DesertBlog

Think Globally, Generate Locally

Confirming what desert conservationists and consumer advocates have been saying for quite a while now, a recent article in Public Utilities Fortnightly shows the true costs of concentrated solar power (CSP) farms vs. rapidly developing photovoltaic (PV) technologies.

With recent developments in thin film PV technology, “rooftop solar” is now cheaper by the kilowatt-hour than the large CSP thermal collectors that are being proposed on nearly a million acres of California deserts. These advances have made it possible to begin developing industry-scale PV facilities in the 20 to 50 megawatt range, such as that proposed by Southern California Edison, and already widespread in Germany. This new economic model even has a new name: “Distributed Central Solar.” The numbers work out to between 9 and 12 cents/kWh for photovoltaics and 14.4 cents/kWh for concentrated solar thermal.

Factor in the huge environmental costs of the large solar thermal facilities, problems with cooling (thousands of acre-feet of water used for wet-cooling, greater expense and loss of efficiency on the hottest days — when the energy is needed most — with dry cooling), and the likelihood that new large transmission lines will need to be built, and it looks like PV wins hands-down. Cheaper, built on already-developed land, connected directly to the facilities that use them (or to existing 69 or 115 kV lines), low maintenance, much lower associated greenhouse gas emissions, what’s not to love?

The article points out that only CSP’s momentum in this country, combined with the need to ramp up thin film production, may provide a temporary advantage to large-scale solar. But in the long run, the article concludes, “DCS (photovoltaic) plants will likely gain a large foothold in the market as economic forces drive the industry toward the most efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally-benign solar electric technologies.”

So, the market may actually decide the most environmentally friendly source of greenhouse-gas-reducing solar power — if only the irrational exuberance of some for covering the desert in solar collectors can be tamed while thin film ramps up.

Read the full article. 

Photo of thin film solar technology installation from Technology Review/Blitzstrom GmBH

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