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Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, left, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), center, and Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar arrive to announce a Nevada Test Site solar power development zone during a news conference at UNLV on July 8, 2010.
Friday, July 9, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.
Economic bonanza
A plan to build a lab to test new solar power technologies on part of the Nevada Test Site was cheered by solar developers. It is expected to create 1,000 construction and electrical jobs as well as long-term jobs in maintenance, engineering and research.
Sun archives
In the 1950s, the Nevada Test Site provided the evidence that U.S. nuclear capability was far ahead of the rest of the world’s. The federal reservation 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas is now tasked with making the nation the global leader in solar power.
Thursday’s announcement that a wide swath of the Test Site will be the proving ground for new solar technologies was hailed by federal officials, renewable energy researchers and solar developers with Nevada ties.
The plan includes building a real-world laboratory for emerging concentrating solar power technologies on 25 square miles of the Test Site. Officials said it would most likely focus on concentrating solar thermal power breakthroughs.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who led efforts to get the testing ground established in Nevada, said it would foster the next generation of solar energy technologies and provide jobs for everyone from construction workers to engineers to academics.
“It’s hard to imagine a better place to capture the heat from the sun than right here,” Reid said, noting Nevada’s 300-plus sunny days a year.
Concentrating solar thermal technology takes the sun’s rays and uses mirrors to focus them onto a tube or tower filled with liquid, often water or a brine solution. The heat from the sun brings that liquid to a boil, creating steam that turns a turbine. These facilities require thousands of flat, sunny acres, but they also often need large amounts of water for cooling towers.
Some concentrating solar thermal power plants planned for Nevada and Arizona include large silos where the molten liquid can be stored into the night and used for electric generation later.
New technologies will likely focus on improving those heat storage capacities, reducing water consumption and improving efficiency, experts said.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who joined Reid in the solar panel-covered patio of UNLV’s Greenspun Hall for the Test Site announcement, said the new facility will be key in taking heretofore theoretical technologies developed in universities and private companies and bringing them to market. Breakthroughs that have come to market have been either tested overseas or are limited to a few solar thermal and photovoltaic technologies run through government-testing programs at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
The facility planned for the Test Site would open up testing to technologies that need more space and more time to assess. It will likely have anywhere from four to six test projects at a time, said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who was also at the news conference.
“This testing ground for solar technology won’t involve the generation being deployed today,” Chu said. “This will be testing for the next generation that will continue to drive the price of solar energy down.”
That is key to President Barack Obama’s plan to transition the country away from polluting energy sources such as coal and oil to cleaner renewable energy. Wholesale renewable energy can cost up to three times as much per kilowatt-hour as fossil fuel power, and solar is the most expensive. But as technology improves and the price drops, utilities can deploy more renewable energy power plants while keeping retail electricity prices stable. This would allow the country to phase out more polluting power sources without impeding economic growth, experts said.
Representatives and CEOs from most of the major Nevada-affiliated solar developers — Bombard Renewable Energy, Solar Millennium, First Solar/NextLight, BrightSource Energy and NV Energy — attended the event.
Most agreed the study area would allow game-changing technologies to come to market much faster and could give the United States an edge in the global market.
The U.S. invented most of the major renewable energy technologies in use around the world today. But many systems were market-tested and eventually manufactured overseas. Energy experts said a study area such as the one planned for the Test Site could allow more American technologies to be tested and built in America.
“Here in Nevada, we’ll be able to demonstrate to the world that renewable energy can power the future,” Salazar said.
Construction is expected to start in 2011 and bring thousands of badly needed short- and long-term jobs to Nevada, Reid said. Those will include about 1,000 construction and electrical jobs to build the test projects, but also longer-term jobs in maintenance, engineering and research.
Referring to Nevada’s dubious distinction as the state with the worst rates of unemployment and home foreclosures, Reid urged the diversification of the state’s economy through increased renewable energy development.
“The best way to create jobs is to make Nevada the leader in something else: new, clean energy jobs,” he said.
The solar test area might not have happened in Nevada at all, the delegation from Washington stressed, had it not been for Reid.
“Without his support, this would not have been funded and would not be here in Nevada,” Salazar said.
Reid has made renewable energy a major platform in his bid for re-election and has had his hands in numerous renewable energy industry achievements for the state, including the federal fast-tracking program for renewable energy developments to convincing a Chinese wind turbine manufacturer to set up shop in Las Vegas.
His opponent, Republican Sharron Angle, has not revealed her formal position on renewable energy nor returned calls seeking interviews on the topic.
What better place to set it up.Nevada baths in direct sun almost every day of every year.What's happening in the gulf today should be a eye opener to everyone.
"New technologies will likely focus on improving those heat storage capacities, reducing water consumption and improving efficiency, experts said"
Read between the lines!
This means that existing technology is not working out. CSP plants use too much water and produce little power.
Looks like this will just be a give away to big energy companies. Lot of tax dollars, little benefit to the people and very water intensive. Devil's Hole is in the same aquifer. Obama and Ried are losing the renewable enrgy grip. This looks like a big, useless apology for the oil spill and a way for the military to grab and waste more money. Obama thinks molten salt will run 24/7. More like 3 to 4 hours after dark...
Great project, folks, you do the right thing, but does there not exist any other place in the big desert than this nuclear test site to build new solar constructions, maybe some hundreds of miles away from the nuclear test site, but still in the desert?
If somebody told me to start working at some former nuclear test site, I'd get the heck out of there and would try to immigrate at some far-away country in some far-away continent, let's say ...U.S./North-America.
Btw, where did they dump the radioactive dump decades ago, because that dump still lasts for thousands of years being dangerous having been dumped anywhere:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/1952/apr...
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/1979/jul...
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/1996/dec...
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/1996/dec...
I mean: way to go, folks, but have you all done your homework to protect the innocent from nuclear pollution and dangerous dump?
Regards
Banana_Joe
Way to go, HARRY!!!
Sunlizard states,"a way for the military to grab and waste more money."
I didn't see Defense Secretary Gates at the announcement. The project is DOE and the Nevada Test Site is operated by the NNSA part of the DOE.
So you don't care who wastes your money, dick?
Big govt waste and pork project.
We have at least a 50 year supply of natural gas but moron dems want to blow your bucks. Fire Reid.
gmag...you say..Go Harry?????
Yes, please go...go away after Nov elections..you people in LV better wise up and get rid of this man..or you will never see that city thrive again!!! Wake up!!! Its now or never!!!
"This means that existing technology is not working out. CSP plants use too much water and produce little power."
What? A new technology isn't mature? Stop the presses!
Welcome to the industrial revolution, Sunlizard.
Reid brings 1,000+ jobs to Nevada and people are complaining?!
A great stroke Senator Reid. This project will be great for Nevada, and the nation!
Solar thermal needs water. Plenty of light in the test site but NO FRICKIN' WATER!!!
If they wanted to build 10 square miles of photo-voltaics I could understand. But using water in the middle of the hot desert doesn't make any sense.
Someone should ask Steve Chu about the water issue. Lets see what he says to that.
For comparison, Nevada Solar One near boulder produces 64 megawatts and only covers about 0.5 square miles. 25 square miles is a titanic area.
@short_fat_hairy: Well it is a test zone, and some new solar energy systems like the one planned for Ivanpah Valley use a closed system.
"Solar thermal needs water. Plenty of light in the test site but NO FRICKIN' WATER!!!"
This is why this will never go anywhere. The water would have to come from an over appropriated source. It just is not there. This must be a feel good stratagy to make Harry more popular. It is not really environmental, let alone renewable, if they have to deplete ground water...
If solar was feasible why do the taxpayers have to subsidize it? The CEOs are happy, anyway.
LOL...emthree....1000 job for the Illegals!!!LOL
"logic" says "We have at least a 50 year supply of natural gas..."
I suggest you go watch the documentary Gasland. We might have natural gas but getting it destroys the aquifer - people are getting sick from well water near natural gas wells where they use fracking. There is a clip in the movie of a guy lighting his tap water on fire as its coming out of the faucet. http://gaslandthemovie.com/trailer/
This is POSITIVE news. (The negative folks that post here need to leave and migrate to Fox Noise (where the uneducated and misinformed live).
Dear Lizard, it only your opinion it is a waste.
If what I read about this type of solar technology is correct , it needs a "working fluid" that may or may not be water. Part of the research will probably be to test what "working fluid" works best.
I get the feeling that if John Ensign had brought this project to the NTS it would be great or if the announcement was for a coal fired generating plant that would be just great to all the critics of this project.
Coal fired plants produce energy at night too. Building new ones can replace older, dirtier, inefficient plants. The older ones will have to stay around a bit longer now as we indulge our green energy fantasies.
Coal fired plants also produce emissions at night too. Also, coal is usually obtained through strip mining, particularly, mountain top removal mining in the Appalachian Mountains. More costs involved in burning coal other than what a consumer pays for each kilowatt used.
I remember the coal fired plants, rusty.
We posted a sentry and when the winds shifted, we'd go on break, move our cars upwind and then go back to work.
The problem, rus, was the smoke. It ate the paint off our cars in a half hour if we let 'em sit down wind.
Gee, it kinda makes a fella wonder about the acid rain and how many truck loads a minute of carbon we are dumping into our skies and how much nitric acid is good for critters. HUh?
So, yep coal plants make juice at night and crap all the time they spew into the heavens.
Funny question...WHo wants to work on the project in an area loaded with fallout? hehehehe
Who wants to work in an area loaded with fallout? How about the hundreds of employees currently working at the NTS.
uddeboda- If we didn't have Lake Mead there wouldn't be a Vegas here. There's no Lake Mead at the test site. Your comment is meaningless.
Dickerjd- The issue isn't the working fluid. The issue is the cooling substance used as the cold reservoir to condense the working fluid (condense steam back to make up water). Read up on Carnot cycles and steam engines.
I'm not against solar thermal. I'm for them. But they are a non-started at the test site because the problem with solar thermal, just like all steam power plants, is cooling water.
Guess I'm confused, it there is no water at the NTS then why are water monitoring test wells drilled at the NTS? If I remember correctly, one of the main complaints of Yucca Mountain critics was water leaking into the storage areas? Also, even if water as cooling agent is required, why can't tests be conducted related to recycling the water for repeated use as a cooling agent.
dickerjd- Yes there is ground water in the desert, but since it is only replenished by precipitation it is a rare resource. The monitoring was to watch for contamination of the ground water.
You can recycle the cooling water to a certain extent. Cooling towers do this. However there will always be evaporative losses.
You can try, but you can never run away from the laws of thermodynamics.
airweare: We know your memories are from the fifties. Things have changed a bit, fyi.
I suppose you believe that this will rejuvenate the economy? It hasn't worked out well in Spain, Germany, England or now Australia. Why will it work here? What are we doing differently?
If this stuff makes you feel good its okay but there is high unemployment out there.
I can see why this type of technology would not work well in England and Germany, not enough sun but it would seem Spain and Australia should work if cited properly. Can sea water be used in the technology? If so, there a places near the oceans that are sunny and dry that could be placement sites but then there is the concern of what to do with the heated water used in the process.
Only an idiot would believe that Lake Meade supplies a small percentage of our water. Why do you think they're spending hundreds of $$ millions on the "third straw"?
Spain's hopes of becoming a world leader in solar power have collapsed since the Spanish government slammed the brakes on generous subsidies.
The sudden change has rippled across the global solar industry, in a warning of the problems that government-supported renewable-energy programs can encounter.
In 2008, Spain accounted for half the world's new solar-power installations in terms of wattage, thanks to government subsidies to promote clean energy. But late last year, as the global economic crisis worsened, the government dramatically scaled back those subsidies and capped the amount of subsidized solar power that could be installed.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12519381...
Come on...........you are missing the point. Part of the test site has been reserved for developing NEW technologies. Yes the "old" technology uses a lot of water. Maybe the new technology will use less water. In any event, the old and new technologies using solar energy are much more expensive than oil, gas, and coal. Until the NEW technologies become more efficient (that is what research is about) we will continue to use oil, gas, and coal. This is a research area, it may not need a lot of water and nearby high voltage transmission lines.
The government is providing the land. Hopefully, corporate money will follow, or if not corporate, federal money. That is what will bring jobs. Show me the money!
The problem is that it is at least 65 miles away, and we don't have a corner on the sunlight market. Hopefully, if new technology is developed in Nevada, we can encourage companies to develop commercial applications in Nevada.
I'm not positive but it is my understanding that any power generated will be used on the NTS or by other customers utlizing the NTS infrastructure. Connection to the outside power grid not a concern at this point.
"You know as well as I do, that lake Mead supplies only a small % of the daily need for water in Vegas,"
"Lake Mead will cease to exist by the year 2017"
Two of the most uneducated statements lacking any sort of facts that I have seen in the posts here in a long time! ;-)
Someone should do some serious reading before making posts like that.
Look, folks, I really appreciate clean solar energy projects, but not if the lifes of innocents are on the line due to using a NUCLEAR TEST SITE to build up a SOLAR TEST SITE.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/1996/dec...
Please move your solar and infrastructure stuff to another location hundreds of miles away from the NTS to avoid humanitarian catastrophes in the workers' families and to avoid being sued over exposure to hidden radioactivity at a SOLAR TEST SITE when the workers sooner or later get any kinds of cancer from working at a SOLAR TEST SITE. Please move your stuff, just the way many many outsourced IT-departments do it as well, with moving hundreds of servers, racks, blades, cables, energy and emergency infrastructure, cooling systems, etc. to a new location hundreds of miles away from the former location for lesser reasons than solving and developing new clean energy technologies saving planet earth.
Trust me on that one, it's worth it:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0195685/
Anyway I do like solar energy projects, which really do make a lot of sense, especially in deserts where the sun almost always shines.
Regards
Banana_Joe
vegaslee --- Honestly, it's typical of Reid, Obama,and Pelosi supporters.
They just don't let facts get in the way of their distorted views.
"Reid brings 1,000+ jobs to Nevada and people are complaining?!"
Yes, because these 1,000 plus jobs were available long before he got into a tight race to save his sorry backside. He just stalled the project until he needed the push and the press.
Than with a few billion of the stimulus money that was packed away to save ailing Democrats like him, suddenly there are new jobs appearing everywhere.
"Oh Look, a few weeks before election and a few new jobs appear... Well would you look at what I did??"
Of course these are all Government funded, Union endorsed jobs, so they are not really tax generating, real jobs for real people from real businesses.
We want to see real jobs that help American businesses. That create real income. These jobs take money from the working class and reditribute the money while claiming they are creating things.
They are jobs that are propped up by taxpayers like you and me and other business owners.
Reid and Obummer have killed more jobs than they will ever be able to create no matter how much money we borrow from China.
"SHORT FAT HAIRY
No frickin water.........so why did they build L Vegas in the middle of a desert. No it sure doesnt make sense using water in the middle of a desert"
Udd, you just don't understand this place. Repeat after me. "Water in the Mojave Desert is finite".
You can not have Las Vegas AND a bunch of CSP plants. The water is spoken for. Now Udd lives in Europe, so he does not care if a natural aquifer is depleted and wildlife dies and people lose their homes. He wants it all destroyed so he can feel better about his carbon footprint!
"For comparison, Nevada Solar One near boulder produces 64 megawatts and only covers about 0.5 square miles. 25 square miles is a titanic area.
@short_fat_hairy: Well it is a test zone, and some new solar energy systems like the one planned for Ivanpah Valley use a closed system."
Even a closed system needs evaporation to cool itself. It is a myth to declare this as water neutral.
Nevada Solar One is wet cooled and uses ove 300 acre feet of water per year.
Ivanpah would be dry cooled (if they don't get sued) and would use ove 100 acre feet a year from another over drawn aquifer. The dry cooling is so cost inneffective that the company Bright Source will try to find a buyer after construction.
Now Reid and the great hope/hype Obama are saying they will invent new teccnology that will use less water. Can you say a future of fossil fuels? They could not find a more incompetent administration to develop renewable energy!
"If what I read about this type of solar technology is correct , it needs a "working fluid" that may or may not be water. Part of the research will probably be to test what "working fluid" works best."
It's already here. It's called Therminol and is highly flamable with a flash point of over 700 degrees. It does explode and has on Spain's Addasol plants and has caused big fires in the community of Daggatt, California in the now decommissioned Solar 1 and 2 plants. When it explodes, it produces a mess not unlike an oil spill...
"Who wants to work in an area loaded with fallout? How about the hundreds of employees currently working at the NTS"
Many of which sued DOE over health problems.
This is a situarion. Blading and scraping 25 square miles is problematic if it has radioactive dust. Obnama the war monger is now developing Creech AFB and the efforts to water down the dust are doing little to preserve the air quality.
Remember Divine Strake? The Bushies wanted to blow up a bunker buster and communities as far away as St. George objected. The contaminated dust is an issue. Is Reid too slow to pick up on that? Or perhaps they are just blading desert and staying off the contaminated acres?
All that dust from 25 square miles is another indicator that Obama is all hype and no hope...
Look, folks,
cleaning up the radioactive mess at Harrisburg caused by the accident in March of 1979 took almost 12 years
and resulted in costs of more than 1 billion dollars.
That's why Obama's trust in new clean energy like solar energy is no hype but gives a lot of hope to
the victims of radioactive fallouts and everyone believing in solar power plants like me.
Come on folks, just choose another spot than a former nuclear test site for new solar energy constructions and plants and clean up the radioactive mess having been created at the nuclear test site decades ago. Then we're back in business.
Cannot be too hard to do, since there is a lot of desert in Nevada for another spot of new solar power plants and constructions.
Regards
Banana_Joe