 |  Ivanpah, the world's largest concentrating solar plant, opened in California on February 13, 2014.
Credit: BrightSource Energy | The Energy Department on May 21 released its report, “2014: The Year of Concentrating Solar Power,” which focuses on five concentrating solar power (CSP) plants that are expected to be fully operational in the Southwest in 2014. The CSP plants, among the most innovative in the world, are a result of sustained, long-term investments by the Obama Administration and committed solar industry partners. When completed, these projects will provide a combined 1.26 gigawatts (GW) of electricity—nearly quadrupling CSP capacity in the United States, and have the potential to power more than 350,000 homes. The five CSP projects illustrate how Energy Department loan guarantees encouraged private market investment and accelerated the deployment of these technologies at commercial scale. See the full report  . The Energy Department also announced $10 million for six new research and development projects that will advance innovative CSP technologies. The projects will develop thermochemical energy storage systems to enable more efficient storage of solar energy while using less storage material, cutting the cost for utility-scale CSP electricity generation as a result. CSP technologies use mirrors to focus and concentrate sunlight onto a receiver from which a heat transfer fluid carries the energy to a power block to generate electricity. The research and development projects will explore and develop novel thermochemical energy storage systems, which could store the sun's energy at high densities and temperatures in the form of chemical bonds. The chemical compounds used to store the chemical energy are later broken down to release energy when needed. Six teams from universities, national laboratories, and research institutes, working with industrial partners, will test different chemical processes for CSP thermochemical energy storage that could further advance CSP technology, helping the industry step closer to meeting the Energy Department's SunShot Initiative’s technical and cost targets for CSP. See the Energy Department news release.   The Energy Department on May 21 announced up to $2 million to develop the domestic supply chain for hydrogen and fuel cell technologies and study the competitiveness of U.S. hydrogen and fuel cell system and component manufacturing. As a part of the Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative, this funding opportunity supports the Department’s broader effort to boost U.S. competitiveness in the manufacturing sector. The funding offer will support projects that focus on scaling up the production of today's hydrogen and fuel cell components and systems to commercial scale. Currently, these components and systems are being built using laboratory-scale fabrication technologies, but developing a robust supply chain to support mass production of these systems can enable the market for these technologies to grow. To support these priorities, the Energy Department is issuing a funding opportunity to carry out outreach activities to facilitate the development and expansion of the domestic supply chain of components and systems necessary for the manufacturing and scale-up of hydrogen and fuel cell systems in the United States. The opportunity will also fund a competitive analysis of global hydrogen and fuel cell manufacturing aimed at quantifying trade patterns and identifying key drivers of U.S. competitiveness. See the Energy Department news release and the Hydrogen and Fuel Cells webpage. The Energy Department announced on May 21 that the Department’s Better Buildings Neighborhood Program has helped more than 40 state and local governments upgrade more than 100,000 buildings and save families and businesses over $730 million on utility bills. Supported by the Recovery Act, the Energy Department’s Better Buildings Neighborhood Program worked with 41 competitively selected state and local governments and their partners to upgrade the energy efficiency of homes and local buildings and leverage early federal funds to launch sustainable community-based programs. Over the last four years, these state and local governments have partnered with utilities, nonprofit organizations, financial institutions, and building efficiency experts to upgrade more than 100,000 homes and other buildings. The initial $508 million federal investment leveraged another $1 billion in other public and private sector funding and supported more than $740 million in direct invoices to local workers for energy assessments and upgrades they performed. More than 1,400 home improvement contractors completed upgrades for homeowners. Approximately 30 programs out of the original 40 are continuing without federal support, including programs in Florida, Maine, Oregon, and Virginia. To support continued public-private partnerships on residential energy efficiency, the Energy Department has launched the Better Buildings Residential Network, which currently includes 70 organizations. See the Energy Department news release and the Better Buildings Neighborhood Program webpage. A new study released on May 11 by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has found that about 6.5 million people were employed in the renewable energy industry worldwide in 2013, compared to 5.7 million in 2012. The largest sector in terms of employees was the solar energy industry with 2.27 million workers. Solar was followed by the liquid biofuels industry which has 1.45 million workers, the wind energy sector with 834,000 employees, and the biomass sector with 782,000. The countries with the largest renewable energy workforces last year were China, Brazil, the United States, India, Germany, Spain, and Bangladesh, respectively. Surging demand for solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in China and Japan has increased employment in the installation sectors. IRENA was established in 2009 to promote the growth and adoption of renewable energy globally. The agency has a membership of over 130 countries, and around 40 additional countries are in the accession process and actively engaged. See the IRENA news release. | 
0 comments:
Post a Comment