Solar Grand Plan
Solar Grand Plan is a strategic future study by Zweibel, Mason and Fthenakis to cover the electricity needs of the USA from solar power plants in the southwestern states of the United States. The Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation developed a similar vision for Europe .
Technical implementation
As a starting point, the study assumes that in 2050 there will no longer be enough fossil fuel to generate electricity. In order to cover the electricity demand, the use of 80,000 km² (area of Austria) in the USA for solar power plants is necessary between 2020 and 2050. The plan is to generate a fifth of the energy from solar thermal power plants and the remaining four fifths from solar cells . The electricity generated in this way can be transported to the vicinity of the metropolitan areas with the help of a direct current network built along the American highways. According to the study, the excess energy is stored in caverns or closed mines in the form of compressed air and during peak load timesconverted back into electricity. Suitable geological formations exist in the USA in the vicinity of many metropolitan areas. In the opinion of the authors, the technology for this is available, easy to manufacture, proven and works reliably. A similar study called Desertec for the power supply of Europe from the Sahara has been prepared by TREC .
Funding, benefits and criticism
The investments are made by private investors. The net cost of construction is estimated at $ 420 billion over 30 years. That is almost the equivalent of an annual US defense budget. The goal is to produce electricity at a kilowatt price of 5 dollar cents. According to the study, the government has to offset the start-up losses through loans, a purchase guarantee and a grant. The implementation will then take place in two stages, a start-up stage by 2020 and an expansion stage by 2050. In the start-up stage, 1.5 gigawatts of capacity will be installed annually. This corresponds to the performance of a large nuclear power plant. An annual installation of 5 gigawatts is planned for the expansion stage. That equates to about three nuclear power plants and the expansion of US power generation in the 1970s.
The benefits are particularly of a strategic nature. If the expansion target is achieved, the noticeable reduction in oil consumption will eliminate a large part of the previous oil imports and thus the US foreign trade deficit. This also results in a significantly lower military effort to secure access to the oil wells. Furthermore, the emission of carbon dioxide would decrease significantly without the population having to limit their comfort or energy consumption.
The criticism is directed in particular against the centralistic approach that serves the profit interests of energy suppliers. Decentralized approaches to energy supply would then no longer be pursued. The authors themselves see the political will of the US population as the critical success factor, since there is a lack of public awareness of this in the US.
Web links
- Spectrum of Science digital from February 21, 2008 "America's Path into the Solar Age" - German translation of the Grand Solar Plan
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- ^ A solar grand plan , Scientific American, December 2007
- ^ "Grand Solar Plan", commentary by Dr. Alexander T. Stadie ( Memento of the original from May 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , December 2007
