DesertBlog

Sunrise Powerlink Quick Hits

Stirling Solar gets a boost: Several papers report today that Stirling Energy Systems has acquired funding from an Irish toll road company (a toll road company — sort of makes you feel warm all over, doesn’t it?). Oh, and they’ve got a cute new name for their dishes: “SunCatcher”. Good for Stirling, which should be bringing us solar power sometime around 2020 (according to energy expert Barry Butler and his testimony last summer).

In the U-T article, one executive made the unsupported claim that the dishes provide power at 1/5th the cost of solar panels. Good thing the California Energy Commission has already given us an objective cost estimate for Stirling: $6 per watt plus “shipping and handling” (as compared to the $3.85 per watt SoCal Edison claims for its planned solar panel installation, no shipping required). Who are you going to believe?

The bottom line: solar panels cost half as much as solar dishes in the desert — and they work!

One Sunrise proponent’s take on the ongoing Phase 2 hearings in San Francisco: Jesus Arredondo has been providing hour-by-hour accounts on some days of the hearings on his pro-Powerlink “It’s the Infrastructure, Stupid” blog. (I like to call it the “It’s the STUPID Infrastructure” blog.) On Tuesday, he seemed a little concerned with Administrative Law Judge Steven Weissman’s attitude toward the Powerlink, and his questioning of a witness about whether “traditional or cultural areas” could be developed. Arredondo wrote:

“The answer was yes [cultural areas can be developed], if specific mitigation can be identified. The ALJ did not let go of the issue very swiftly, which makes me wonder if he has a disposition to a desired or expected answer… this is important as it might be a telling view of the ALJ’s thinking.”

No, we don’t think Weissman is biased against the Powerlink, just objectively weighing its merits and many demerits. And Weissman’s scheduling of the additional hearings May 12 in Borrego Springs also seems like a positive sign…

Updating Wednesday’s post on “Bride of Sunrise”: Simultaneous with our post, SDG&E officials were clarifying the exact location of their contemplated second major transmission line, which was left wide open in their earlier statements. At the ongoing CPUC hearings in San Francisco on Wednesday, the company revealed that this potential second power line would run from Warner Springs to Scripps Ranch on a path “co-located” with their currently proposed Sunrise Powerlink. So, instead of imagining twin massive power lines running all the way from Imperial County through Anza-Borrego and into San Diego, just imagine those twin lines running through Santa Ysabel and other backcountry communities….

What remains unclear is exactly how the 700 to 1000 megawatts of additional renewable power would arrive at Warner Springs, if not via an additional transmission line from Imperial County. We’ll keep you posted as we get more info.