Photovoltaic power as an alternative to coal

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Analysis

Photovoltaic power is electricity generated by photovoltaic or "solar" cells, which convert light energy from the sun into electrical energy."Solar Cell Wikki," Wikkipedia accessed September 2009</ref> Solar cells have come a long way, both in efficiency and cost,"Masdar Press Release," , Reuters Media Release, August 21, 2008.</ref> and are an increasingly viable and common way to offset electricity use, both domestic and commercial"US Installed Base," Reuters, March 20, 2009.</ref> The key drawback in solar energy generation is that when the sun goes down, there is no new energy created. As such, its use is dependent on storage of energy for use during the night. However, as one article points out, its electricity production maximizes at under the same conditions that tend to overtax powergrids; hot sunny days. Solar "farms" can be set up in land that is not suited for other purposes like farming, making it relatively cheap. Typically, such farms are most viable in locations away from cities, requiring High Voltage Direct Current lines to be installed to transport the power. lists the average baseline cost for pulverized coal at 5.8 cents per kilowatt hour (c/kwh), or the more realistic cost of coal power generated from Powder River Basin (PRB) coal, a coal which usually has fewer contaminants and therefore somewhat bypasses the sulfur caps on coal-fired generation, is priced at 6.8 c/kwh. By comparison, the same chart lists wind at 7.1 c/kwh (while noting shortages and energy transportation factors are not included) and concentrated solar (CSP) at between 7 and 11 c/kwh. The "The War on Coal: Think Outside the (Coal) Pits" paper goes on to suggest that the price of coal-fired power is going up due to a variety of reasons and is poised to do so even further, perhaps cataclysmically so. Further, the House and Senate have been hammering out bills to reduce carbon emissions from power generation, and even energy execs expect at least a carbon cap trading system to be in place within a few years. This alone is likely, even in the more moderate estimates, to drive the cost of coal generation to be within the same range as renewables: 7.9 c/kwh for pulverized coal, 8.4 c/kwh with Powder River Basin coal according to the same S&P chart. Meanwhile, as renewable energy markets expand, the setup associated costs will go down as both technology becomes more available and established plants pay off their initial costs, meaning that the price for renewable power is only going to go down. (reference pending)

Resources

Related SourceWatch articles

• Concentrating Solar Power
• Concentrating solar power land use
• Grid parity

External resources

• Jon Ryann, "Let buildings heat and cool themselves: How to kill coal in 10 years," Gristmill, February 20, 2008
• "Power from rooftops could replace coal," Gar Lipow, Gristmill, 6/30/08
• "A Solar Grand Plan," Ken Zweibel, James Mason and Vasilis Fthenakis, Scientific American, December 2007.
• "Tackling Climate Change in the U.S.: Potential Carbon Emissions Reductions from Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy by 2030," American Solar Energy Society, January 2007.
• "The War on Coal: Think Outside the (Coal) Pits," Khosla Ventures, 2007 (PDF file)
• "U.S. installed solar capacity up 17 percent in 2008", Reuters, March 20, 2009.
• "Masdar Breaks Ground on Photovoltaic Factory in Germany", Media Release, August 21, 2008.
• "Solar Cell" Wikkipedia
• "Solar-Powered Hydrogen Generation" Technology Review, December 12 2006

References

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