Page 139 - Sustainable Cities and Communities Design Handbook

116 Sustainable Cities and Communities Design Handbook

achieved through liquid or solid media to extend the hours of the electric cycle.
Fig. 6.3 shows a portion of a typical solar thermal power design.
The United States is the world leader in installed concentrated solar power
capacity with 429 MW currently in commission. At present, 3 GW power is
operational. In 2010, 7 GW total power was in development. The United States
alone anticipates powering 2 million homes by solar thermal power in the year
2020 (Environmental and Energy Study Institute).
All solar power, including solar PV and solar thermal, generated about
0.1% or less of the total US energy supply in 2008, but the installation of solar
power is growing quickly. The US DOE’s 2009 preliminary forecasts antici-
pates an annual growth rate in US domestic solar PV generation of 21.3%
through 2030 (and some analysts have even higher predictions for the growth
rates) (U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), 2009). The solar PV
technology is scalable. Increasing demand will bring down the cost of PV
modules and solar electricity systems when they are in volume production.
Variable but forecastable renewable energies (wind turbines and solar PV
power sources) are becoming more reliable in net output when integrated with
each other than when used alone. The aforementioned net output is suitable to
meet the demand. Risks of security against terrorist attacks or natural disasters
can be mitigated by planning geographically dispersed energy sources such as
microgrids. One plan is to employ a wide distribution of solar power from
many sunny areas, smart grid power systems that will be discussed in the
section titled The Smart Grid and Market Solution, backup fuel generators
available from natural gases, etc.
Finally, the distributed generation of solar PV electricity can be connected
to the grid. Germany is noteworthy for its high-profile feed-in-tariff in pro-
moting solar electricity. Several governments have successfully offered
incentive packages to promote renewable energies and energy efficiency in the
world. For example, China has significant solar power investment with both a
major development plan and an affluent stimulus package detailed in the
Chinese National 12th Five-Year plan. The plan is to construct the large-scale
renewable energy bases.

WIND POWER
As power is generated by the new utility-scale renewable power plants such as
wind power plants, the power transmission grid needs to have capacity to fully
deliver the power to consumers without the distribution block. The goals of the
US clean energy market can be empowered by addressing the advanced
technology platform of a nationwide electric power system. The 2009 ARPA-E
grants of the United States have heavily invested in projects with capability to
allow intermittent energy sources like wind and solar to provide a steady
power flow to the consumers.