Eleven Cool Names and Concepts to Watch in Air Conditioning

by: Michael Kanellos

March 31, 2009

Ice Energy's Ice Bear air conditioner cooling system creates ice at night when power is cheap.

Ice Energy

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Air conditioning management.

In most circumstances, it's not the kind of job that attracts groupies. Nonetheless, the subject will begin to occupy a greater portion of the energy debate as energy efficiency and green buildings expand. Building operations consume 39 percent of the energy in the U.S. and HVAC gobbles up a big part of that.  Air con and ventilation account for 15 percent of the energy used in commercial buildings, while heating accounts for 36 percent. Air conditioning represents about 16 percent of the electricity consumed in homes. The percentage of homes with air conditioning rose from 27 percent in 1980 to 55 percent in 2001.

Worse, the air conditioners come on during the hottest days in the year en masse, when power is at its peak price and brown-danger looms. Secretary of Energy Steve Chu, in his previous assignment at Lawrence Berkeley Labs, oversaw one of the premier research centers for building management.

Although companies such as Johnson Controls and Honeywell have continually improved the efficiency of their products, the design and operation of buildings, the aged install base and other factors leave a lot of room for improvement.

The following is a guide to startups and others trying to crank down the high cost of cooling.

1. AC Research: Formerly known as Viridis Earth, AC Research has effectively devised a computer-controlled misting system for residential air conditioners. The product essentially sprays water vapor into the air around an air conditioner, the same way misters at outdoor cafes keep patrons cool. The goal of the system is to keep the air around the air conditioner around 80 degrees, which in turns leaves less for the air conditioner to chill. The trick is getting the sensors and control systems to work together, says founder Tuyen Vo. Vo came up with the idea after the 2001 blackout. He learned about cooling when working with cryogenic pumps at a semiconductor maker.

Pre-cooling can save a home in a hot region around $500. AC will conduct trials with two utilities later this year.

2. Octus Energy: The company is trying to commercialize a technology out of UC Davis called WicKool that collects the condensate (i.e., water drops) extracted from the cool air flows created by an air conditioner and uses that to pre-cool incoming air. Octus Energy's design also lets building managers get rid of a condensation ejection system. It's a passive system but can improve air conditioner efficiency by 3 percent to 5 percent. It's been tested at a Walmart and Target in the Sacramento, Calif. area. WicKool may license to other companies.

3. Smart Cool Systems: Smart Cool Systems has algorithms that optimize the compressor in commercial or residential air conditioners, the component that can account for up to 70 percent of the power consumed by some systems. More than 26,000 of its energy saving modules have been installed. Smart Cool Systems has been around for nearly 20 years and is still small.

4. Chromasun: Chromasun has developed a solar air conditioner from Ausra co-founder Peter Le Lievre (see Ausra Co-Founder Returns With Solar Air Conditioner). Solar air conditioner? Heat is captured with a rooftop device similar to a solar thermal power plant. The heat is then used, instead of natural gas, to boil a refrigerant in a solution in a sealed chamber. Through heat exchangers and manipulating the pressure inside the sealed chambers, the refrigerant is re-condensed into a low-temperature liquid and employed create cold air. The evaporation-condensation cycle goes as long as the sun provides enough heat.

Fifty percent of the demand for power during peak periods in California and 70 percent of the power in Dubai can be attributed to air conditioners, according to Le Lievre. Peak power typically comes when air conditioners are cranking their hardest.

"Ninety-five percent of that can be tackled by a solar thermal air conditioner on the roof," he said. "The biggest market is for peak AC."

5. Ice Energy: This one is best understood without technical talk. Ice Energy's Ice Bear makes ice at night, when power is cheap. The stored energy (i.e., chilly vapor) then runs the air conditioner at night. Remember sticking your head in the fridge on sunny days and breathing? Similar principle. The company says its systems collectively have performed for two million hours in the field and that it is currently bidding on twenty utility projects.

6. GroundSource Geothermal: Sandblasting with steel. GroundSource Geothermal has devised a way to drill holes for geothermal cooling systems with steel sand, rather than a drill bit. The drilling unit, which relies in part by ideas from some of the same people who brought you the hot rock geothermal technology at Los Alamos National Labs, can also take advance acoustic readings of soil to improve drilling efficiency. The technology is also being improved so you can drill through the foundation of your house. it can also be used for heating and cooling.

While Lord Kelvin first studied ground temperatures, Robert Webber invented the first shallow geo heat pumps. Throughout most of the U.S., the temperature of the ground about five feet below the surface remains roughly constant throughout the year: 45 degrees to 50 degrees Fahrenheit in the northern parts of the country and 50 degrees to 70 degrees in the south.

7. PhotoSolar, Sage Electrochromics: Technically, PhotoSolar and Sage Electrochromics are not air conditioner companies, but they keep heat from entering buildings, which reduces the strain on the air conditioner. Denmark's PhotoSolar has a film that keeps out 50 percent of solar radiation. Sage has windows that dynamically change tint with daylight: after several years of development Sage is moving toward a wider commercial release.

In this same vein, more things you can add to the list are LED and energy efficient lighting companies like Bridgelux (less waste heat – less air conditioner work), contractors selling white roofs (heat reflectors), data center efficiency experts, and industrial waste heat specialists like Recycled Energy Development.

8. Maglev compressors: This isn't a company name, we're just listing the concept. The same technology that allows high-speed trains to float in Japan is now being used to run compressors. "They are really incredible compressors," said David Leathers, a VP at Limbach, one of the country's larger engineering contractual firms. (Limbach has done work for the both the Detroit Lions and the NRDC, which will not be playing each other in the playoffs.)

9. Optimum Energy: The company thinks in tons. It has created software that dynamically adjusts the activity of water chillers in large buildings. Optimum Energy says it can cut the energy required for a ton of water in a large building's chiller system down to 0.5 kilowatts (see Better Cold Water Through Software). Older buildings can consume 1.4 kilowatts. Even LEED platinum buildings can consume 0.7 kilowatts, said founder Nathan Rothman, CEO. The software adjusts the activity of the chiller by looking at occupancy data, temperature, etc.

10. Cimetrics: Instead of controlling the water, Cimetrics controls what goes on inside your building. It monitors thermostats, carbon monoxide sensors and other systems. It then matches the performance of the HVAC system against a simulation that determines how it should be performing.

"It is like data mining for buildings," says CEO James Lee, who says the way Americans heat and cool buildings is "absolutely ridiculous."

11. Comverge, EnerNoc and other demand response companies: Although you've heard about the smart home, those smart meters and other wireless devices right now are primarily connected to the heating and air conditioning system.

And bonus number zero. Nothing. This is perhaps the ultimate system for reducing air con power. In some areas such as Seattle and Northern California, architects like Perkins + Will are just leaving out the air conditioners. It cuts power and gives developers a nice bonus of LEED points. This can be supplemented with air side economizers that draw in scrubbed ambient air. (These devices can also be used to cool data centers in cold climates like Ireland.)

An Interview With eSolar's Bill Gross

By Chris Morrison | March 31st, 2009 @ 4:40 am

Bill Gross might just be the quintessential inventor / entrepreneur. Born in the late 1950s, Gross began inventing gadgets in high school, and had founded a company by college. After graduating he started making software; among his various innovations, Gross could be called responsible for the advertising concept that has made Google so rich. In 1996, he founded Idealab, an incubator for new tech startups.

Today, Idealab houses or has investments in electric car company Aptera, concentrating solar system designer Energy Innovations, Infinia (which I just covered in Fortune Small Business), and other cleantech companies. Then there's eSolar, which Gross heads up personally. With money from Google.org and Oak Investment Partners, the company is one of only a small handful of solar startups that may be close to competing with fossil fuels on price.

The technology that eSolar uses is a form of solar thermal, in which many mirrors focus sunlight on water enclosed in a pipe or chamber, which then turns to steam, driving a turbine. For eSolar, that means 16 fields of 12,000 mirrors each focusing on "power towers", which send their steam to a central turbine, producing 46 megawatts of power. The first eSolar plant will produce steam next month and electricity in May; if all goes according to plan, partners will then begin building full-scale solar thermal plants.

BNET: What led to founding eSolar?
Gross: I was in high school during the energy crisis of 1978, reading Popular Science, loving trigonometry. So I decided to build a parabola. I took metal shop and worked on ways to make it cheaper. I decided to advertise my plans, and sold them for $4 after copying them for $1. Over the next 3 years, I sold 10,000 copies, and they paid my way through CalTech – actually, they probably got me accepted to CalTech.

Then when I graduated, the energy crisis was over. And an IBM PC had come out, so I bought one and started writing software. After 2000, I dusted off my parabola plans and saw what had happened over 20 years. I was surprised — it wasn't much at all.

BNET: You've quoted prices for electricity from eSolar plants that are lower than what competitors claim. So how do you make solar cheaper?
Gross: Mirrors are two thirds of the cost. In the early days, people built fields with 10 square meter mirrors and said hey,it's too expensive. So how do we make it cheaper? Let's make it bigger! They went to 20, 50 meters. In Spain they're over 100 square meters. And every single parabola needs to be hand-tuned.My conclusion was, you need to go smaller, not bigger. When that happens you have less up in the wind. For the same reason wind mills go high, you want to stay low.

The only problem when you get smaller is software control. We can't afford to have a human survey 24,000 locations. You couldn't have done this product 10 years ago. Even 5 years ago, what we're paying $5 for a microprocessor would have been $1,000. Our breakthrough has been to use flat mirrors and software to direct them. Now the field costs just a third of the total.

BNET: What are you projecting your costs to be?
Gross: We can build and install these plants for between $2.50 and $3 per watt. The levelized cost of energy will then depend on the sunshine. That will also vary. The combination of cost per watt to build and sunshine will yield levelized energy costs in the range of 10 cents. In some areas we can compete with natural gas with no subsidies, today. The areas that make sense are the southwest United States, western India, Australia, Mediterranean Europe / Northern Africa and the Middle East are ok. Outside of that you'll want thin-film or solar PV.

BNET: Are you concerned about competition?
Gross: The market is so large, we almost don't view anyone as competitors. It's in the hundreds of gigawatts, if not terawatts, if we can get the price right.

All of us are going at a way of getting the cost of construction and deployment low enough to compete without a subsidy. The other companies are all taking slightly different approaches. And I think solar thermal in general is the cheapest way of doing solar. It means people can get electricity with less of a rate increase. I sort of want us all to succeed, because that will convince governments that we deserve investment.

BNET: Companies hoping to build big solar thermal plants in the desert are running into political and environmental roadblocks. Is that a problem for eSolar?
Gross: Of the $130 million we raised, we spent $30 million on land. We went and bought, specifically, previously disturbed farmland near transmission. So we don't have to worry about wildlife migration patterns. We bought private land, so we don't need special permission. Our 46 megawatt plant takes up  a quarter square mile, much smaller than other power tower plants. And one other benefit of going smaller is that the towers are smaller; that's important for neighbors. If you're above 180 feet, the FAA comes into play and neighbors may complain. We stayed lower than 180, around the height transmission towers are anyway. So we can locate much closer to the city.

But [society] still can't decide that we want clean energy, but not make some other sacrifice to get it. We're building power plants with zero emissions or ill effects on the environment. Even if you don't believe in global warming, there are still bad things about coal plants. I think we need some relavitism. We should make the least impact possible, and not ruin pristine wildlife. But people have ruined pristine wildlife with coal plants that kill 10,000 people in the neighborhood yearly. I think coal plants have better lobbyists.

BNET: Financing troubles have hurt other renewables. Will solar thermal be able to buck the trend and keep growing through the recession?
Gross: About a year ago, you could build a solar plant and get money at 5-7 percent interest. As financing rates have gone up to the 12-14 percent range, every point of interest rate cuts about 5 points of gross margin for the company doing the install. If it was 6 and now it's 11, that ate your 20 percent margin. That's why for PV it's not happening. We're very lucky because of the cost of our technology. We're economic even at 12-15 percent interest. We make less profit, but at least we're still profitable. As interest rates come down, it will get better.

But not only are the interest rates high, some banks still aren't lending. They're too scared. Outside of solar, we have this building in Pasadena that eSolar is in. What if you borrowed against the building – just half? Wells Fargo won't even loan for that. The climate is so bad for borrowing money on projects, everyone is looking for loan guarantees from the Fed.

But you don't want to rely on the government. You need private capital. Unfortunately, the banks aren't acting like banks, they're acting mattresses.

Power-up for clean technology

John Dyson
April 1, 2009 - 12:09AM

AMID the gathering clouds of the global economic storm, clean technology innovation can offer Australia a ray of hope.

Clean technology is more than energy solutions for a polluted planet. It is promoting innovation in all industry sectors, from water preservation and quality to housing, food supply and security.

Australia was behind the first wave of clean energy innovations now powering the world. Twenty years ago, solar photovoltaic cell technology left for Spain. Shortly after, evacuated tube technology went to China. Then evacuated glazing technology went to Japan.

In 2001, Dr Shi and his solar cells developed at the University of NSW went to China — and his company Suntech is now the world's biggest producer of solar panels. In 2002, crystalline glass technology went to Germany. In 2007, the solar thermal compact linear Fresnel reflector from the University of NSW went to the US.

If we can develop the next wave of clean technology industries, we will be rewarded with hundreds of thousands of green infrastructure and manufacturing jobs, export industries, and investment and re-investment in Australian science and entrepreneurs.

Australia has abundant resources when it comes to wind, solar, tidal and geothermal power generation. Despite past losses, we have a new crop of clean technology companies poised to become world leaders, capable of growing into huge export-earners and job-creators.

We are world class in developing solar thermal technology, concentrating photovoltaic systems, developing thin-wafer solar cells and harnessing wave and tidal energy, with companies such as Ausra, Solar Systems, Oceanlinx, BioPower and CETO garnering attention overseas, and geothermal companies such as Geodynamics, Petratherm, Green Rock and Panax leading the field. We need to invest in these industries to enable them to become competitors with wind technology — an important industry, with imported technology and equipment. As yet, however, most of the benefits are flowing to other countries.

But to create these new industries, we need the right national investment structure to nurture our scientific research, support on-shore commercialisation and establish standards.

Globally, clean technologies have attracted serious investment. New Energy Finance found new investment in energy technologies expanded by 4.7 per cent, from $US148.4 billion ($A216.5 billion) in 2007, to $US155.4 billion in 2008. This includes venture capital, project finance, public markets and research and development expenditure. And some clean technology investments have already justified their early investment. Global revenues from the solar photovoltaics, wind power and biofuels sectors increased 53 per cent in 2008 — and are predicted to reach US$325 billion in the next decade, the latest Clean Energy Trends report shows.

Yesterday Australia's clean technology investment leaders met in Melbourne to review the return on investment potential and how governments and the private sector could support the growth of this national asset. Starfish Ventures, among other venture-capital firms, is investing in clean technology and searching for companies with the technology and leadership to ensure Australia develops the next crop of leaders.

In recent weeks, the Federal Government has committed itself

to an $83 million Innovation Investment Follow-on Fund to help more than 20 venture-capital fund managers licensed by the Commonwealth under existing programs. This is a welcome move and a step in the right direction.

Federal and state governments are also playing a key role in creating the right regulatory structure to attract investment for local and international firms. This so far includes the proposed emissions trading scheme and renewable energy target.

While it is important to get these policies right, the investment community urgently needs regulatory clarity so investors can plan funds allocations and nurture current investments for the years ahead.

In the latter part of the last century, Australia developed strong manufacturing, construction and natural resources sectors. It is now time to seriously commit to a clean technology innovation and commercialisation program — and keep backing these companies until they grow into national brands.

By supporting research, innovation and entrepreneurship, Australians stand to reap the much-needed financial and intellectual benefits for decades to come.

John Dyson is investment principal at Starfish Ventures.

This story was found at: http://business.theage.com.au/business/powerup-for-clean-technology-20090331-9idf.html

The producers of photovoltaic modules with thin layers lower their production costs and become more competitive

THIS POST WAS WRITTEN BY ON MARCH 29, 2009 

POSTED UNDER: ENERGY

The production of electricity from photovoltaic (PV) could compete with conventional power plants earlier than expected: for the first time, the production costs of the American company First Solar, which produces thin-film cells in telluride Cadmium (CdTe), have fallen below a dollar per watt ($ 0.98 / W). The success of the U.S. serves as a landmark reference in terms of competitiveness by PV solar electricity. Until now, PV technologyis not competitive vis-à-vis conventional energy sources, because its production was too expensive, particularly because of the cost of silicon (Si), a material that generates electricity in the current PV cells. Experts were expecting the "parity network"  in Germany for 2015 at the earliest. Thanks to recent progress, this parity network seems to be in time, according to Holger Krawinkel, energy expert at the Federation of Central consumers . According to him, "the First Solar modules could already produce electricity for an equivalent of 0.20 to 0.25 euros per kilowatt hour." But the current price of electricity in Germany currently around 0.20 euros / kWh.According to the company's CEO, Mike Ahern, First Solar has reduced production costs due to a rapid increase in production and a better product and process. "Our production has increased by 5000% between 2005 and today to reach 1000 MW. At the same time, the demand for materials has decreased and the performance of the modules has increased. First Solar is one of the few producers of thin film cells on an industrial scale. The company replaced the Si layer by a hundred times smaller made of a semiconductor CdTe. It captures many photons, such as Si, but its production is less expensive while technology crystalline silicon blocks are first sliced, then worked in several stages to provide solar cells, First Solar files directly to the semiconductor from a few micrometers thick on the glass. A disadvantage of thin film modules is their relatively low yield (11%) are less efficient than crystalline silicon modules, which convert about 15% of light into electricity. In addition, CdTe PV cells need a surface larger than the crystalline Si cells to produce the same amount of electricity. High prices offset installation and negative, in part the low cost of production. However, along with First Solar, increasing competition and other companies engaged in the production of PV modules with thin layers: - The U.S. AVA Solar has invested $ 150 million in a new facility, which should begin in April 2009 the production of CdTe modules. AVA Solar will soon be in production costs below $ 1 / W. - Berlin Inventux The company pursues the same objective. It happened since late 2008 modules if said "micromorphe. The technique is a further development panels to thin film cells marketable, made from simple amorphous Si. With the help of an additional absorber microcrystalline Si deposited on the amorphous layer, the producer has improved the electrical efficiency of more than 8%. The savings will be, above all, due to economies of scale associated with increased production. The company doubled the capacity of its facility in Berlin from 33 MW in the next 2 years. - The U.S. company Nanosolar has developed a production process that prints on a film of tiny nanoparticles of copper, indium, gallium and selenium (CIGS) and possibly sulfur. The producers want to reduce costs only 0.30 to 0.35 dollars with their innovative method of printing. The plants are ready to start series production. In a 430 MW plant in San Jose, California, Nanosolar producing cells to be transformed into modules Luckenwalde near Berlin. Despite growing competition, First Solar is confident in its position as market leader. "With expansion coming, we want to reduce costs 0.65 to $ 0.70 / W by 2012," said the businessman Ahern. According to experts, the techniques for thin film PV will win many shares in the coming years thanks to their high potential for development. However, the effectiveness and costs of silicon solar cells are still capable of improvement.

China experiments with solar-thermal power

Mar 26, 2009

Power from the sun in China

Construction is due to start later this month on an experimental solar–thermal power plant in the shadow of China's Great Wall that will bring clean energy to 30,000 households by 2010. Built on the outskirts of Beijing at a cost of £10m, the 1.5 MW Dahan plant will cover an area the size of 10 football pitches, and will serve as a platform for experiments on different solar-power technologies.

Unlike photovoltaic solar panels, which produce electricity directly from sunlight, solar–thermal power is based on an array of mirrors that focus the Sun's rays onto a receiver. Several solar-thermal plants are already operating elsewhere in the world — notably in California's Mojave Desert and in Granada in Spain — but the Dahan facility will be the first of its kind in Asia.

"The actual amount of power generated is small, but it is a big step for China to go into solar-thermal power generation using its own designs," says Christoph Richter, site manager of the German Aerospace Centre at the Plataforma Solar de Alméria, a solar-power research centre in Tabernas, Spain.

100 'heliostat' mirrors

The Chinese design relies on 100 curved "heliostat" mirrors that track the Sun's movement across the sky and redirect light onto a receiver atop a 100m–high central tower. Water flowing through the receiver is transformed into superheated steam, which can then drive electricitygenerating turbines as in a conventional power plant. Surplus energy is stored as heat, with a tank of synthetic oil serving as a reservoir for the high temperature (350^oC) heat needed to produce superheated steam, and a second system "downstream" to store heat at lower temperatures.

Such two stage thermal storage boosts the plant's efficiency, notes Zhihao Yao, a researcher at the Laboratory of Solar Thermal Energy in Beijing and member of the Dahan design team. The oil used in the Dahan storage system is also cheaper than the molten salts used to store heat at the Spanish facility, in part because the salts' high melting point means that such systems must be drained when the plant is not in use.

Favourable sign

Keeping costs down is important. "In China, the cost for using their own coal is unbeatable, unless you factor in the environmental damage," says Richter. Another snag is the large amount of land needed. David Faiman, director of Israel's Ben-Gurion National Solar Energy Center, notes that China's energy demand increased by about 430 terawatt–hours in 2007, and simply keeping up with this expansion would require devoting about 3000 km² of the Gobi desert each year to solar-thermal power. Still, the fact that China is investing in solar power on any scale is a "favourable sign", he adds.

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The next step for the Chinese will be to enlarge the Dahan plant to 5–10 MW. This will happen by 2015, deputy project leader Li Xin toldhysicsworld.com. A separate 1000 MW plant is being planned for the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia, with support from Solar Millennium, the German firm that built the plant in Granada, but this commercial–scale facility is still a few years away.

About the author

Margaret Harris is Reviews and Careers Editor on Physics World

Salt-Free Solar: CSP Tower Using Air

March 12, 2009

Concentrating solar power (CSP) is an emerging technology that offers the potential to supply utility-scale peaking power competitively.

by Mark Schmitz, Solar Institut Julich

London, UK [Renewable Energy World Magazine]

In December 2008, a 1.5 MWe solar thermal central receiver system was declared operational by plant construction company Kraftanlagen Munchen. Although solar tower technology had been built as early as the 1970s and a second commercial tower is now close to completion (see REW magazine July/August 2008) the so-called Test and Demonstration Power Plant Julich, in Germany, is the world's first solar thermal power plant erected which uses air as the medium for heat transport.

In all previous plants liquid media such as molten salt or oil have been used for the obvious reason of their high specific heat capacity, which in turn results in low volume flow rates and low pumping losses.

The great disadvantage of these concepts is that the solar radiation concentrated by the heliostat field to fluxes of 500 to 1000 suns is in air and that to transfer the heat it has to pass through a wall. This results in exchanger surface temperatures substantially higher than the fluid temperatures within. And, as the absorber surface faces the ambient environment it suffers thermal losses due to convection and – increasingly important for high temperatures according to the Stefan-Boltzmann law – re-radiation.

In contrast, the Jülich power tower uses the so-called volumetric effect to increase efficiency. Ambient air is sucked through a blackened porous structure on which the solar radiation is focused. The air cools the outer parts of the receiver and is heated up gradually to the design temperature level at the inner surface. Under ideal conditions, the temperature of the radiating outer surface can even be below that of the working fluid. Air also has the additional obvious advantages of being both environmentally benign and free.

The hot air is then fed into a state-of-the-art heat recovery steam cycle, conventionally used for the exhaust heat of gas turbines in combined cycle plants.

Professor Bernhard Hoffschmidt, Head of the Solar-Institute Jülich (SIJ) – part of the Aachen University of Applied Sciences – and initiator of the project, points out this implies another potentially big advantage, saying: 'Gas turbines driven by fossil or biogenous fuels are easily integrated into the solar system and can supply power at times of no solar radiation, allowing for 24 hour operation.' The SIJ is currently investigating different modes of hybridisation for various power levels and environmental conditions.

Alternatively, heat storage may be used to align supply and demand and the Jülich plant features a storage system consisting of honeycomb-type ceramic blocks, through which air passes in one direction for charging, and in the other for discharging. As the discharged air has the same temperature as when charging, no energy is lost, making the system highly efficient.

While considering the solar resource Jülich is not the ideal location for a solar power facility, it is when regarding the scientific and industrial resource. Situated in the Rhineland it is close to the German Aerospace Center (DLR), and the University of Aachen, with its institutes of high expertise regarding conventional power plants, as well as the SIJ. For that reason those mentioned have founded the Virtual Institute of Central Receiver Power Plants (vICERP) in order to set up a detailed dynamic simulation model of the power plant, used for testing advanced control strategies. A first enterprise has been founded aiming at the promotion of the technology.

This spring will see the first solar runs, but even today the list of up-coming improvements and innovations is long and many ideas are currently under investigation at the SIJ. These include:

• New heliostat concepts and new means of control.
• The absorber structure has been mainly designed for the reliability required of a prototype plant. In commercial plants designs with higher efficiencies can applied.
• At the edge of the receiver, radiation of relatively low concentration is lost (the so-called spillage). Specially designed edge modules are to make use of this energy.
• Storage concepts based on sand have been studied with promising results.
• Custom-made boilers for the integration of gas turbines will be developed.

The biggest rise in efficiency, however, will be due to scaling up the plants to power levels where steam cycles can operate more efficiently. With big industry and foreign governments standing in line for the construction of the next plant, the step in this direction seems to be at hand.

Mark Schmitz is head of the Regenerative Systems unit of the Solar-Institut Jülich.

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2009/03/salt-free-solar-csp-tower-using-air?src=rss

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Plan To Set Up 10 MW Thermal Power Plant-Lucknow-Cities

The Times Of India 21 Feb 2009

LUCKNOW: After inviting private concerns to set up coal fired thermal power plants, the UP Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) is toying with the idea of setting up a solar thermal power plant in the state. The 10 MW plant, to be set up by a private company, is likely to come up in Unnao district.

Additional managing director, Narendra Bhooshan, in a letter sent to Aswani Kumar, director, ministry of non-conventional energy sources, government of India, on February 19 said that UPPCL has agreed in principal for installation of a 10 MW plant subject to terms set by UP State ElectricityRegulatory Commission (UPSERC).

According to the letter, M/s Power Cube Pvt Limited has indicated their interest in setting up a 10 MW plant in Unnao and have submitted their application for processing and finalising the power purchase agreement accordingly.

This would be the first such plant in the state once the UPSERC gives its nod to the power purchase conditions put forth by UPPCL. The commission had scrutinised the conditions on February 11. A final decision is yet to be taken on that regard.

The plant would work on the principle of conversion of sunlight into heat to boil water and turn a turbine to generate the electricity.

Chairman-cum-managing director, UPPCL, Navneet Sehgal said that the corporation is committed to encouraging the non-conventional sources ofenergy in the state. The corporation, had earlier asked the sugar mills owners to focus on energy production through bio-fuel. The mills, he said, would be given incentives and the problems faced by the mills would be solved.

UPPCL sources said that the power produced in the plant would be purchased directly by the corporation for being put into the northern grid. Small though, setting up of such a plant may herald a new era in the power production in the state which has largely restricted itself on conventional and exhaustible energy sources.

Ausra, United Technologies, Yeda R&D Among Leaders in Thermal Energy Storage Patent Landscape for Grid-Scale Concentrating Solar Thermal (CST)

IP Checkups announces the release of its Sector Patent Landscape report entitled, Grid-Scale Concentrated Solar Thermal: Thermal Energy Storage Technologies. The report highlights key players, patents and filing trends in the emerging thermal energy storage patent landscape.

Berkeley, CA (PRWEB) February 26, 2009 -- IP Checkups' Sector Patent Landscape report, Grid-Scale Concentrated Solar Thermal: Thermal Energy Storage Technologies identifies key patent holders for important CST thermal energy storage solutions including compressed steam, phase-change materials and molten salt. The report concludes that in order to protect new grid-scale thermal energy storage technologies, companies must carefully navigate a handful of patents with broad claims as well as a significant body of non-patent literature.

According to the report, United Technologies (UTX), together with subsidiaries Hamilton-Sundstrand and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, have obtained the broadest patent protection for molten salt thermal energy storage. SolarReserve is poised to take advantage of UTX's portfolio of patents through an exclusive licensing deal. In addition, a slew of up and coming companies and R&D labs including, Abengoa, Ausra, Bell Independent Power, Larkden Pty. Ltd., MeV Technology, SkyFuel, Solar Millennium, and Yeda Research & Development have aggressively filed patents on a variety of thermal storage technologies that will shape the patent landscape going forward.

Thermal energy storage is a key component to the long-term acceptance and success of grid-scale Concentrating Solar Power technologies (parabolic trough, linear fresnel, power tower, and dish-engine) by providing a means to remove the intermittent nature of the sun's energy and increase plant utilization. It is crucial for companies and investors to understand what technologies the key players in this space are protecting.

This 100 page in-depth Sector Patent Landscape Analysis identifies the fundamental patents, key players and emerging trends relating to patent coverage of various thermal energy storage technologies for CST applications. In all, 221 patent documents from the US, EP, JP and WO patent offices were uncovered that comprise the patent landscape.

The report breaks down the documents by filing date, geography, inventor, assignee and technology to identify key players, trends and fundamental patents in the field. In addition the report analyzes the level of patent protection including claims assessments, technology breadth and licensing agreements.

To learn more or purchase the report, visit www.ipcheckups.com/CST.

IP Checkups is a boutique Patent Analytics firm based in the Bay Area. The firm provides clients with customized competitive patent landscape analysis, technology sector overviews, and company patent portfolio profiles. IP Checkups' patent analysts combine traditional qualitative analysis with sophisticated software tools to dig deep into competitors' patent portfolios to understand how companies are positioned relative to each other in particular technology areas. Services include custom and off-the-shelf patent landscape overviews, company portfolio evaluations, patent monitoring and alerting services among others.

For more information contact Matthew Rappaport at (510) 981-1030 or visit www.ipcheckups.com.

Storing Solar Power in Salt

By MATTHEW L. WALD

SolarReserve

What if it were possible to have solar power even when the clouds close in, or in the middle of the night? What if it were so reliable, it could fill the gap when the wind dies down and turbines stop spinning?

It's all possible, said Terry Murphy, president of SolarReserve. The company's design uses the sun's heat to boil water and spin a turbine — not unlike other "solar thermal" concepts that are now common. But where a typical system uses mirrors to concentrate sunlight and heat water; SolarReserve uses them to heat a salt, which melts into a liquid about twice as dense as water — and here's the catch: stored in thermal silo, the melted salt is able to maintain vast amounts of heat, which can be tapped later for use in power production.

The company received a second round of financing — $140 million — just last fall, and hopes to break ground next year.

SolarReserve's heat concentrators are not terribly different from other similar systems. It includes a tower that resembles a tall smokestack at a coal plant. At the top is a black cylinder that absorbs heat, and surrounding that are 17,000 mirrors, each six meters by seven meters, and each mounted on a stanchion that looks like a short lamp-post, and controlled by a computer that turns it to reflect sunlight unto the cylinder, regardless of season of the year or time of day.

The big difference is in the two storage tanks at the base of the tower. They can hold salt with enough heat to run the generators for hours. A demonstration deployment in the 1980s generated about 10 megawatts – enough to run about ten small shopping centers. The design SolarReserve hopes to break ground on next year would generate up to 300 megawatts.

"People talk about baseload capacity as the holy grail," Mr. Murphy said, referring to plants that can run dependably around the clock, supplying the minimum expected demand. "But the real holy grail is dispatchability,'' he said.

He compared it to pumped hydro, in which water is pumped up hill in the middle of the night, so it can run back down during the day when power is used. In this case, he said, it is "pumped solar."

A German company, Solar Millennium, is currently building a plant in Spain that also stores heat in molten salt. But the United States may be a better market, said Mr. Murphy, because prices paid by utilities vary so much; it might even pay to gather heat in the morning and sell it as electricity in the afternoon, when the prices — and demand — are much higher.

Mr. Murphy, who said he had 40 plants under development, also suggested that as the penetration of wind power increased, there would be more demand for "dispatchable" power from low-carbon sources, like his solar thermal design, when the wind stops blowing.

eSolar to build 1,000MW of solar power plants in India

Published:06-March-2009

By Datamonitor staff writer

Names ACME as a master licensee of its modular, scalable technology and grants exclusive right to represent eSolar in India

eSolar, a producer of modular, scalable solar thermal power plants, has announced an exclusive licensing agreement with the ACME Group to build up to 1,000MW of solar thermal power plants in India over the next 10 years.

eSolar names ACME as a master licensee of its modular, scalable technology and grants the company the exclusive right to represent eSolar in India developing its own utility-scale solar thermal projects and working with other companies that want to build solar thermal power plants in India using eSolar technology.

The agreement combines both companies' resources to enable complete project capabilities, ranging from technology development and component manufacturing to power plant construction and operation. Additionally, ACME will make a $30 million equity investment in eSolar.

As a master licensee, ACME will build, own and operate solar thermal plants in India using eSolar's modular and scalable design and will work with other companies to build solar thermal power plants in India using eSolar technology. ACME has already signed power purchase memoranda of understanding for 250MW. Construction will start later in 2009 on the first 100MW of eSolar power plants.

Bill Gross, CEO of eSolar, said: "eSolar has produced the first solar energy that is competitive with fossil fuels. ACME's $30 million commitment demonstrates their confidence in eSolar's technology. We are committed to working with the very best partners, such as ACME, to scale deployment as quickly as possible around the world."

Solar-Thermal Energy Could Reduce Coal Plant’s Carbon Footprint

FEBRUARY 12, 2009

Using solar-thermal technology at coal-fired power stations could turn out to be the cheapest way to simultaneously expand solar energy use and reduce coal plants' carbon footprint. Or at least that's what the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is hoping to find out with a nine-month study, Technologyreview.comreports.

The nonprofit organization recently launched a $640,000 study to understand the scale of the opportunity and the engineering challenges involved with making the two technologies work together. The study will examine the potential use of solar-thermal technology at two coal-fired power stations in New Mexico and North Carolina.

Last month, five electric utilities in the U.S. and Canada joined EPRI to host studies of the impacts of retrofitting carbon capture technology to existing coal-fired power plants.

The idea is not entirely new: about six new and existing natural-gas power stations are being designed or adapted to incorporate solar-thermal technology.  However, the overall efficiency of retrofitted hybrid solar-gas plants is still limited – when the sun goes down, a gas steam turbine that has been modified to accommodate waste heat plus solar heat will suffer an efficiency penalty from running at partial load.

However, for the hybrid technology to work, power plants will need a combination of strong sun and flat, open ground to host a solar thermal collector field. Moreover, governments need to put a firm price on carbon emissions from coal to justify trading cheap coal for more costly solar-thermal energy.

In January, EPRI noted that energy efficiency programs in the U.S. could realistically reduce the rate of growth for electricity consumption by 22 percent over the next two decades - if key barriers can be addressed.

Solar Water Heating Pays For Itself Five Times Over

ScienceDaily (Mar. 13, 2009) — An analysis of the engineering and economics for a solar water-heating system shows it to have a payback period of just two years, according to researchers in India. They report, in the International Journal of Global Energy Issues, on the success of the 1000-liter system operating at a university hostel.

The current focus in the developed world is on advanced technological approaches to alternative energy sources, such as photovoltaic cells for solar power and harnessing wind and wave with elaborate systems to generate electricity. However, the cost of such systems may be prohibitive for some applications in the developing world. They also often ignore the fact that a mundane process such as heating water might best be carried out using direct heat from the sun rather than including a waste energy-conversion step.

Vivek Khambalkar, Sharashchandra Gadge, and Dhiraj S. Karale at the Dr Panjabrao Deshmukh Agricultural University, in Maharashtra, India, explain how they have evaluated the various costs and benefits involved in solar hot-water production. They have compared solar hot-water production per liter with electrical energy approaches and found that solar heating is 57 percent of the internal rate of return.

"Solar energy is the only renewable energy source that has wide range of uses with commercial viability. Solar energy provide water heating, air heating and electricity through various modes of applications. The use of solar energy for thermal purposes is the most cost-effective way of utilizing the resource. A solar water heating system satisfies the need of warm water," the researchers explain.

Importantly, the payback time for the initial investment in equipment and installation is just two years. This compares very well to a photovoltaic system used for electricity generation if it were only being used to heat water. Photovoltaics have a payback period of several at least a decade and sometimes double that.

The solar hot water system used in the study is installed at the Jijau hostel, part of the Dr Panjabrao Deshmukh Agricultural University campus, in Akola, Maharashtra state, India. The team estimates that the system will effectively pay for itself five times over, given an estimated working life of about twenty years.

---

Journal reference:

1. . Solar water cost and feasibility of solar water heating system. International Journal of Global Energy Issues, 2009, 31, 208-218

Adapted from materials provided by Inderscience Publishers, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

ACME to Invest $30 Million in eSolar for 5% Stake and Technology License to Develop 500 Megawatts in India

ACME to Invest $30 Million in eSolar for 5% Stake and Technology License to Develop 500 Megawatts in India

BANGALORE, INDIA--March 12, 2009--Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--ESolar (Pasadena, California), a developer of modular solar thermal power plants, recently entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with the ACME Group (Gurgaon, Haryana), a developer of innovative energy-efficient solutions, to develop up to 1,000 megawatts (MW) of solar thermal power stations in India over the next decade. ACME will invest $30 million for a 5% ownership stake in eSolar. 

ACME has been named the master licensee of eSolar's modular technology and has been granted exclusive rights to represent eSolar in the Indian market. According to the licensing agreement, ACME will be permitted to use eSolar's modular, scalable technology to develop solar thermal projects in India by itself or in collaboration with partner firms. ACME has already entered into memorandums of understanding to buy 250 MW of solar thermal power. Construction of 100 MW of solar power plants based on eSolar's technology is expected to start later this year. 

The agreement will enable the two firms to combine resources in project capabilities, technology development and component manufacture to develop and operate solar thermal power plants in India. The collaboration, which represents eSolar's first international licensing contract, is part of the firm's strategy to promote global deployment of its technology by entering into licensing agreements with local firms. ESolar is looking to license its technology in Australia, Spain and the Middle East.

The company claims to have developed an innovative technology for developing utility-scale concentrating solar power (CSP) plants ranging in capacity from 46 MW to more than 500 MW. ESolar's solution employs a field of heliostats that reflects solar heat to a thermal receiver mounted on a tower. The concentrated heat energy is used to boil water stored in the thermal receiver and produces steam. Steam is used to rotate a turbine, thereby generating power. The steam is then cooled to produce water and directed back to the thermal receiver, and the cycle continues. A 46-MW CSP unit based on the technology comprises 16 towers on which thermal receivers are mounted, a turbine and generator set and a steam condenser, spread over 160 acres of land area. 

The sun-tracking heliostat is a mass-manufactured component and is the basic building block of the solution. The company has designed heliostats for easy deployment in pre-fabricated "heliostat sticks" that can be installed faster than other CSP solutions with minimal requirement of skilled labor. Thousands of heliostats are systematically spaced in a modular field layout that is optically designed to maximize the amount of solar power harnessed. This eliminates the need for high-precision surveying and individual installation and alignment of mirrors, thereby reducing the overall cost of power generation. The technology allows for multiple units of 46 MW each to be set up for higher power generation requirements. All these factors make eSolar's solution cost-competitive with traditional power plants based on fossil fuels. Coal-based power generation costs about U.S. 6 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), whereas the cost of solar thermal energy ranges from U.S. 8 cents per kWh to U.S. 15 cents per kWh.

ESolar was established in 2007 by Asif Ansari and Bill Gross, founders of Idealab Incorporated (Pasadena, California), an incubator founded in 1996. Idealab founded Picasa, which was acquired by Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (Mountain View, California) in 2004. In April 2008, eSolar raised $130 million from Idealab, Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, and Oak Investment Partners (Palo Alto, California). The firm is currently developing a 5-MW plant in Lancaster, California, for commercial demonstration of its technology.

In February 2009, eSolar entered into an agreement with NRG Energy Incorporated (NYSE:NRG) (Princeton, New Jersey), a wholesale power generation firm, to develop solar power plants of up 500 MW in California and in the southwestern U.S. NRG Energy will invest $10 million in eSolar for an ownership stake, development rights to use eSolar's technology for three projects, and a technology license to develop, build and operate up to 11 CSP units in these regions based on eSolar's modular technology. The proposed power plants have an estimated capacity to provide 100% clean solar power to more than 400,000 homes in the region. The first of these plants, expected to come into operation in 2011, is a 245-MW project in Kern County in southern California for which eSolar had entered into a power purchase agreement last year with Edison International (NYSE:EIX) (Rosemead, California), one of the largest power distribution utilities in the state.

ESolar intends to utilize the cash inflow from its deal with ACME to fund its power development projects in the U.S. It plans to focus on developing utility-scale power plants in the U.S. while adopting the technology license route to make inroads in overseas markets. Because of the global economic recession and the credit crunch in the market, several of the firm's peers in Silicon Valley including Ausra (Mountain View) and OptiSolar (Hayward, California) are moving out of power plant construction projects and focusing on less-risky solar equipment sales. However, equipment sales are more susceptible to market fluctuations and face strong competition that drive down prices. On the other hand, despite heavy investments, successful power plant construction projects enable developers to draw a consistent stream of revenues through long-term contracts with utilities. 

Founded in 2003, the ACME Group provides energy-efficient solutions in wireless telecommunications, wastewater treatment and cold-chain storage. ACME Tele Power Limited (Gurgaon), the group's flagship company, pioneered the "Green Shelter" concept, which provides management systems for optimal power utilization and cooling facilities at telecom sites without the use of backup systems such as diesel generators. The system is known to reduce operational costs by 40% compared to conventional shelters and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by saving about 2 million kWh of power and 100 million liters of diesel oil every year. 

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a marketing information service specializing in industrial process, energy and financial related markets with products and services ranging from industry news, analytics, forecasting, plant and project databases, as well as multimedia services.

Review starts for Central Valley solar thermal-biomass plant

COALINGA 

    

March 11, 2009 12:08pm 

•  Would be built in Fresno County

•  Could generate over 100 Megawatts

Architect's rendering of Martifer's Central Valley plant

The official review has started by the California Energy Commission for what is believed to be the first solar thermal-biomass hybrid electric generating facility in the state.

The commission on Wednesday found the application for certification of the 106.8-megawatt San Joaquin Solar 1&2 hybrid power plant project "data adequate."

This means the commission has received enough information from the applicant for the two plants, a wholly owned subsidiary of Martifer Inc. of San Francisco, a unit of Martifer Group of Lisbon, Portugal, to start the year-long certification process.

The commission has named Julia Levin to lead the committeec to review the project. Commission Vice Chairman James Boyd is the associate member.

The committee makes sure the project meets the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act and will examine public health and safety, environmental impacts, and engineering aspects of the proposed power plant.

The project will be located six miles east of Coalinga in Fresno County. It will be comprised of two hybrid plants with a solar field and a biomass facility capable of producing 53.4 MW net of solar electricity each. During nighttime and periods of cloud cover, the solar production will be supplemented by the biomass facility fueled by agricultural wood waste.

If approved by the commission, the project is expected to be on line by the first quarter of 2011.