Stanford Presents Plan for 100% Renewable Grid in California by 2050

In a comprehensive paper, researchers led by Dr. Mark Jacobson at Stanford University have released a report detailing how California can be transitioned to a completely renewable grid, powered by wind, water and sun, by 2050.  Below is a copy of the Abstract, and the full report is hosted at this link here.

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Abstract

This study presents a roadmap to convert California’s all-purpose (for electricity, transportation, heating/cooling, industry) energy infrastructure to one derived entirely from wind, water, and sunlight (WWS) generating electricity and electrolytic hydrogen. We outline the requirements, costs, benefits, and policies needed for the conversion. The plan contemplates all new energy capacity powered with WWS by 2020, 80-85% of all energy use powered with WWS by 2030, and 100% by 2050. Electrification plus modest efficiency measures would reduce California’s end-use power demand ~44% and stabilize energy prices since WWS fuel costs are zero. Complete conversion of California’s energy system to WWS by 2050 would create 205,000 net permanent jobs, eliminate ~16,000 (4,800-29,600) state air pollution deaths/yr, avoid $131 (39-296) billion/yr in health costs (6.9% of California’s 2010 gross domestic product), and reduce 2050 global climate costs by $48 billion/yr. The California air-pollution health benefits plus global climate benefits from eliminating California emissions would repay the $1.15 trillion capital cost of the 631 GW installed power of a 100% WWS system within ~6 years.

TODAY is Shout Out for Solar Day

OCRenewabler's... HAPPY GO SOLAR DAY. Here is an article from ASES Executive Director Seth Masia with an update on where we are today with solar in our society. Enjoy!

Unity on Shout Out for Solar Day

The recent attacks on solar arrays for homes and businesses have opened some fault lines within the renewable energy community.

Specifically, with the backing of fossil fuel companies and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), investor-owned utility companies across the country are trying to roll back the net metering rules that encourage the operation of small solar arrays in 43 states. (For background, see Utilities Fight Net Metering State by State.)

Utility companies actually love solar and wind power. They’ve found that free fuel is a great concept and that they can make money selling the power, which turns out not to be as intermittent and undependable as they still claim. But for-profit utilities (as opposed to municipal utilities) love solar and wind only when it’s generated by very large central generating plants – large wind and solar farms. When power comes from central plants it can be sold and billed on the traditional transmission line model, a business model invented by Thomas Edison and Samuel Insull in 1883.

But when solar and wind are used to generate power at small user-owned stations, on rooftops and ranchland, users don’t pay for the electricity they use on site. That constitutes only about 1 percent of America’s power right now, but it’s growing fast – according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, installations in 2013 rose to 4.3 gigawatts, up 27 percent over 2012, and small arrays accounted for 20 percent of that in the third quarter.

Up to 90 percent of those small arrays are installed by leasing companies. And so we have a sorry divide opening between homeowners and small business owners and leasing companies and small installers on one side, and for-profit utility companies on the other.

Solar equipment companies are neutral in this game. They want to sell photovoltaic panels and inverters to large developers and to small-array owners.

Not quite analogous is the divide in wind. Utilities love big wind farms and hate small wind installations. Manufacturers of large wind turbines for utility-scale use do not sell small wind turbines for farmers, ranchers and small businesses. In general they wouldn’t mind if the small wind industry simply blew away.

It’s important for voters and consumers to understand that when a for-profit utility company boasts about how much solar and wind it uses, that doesn’t mean the company wants you to have your own power generating system. They don’t. And they’re working behind the scenes to kill net metering so you won’t want your own system. If you already have one, they’re working to charge you more simply for using it.

If utility companies were really interested in the rapid growth of renewable energy, they would work to revise their own outdated business model. They’d admit in public that distributed generation saves money on fuel and infrastructure, and thus benefits all ratepayers. And they’d figure out how to share the cost saving with the ratepayers who contribute power to the system by building solar and wind with their own money.

In the meantime, solar and wind advocates can’t risk being recruited to the wrong side in this debate. The American Solar Energy Society supports America Supports Solar, Vote Solar, and the dozen other pro-solar political initiatives. We’d like to see all these movements declare explicitly that they unite on the side of small arrays as well as big ones. ASES chapters in 43 states expect your support in maintaining the growth of small systems, through net metering and feed-in tariffs. We oppose efforts by for-profit utility companies to kill the goose.

Facts about tax dollars and energy in the US

First off, Happy New Year!  Now, down to business.  The recent 60 Minutes segment on the Clean Tech industry has received an enormous negative backlash from seemingly every nook and cranny of the industry calling for everything from corrections to the reporting to out right reversal of most of the information reported.  Here are links to just a few of the protests:

ThinkProgress.org
CleanTechnica.org
HuffingtonPost.com
Grist.com
TheEnergyCollective.com
MediaMatters.org

Us here at OC Renewables had a similar feeling about the story.  It seemed incredibly one sided, showing how tax payer dollars went to companies and institutions trying to develop technology and products in clean tech, with some of them failing.  As anyone who plays in the world of new technology and new products should know, most new things will fail.  However, what 60 Minutes completely missed was that this failure is NOT A BAD THING.  Technologists and engineers know that failure is a valuable tool meant to weed the good ideas from the bad and push the development of new technology and ideas forward.  The only bad failure is prolonged failure.

But, the other shocking part of this story was the complete lack of balance.  It was never once mentioned how much tax payer money goes towards conventional sources of energy.  And, even more shocking, there was no mention of emissions from conventional energy vs clean energy.  Why on earth the staff at 60 Minutes thought they could get this one over the clean tech industry is 100% beyond me.

If you want to see some real facts on tax dollars in energy, check out the image below, and you can decide for yourself if tax payer dollars are being spent fairly with regards to energy in the US.

Great solar gift from a local OC entrepreneur

Happy holidays from OCR!  I am writing to spread some holiday cheer and also spread the word about a cool product produced by a local OC company, OC Outdoor Solar, and OCR member Brian Yanity.  Brian has developed a beach umbrella / tent mountable flexible solar panel for charging your cellphone.  

He is offering a special Holiday price of $49.99 for the device, a nice gift for the outdoorsman or solar enthusiast in your family.  Check out a pic of the product in action below:

Click on this link here to visit the website for more information and ordering instructions.

Congrats to Solar Decathlon Team Austria!

A quick congrats to first place winner Team Austria at this year's Solar Decathlon!  The first ever Decathlon outside of Washington DC wrapped last night at the great park in Irvine and from all signs was a smashing success over the two week period.  Even last night at 6:30pm the line to get into the Team Austria house was around the block!

The line to get into the 2013 Decathlon winner, Team Austria, stretches around and around!

Also, thanks to all who stopped by the OC Renewables / ASES booth in the SunShot Pavilion.   It was great to see so many OC locals interested in learning more about renewable energy.  We will be adding your email to our network list and contacting you soon about great events and opportunities for you to get involved with renewable energy in the OC.

For more information and pics of the Decathlon, visit www.solardecathlon.gov

For more information on joining ASES and getting your subscription to Solar Today started, visit www.ases.org

We need volunteers for the OC Renewables booth at Solar Decathlon 2013 this weekend!

This is the final weekend for the DOE Solar Decathlon happening at the Great Park in Irvine.  This weekend, OC Renewables / ASES will have a booth in the SunShot Innovations Pavilion and WE NEED VOLUNTEERS to man it!  

We will have free copies of Solar Today and free information about ASES Solar to distribute.  Volunteers will be required to talk a little about clean tech in the OC, recommend visitors to join ASES and how to join the email list of OC Renewables.

If you think you have some time to help out, please email Adam with the window you can attend.  All times are available from Oct 10 - 13, from 11AM to 7PM.

For more information about the event, check out the website here:  http://www.solardecathlon.gov/

DOE Solar Decathlon 2013 has started!

Come one, come all to the Irvine Great Park for the 2013 DOE Solar Decathlon, which started today!  The event is free to the public and public viewing hours are 11am to 7pm on Oct 3 - 7 and Oct 10 -13.

Some of you may ask.. "What is a solar decathlon?  Is there any running involved on my part?"  The answer is NO RUNNING, but quite a bit of walking as you tour "solar homes" that have been built by university teams around the world to compete for the top honors at this DOE sponsored annual competition.  Visitors get to see the latest in sustainable design, architecture and thinking as they tour the homes and talked to the passionate students who built these wonderful displays.  If you are a novice, it is great place to come and learn about all sorts of fun sustainability and renewable topics.  If you are a seasoned expert, you get the see the latest and greatest in the field!

This is the first year the event has been held outside of Washington DC, so lets show them what we're worth and get out to this event!

Visit the decathlon website at this link for more info.