Advanced Energy Perspectives

The first week in February always raises two crucial questions: will Punxsutawney Phil see his shadow and doom the country to another six weeks of winter? And what will the President include in his budget proposal for the upcoming year? The groundhog did see his shadow, and the President did offer up a budget, including some interesting items for advanced energy.

The budget request process is a quixotic and oftentimes symbolic effort. It is an opportunity for the White House to show to Congress and the public its priorities and how it would allocate taxpayer dollars, given the opportunity. This year’s budget request mirrored themes from the President’s State of the Union address, particularly when it comes to energy policy. The budget proposal includes a new $4 billion fund for states that goes further and faster than the current timeline allotted in the Clean Power Plan. It calls for a permanent extension of the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) and Production Tax Credit (PTC), which is currently lapsed, and asks for money to finance additional clean energy projects.

Today, Bloomberg New Energy Finance and the Business Council for Sustainable Energy released their third annual “Sustainable Energy in America Factbook.” The Factbook is a collection of fun facts to know and tell, but it is also a powerful statement on the transformation now under way in how we produce, distribute, and use energy.

The facts themselves are compelling – and they say a lot about the growth and progress of advanced energy technologies and services. A few highlights:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) plan to regulate carbon emissions is just the latest challenge facing the U.S. electric power system. Technological innovation is disrupting old ways of doing business and accelerating grid modernization. Earlier this year, AEE released Advanced Energy Technologies for Greenhouse Gas Reduction, a report detailing the use, application, and benefits of 40 specific advanced energy technologies and services. This post is one in a series drawn from the technology profiles within that report.

There are several technology options for utility-scale solar power systems, although photovoltaic (PV) panels are the most commonly used. Most utility-scale solar farms consist of large arrays of ground-mounted flat-plate PV modules, which convert sunlight directly into electricity via solar cells. The arrays can be fixed-tilt, single-axis tracking, or dual-axis tracking. Tracking adds cost but increases overall energy output. Concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) technology uses lenses to concentrate sunlight onto small PV cells to achieve higher overall conversion efficiencies than flat-plate technology. A minority of utility-scale solar projects use concentrated solar power (CSP) systems, which concentrate sunlight using mirrors or lenses to generate high temperatures that are used to produce high-pressure steam that drives an electricity-generating steam turbine-generator set. Utility-scale PV and CPV plants typically range in size from 1 MW to well over 100 MW, while CSP is generally in the 100s of MW. Peak solar output (midday to late afternoon) also typically coincides with times of peak electric demand, relieving the need for peak generation resources.

This week, Utility Dive put out a report on the State of the Electric Utility 2015, the result of a survey of more than 400 U.S. electric utility executives. The survey asked the utility executives what they imagined the utility of the future might look like. The overall conclusion: “While utility executives know they need to change the old models, they’re just not sure about the best way to do it.”

In the late 1800s, as the United States embarked on a public effort to electrify the country, the “War of Currents” pitted Alternating Current (AC) power against Direct Current (DC) power. On one side was Thomas Edison, an advocate of DC power.  On the other side was George Westinghouse, who had acquired the patents for AC power held by Nikola Tesla. In the end, the capability of AC power to run at high voltage from large central generating stations over long distances with relatively inexpensive transformers to “step down” and “step up” the voltage made AC the victor, setting the industry standard. As the electric power sector modernizes, however, two substantial changes could signal a return to the war of currents.