond 22 percent and allows additional recovery of at least 50% thermal energy. Solar radiation is concentrated 2000 times onto a receiver holding an array of triple junction PV chips able to extract half of the incoming energy as heat while maintaining the solar cells at safe temperatures. 

 A three-year, $2.4 million (2.25 million CHF) grant from the Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation has been awarded to scientists at IBM Research (NYSE: IBM); Airlight Energy, a supplier of solar power technology; ETH Zurich (Professorship of Renewable Energy Carriers) and Interstate University of Applied Sciences Buchs NTB (Institute for Micro- and Nanotechnology MNT) to research and develop an economical High Concentration PhotoVoltaic Thermal (HCPVT) system.

Based on a study by the European Solar Thermal Electricity Association and Greenpeace International, technically, it would only take two percent of the solar energy from the Sahara Desert to supply the world's electricity needs*. Unfortunately, current solar technologies on the market today are too expensive and slow to produce, require rare Earth minerals and lack the efficiency to make such massive installations practical. 

The prototype HCPVT system uses a large parabolic dish, made from a multitude of mirror facets, which are attached to a sun tracking system. The tracking system positions the dish at the best angle to capture the sun's rays, which then reflect off the mirrors onto several photovoltaic chips -- each chip can convert 50 watts over a eight hour day in a sunny region. The entire receiver combines hundreds of chips and provides 25 kilowatts of electrical power. The photovoltaic chips are mounted on liquid coolants to absorb the heat and draw it away. With such a high concentration and a radically low cost design scientists believe they can achieve a cost three times lower than comparable systems.

Water Desalination and Cool Air

Current concentration photovoltaic systems only collect electrical energy and dissipate the thermal energy to the atmosphere. With the HCPVT packaging approach scientists can both eliminate the overheating problems of solar chips while also repurposing the energy for thermal water desalination and adsorption cooling. 

To capture the medium grade heat IBM scientists and engineers are utilizing an advanced technology they developed for water-cooled high performance computers. With computers water is used to absorb heat from the processor chips, which is then used to provide space heating for the facilities. In the HCPVT system, instead of heating a building, the 90 degree Celsius water will be used to heat salty water that then passes through a distillation system where it is vaporized and desalinated. Such a system could provide 30-40 liters of drinkable water per square meter of receiver area per day, while still generating electricity with a more than 25 percent yield or two kilowatt hours per day -- a little less than half the amount of water the average person needs per day according to the United Nations, but a large installation could provide enough water for a city. 

Remarkably, the HCPVT system can also provide air conditioning by means of a thermal driven absorption chiller. An adsorption chiller is a device that converts heat into cooling via a thermal cycle applied to an absorber made from silica gel, for example. Adsorption chillers, with water as working fluid, can replace compression chillers, which stress electrical grids in hot climates and contain working fluids that are harmful to the ozone layer. 

Scientists envision the HCPVT system providing sustainable energy and potable water to locations around the world including southern Europe, Africa, Arabian peninsula, the southwestern part of the United States, South America, and Australia. Remote tourism locations are also an interesting market, particularly resorts on small islands, such as the Maldives, Seychelles and Mauritius, since conventional systems require separate units, with consequent loss in efficiency and increased cost. 

Solar Power Incentives - The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is reaffirming its commitment to the environment, renewable energy, and the local economy.

Solar Power Incentives

The Solar Incentive Program is designed to meet escalating requests by customers eager to participate in one of the largest solar electric system installation programs in the nation. Since 1999 this Program has encouraged the development of over 17 MW of solar power and assists the LADWP in achieving its goal of providing 20% of its energy from renewable energy sources by 2010.

The program is structured as a 10 step declining incentive, based on the amount of solar installed and connected to LADWP’s energy grid. The LADWP Solar Incentive Program provides one lump sum payment to LADWP customers that purchase or lease solar photovoltaic (PV) systems to offset traditional energy consumption at the installation site. The Solar Incentive Program has two separate funding categories with different incentive levels to ensure broad and equitable distribution of funds.

Residential Solar Power Incentive

Commercial Solar Power Incentive

To receive an incentive payment from the LADWP, customers must apply for and receive a written, Confirmed Reservation number issued by the Solar Energy Group. The individual solar powered systems must meet the requirements outlined in Section 6.0 of the Solar Guidelines.

The LADWP incentive payment is a one time payment based on the estimated performance of the solar system. Using PVWatts Version 2, the annual kWh output is estimated and a formula is applied to give the customer a one time payment for 20 years of solar production. The LADWP Instructions for PVWatts Version 2 can be found at the bottom of this page. The incentive is calculated as follows:

Estimate the 1^st year energy production using the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s PVWatts Version 2 program x 20 years - If the solar PV equipment is leased, the incentive is prorated to the term of the lease agreement. x 0.9 (the system degradation factor) Multiply the results by the current incentive rate in $/kWh. (See Residential or Commercial Incentive Programs tables, and Section 2.3 - Funding Categories and Section 2.4 - Payment Calculation of the program guidelines.)

The intent of the Solar Incentive Program is to reduce the net cost to the end user of such systems, thereby stimulating the installation of reliable well designed generating systems located throughout the City and assisting in the establishment of a commercially viable solar PV industry. LADWP will also periodically review the results of the Incentive Program to determine if modifications or changes to the level of incentives or other program terms and conditions are necessary to achieve the overall program goals. LADWP reserves the right to modify or discontinue the solar Incentive Program at any time at the discretion of the LADWP Board of Water and Power Commissioners (Board). This Program is subject to funding availability.

If after reading the guidelines you require additional information about the Incentive Program, please contact the LADWP’s Solar Energy Group at (213) 367-4122.

About the California Solar Initiative

About the California Solar Initiative
As part of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Million Solar Roofs Program, California has set a goal to create 3,000 megawatts of new, solar-produced electricity by 2017 - moving the state toward a cleaner energy future and helping lower the cost of solar systems for consumers.
The California Public Utilities Commission, through its California Solar Initiative, provides over $2 billion in incentives over the next decade for existing residential homes and existing and new commercial, industrial, and agricultural properties.
The California Energy Commission manages a 10-year, $350 million program to encourage solar in new home construction through its New Solar Homes Partnership.
The overall goal is to help build a self-sustaining solar market.

• The California Solar Initiative Offers
  Photovoltaic incentives starting at $1.90 per watt for systems up to one megawatt in size.
• Funds for solar installations for existing and new low-income and affordable housing.
• A pay-for-performance incentive structure to reward high-performing solar projects.
• The California Solar Initiative will be coordinated with the state's energy efficiency, "smart" metering, and building standards programs at the Public Utilities Commission and Energy Commission, ensuring that the state is using its energy resources wisely.

• What are the benefits of Renewable Energy Technologies?
  Reliability
  Generate your own electricity using renewable resources. If you use a solar PV system, your electric utility can "store" your electricity, and supply it when your system is not generating.
• Security
  Provide a secure back-up source of electricity for your home or business, while making use of our indigenous energy resources.
• Environmentally Friendly
  Use clean, replenishable resources that do not pollute or contribute to global climate change.
• Sustainability
  Help ensure our energy future by tapping into an "infinite" power supply.
  

• Who is eligible to apply?
  All types of electricity customers are eligible: residential, commercial, agricultural and industrial.
• You can buy your electricity from any electric service provider, but your proposed site must be within the utility electricity service area of: Pacific Gas and Electric, San Diego Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, or Bear Valley Electric Company.
• You must also remain connected to the utility grid.