Page 136 - Sustainable Cities and Communities Design Handbook

Renewable Energies Technology and Smart Grid in China Chapter j 6 113

grid infrastructure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 25% by
2020, and by more than 80% by 2050.

THE SOLAR ELECTRICITY SYSTEMS AND THEIR
RELATIONSHIP WITH THE GRID

The solar electricity systems are anticipated to be the most likely to become
commercially successful without government rebate in a few years. This
anticipation is based on the current best knowledge of cost and adoption risks
of the solar electricity that offers a superior future technology trajectory. Today
as the solar power business grows, we see the cost of solar photovoltaic (PV)
panels declining rapidly.
Under Obama’s administration in the United States, the President’s Solar
America Initiative in collaboration with the Department of Energy (DOE) has
targeted grid parity wherein the electricity cost based on renewable energy
production is the same as the cost of coal-fired traditional power.
More progress is needed in the balance-of-plant aspect of energy produc-
tion, which is defined as the solar cost per installed system ready for use.
Active research to accelerate the progress of cost reduction in this area is
underway. In many parts of the world the solar PV system is appropriate for
cost-effective distributed generation. All the world’s current and expected
major electricity load centers are within practical transmission range of
excellent solar radiation locations.
As we will show soon in this section, the solar electricity system can utilize
the sun’s natural energy to generate electricity. The solar electricity generated
can be consumed or fed back into the utility grid. This results in less energy
that has to be purchased from the utility company, so the consumer’s monthly
bill decreases (the monthly bill is then just for financing payment). During the
solar system warrantee period, the solar PV system is free for electricity
generation and free from maintenance. The consumers only pay for the energy
used from the grid (and the amortization of the system/installation costs). Solar
PV systems connected to grid can be very attractive to reduce the more
expensive peak-hour costs.
The term clean tech refers to technologies that produce and use energy and
other raw materials more efficiently and hence produce significantly less waste
or toxicity than prior commercial products. The clean tech energy production
industry has developed clean alternative energy utilizing the current bench-
mark technologies such as solar and wind power. Examples of alternative clean
energy sources include (1) wind power, (2) solar PV cell, (3) solar thermal
electric power, (4) solar heating, etc. Scientists and engineers continue to
search for viable clean energy alternatives to our current traditional power
production methods. Even though some renewable energy sources are variable
in nature, several renewable energy sources can be integrated into the grid
system quite well. For example, studies show the compatibility of sun and