Opportunities and Barriers for Solar Energy Applications

1
Opportunities and Barriers for Solar Energy
Applications

• Solar Energy Applications
• EnvS 116
• Asim Zia
• Department of Environmental Studies
• San Jose State University

2
Overview

• Questions for Inquiring Minds Hayden 79-87
• Exploiting Solar Energy
• Scheer 251-285

3
Questions for Inquiring Minds Hayden 79-87

• Questions about home heating
• Rule1 Insulate your house so well that even
  solar energy can heat it
• Would this advice be offered if solar energy were
  a strong source, such as a nuke in the basement?
• Haydens example is about a PV system!!!
• Rule2Install a heat collector as large as a
  roof
• Again, would that be necessary if solar energy
  were a strong source of heat?

4
Questions for Inquiring Minds Hayden 79-87

• Questions about home heating continued
• Rule3 Install a real heating system as a backup
• Would not all solar systems for heat or
  otherwise similarly require backup systems (as
  sun does not always shine)?
• Rule4 Install a storage system if you intend to
  have solar energy supply most of the heat
• Would not all solar systems require storage
  systems?
• Would not all solar systems have to be overbuilt
  to stock-up while the sun was shining?
• How could you store high-temperature heat that
  might be needed for smelting iron, for example?

5
Questions for Inquiring Minds Hayden 79-87

• Questions about the impact
• Domestic space and water heating is only part of
  the total energy picture
• Where would the energy come from for
  transportation, manufacturing, farming,
  refrigeration, air conditioning, and pumping the
  water that gets heated by the domestic solar
  water heaters?
• What about electricity for lighting,
  communications, and medical equipment?

6
Questions for Inquiring Minds Hayden 79-87

• Questions about Nighttime and Weather
• How do we use solar energy when the sun is not
  shining? Is this the reason we dont use it?
• How large a bank of backup batteries would have
  to be to supply backup power for such energy
  intensive devices as clothes dryers? How rapidly
  can they be recharged? How big must the
  solar-cell array be to gather enough energy
  during a short day of winter sunlight to charge
  batteries enough to last for many cloudy days and
  nights? How much do the batteries cost, and how
  many must be used? How long might they last
  before they need to be replaced? What is the
  environmental impact of battery
  disposal/recycling?

7
Questions for Inquiring Minds Hayden 79-87

• Questions about US and international politics
• During night or inclement weather, why not
  receive energy from another place in the world
  where the sun is shining?
• Questions about seasonal variations
• Is there any way to use the summer sun to provide
  winter heat and winter electricity?
• Questions blowing in the wind
• Questions about hydropower
• Questions about the oceans (waves and tides)?
• Questions about firewood?
• Questions about geography?

8
Exploiting solar energy-Scheer 251-285

• Agents of change (for solar energy) are not large
  scale energy corporations, rather these are
  grass-roots organizations, individual operators,
  new companies, municipal utilities, politicians.
• The ultimate aim of all policies to promote solar
  energy and bring it to the market must be to turn
  the economic advantage of solar energy very
  short or non-existent supply chains into
  strategies that can further accelerate the pace
  of change

9
Exploiting solar energy-Scheer 251-285

• The role of capital allowances and their
  problems
• Public subsidies are still the primary form of
  political support for renewable energy
  initiatives on the ground.
• It is important not to gloss over the faults of
  public subsidy programs
• Short-term programs whose funds quickly exhaust
• Announcements of funds that then fail to appear
• Investment in solar energy becoming a by-word for
  financial pump-priming, leading to a dependency
  culture e.g. solar boats in Venice are as
  feasible as diesel boats!

10
Exploiting solar energy-Scheer 251-285

• The role of capital allowances and their
  problems
• Capital allowances e.g. 100,000 rooftop PV
  program in Germany aim at providing long-term
  funding to prevent hiatuses in the expansion of
  the market, aim at a reduction in the unit cost
  of the product and try to develop self-sustaining
  market.
• Failure of Swiss plan
• Public money can only be a temporary measure to
  kick-start a new developmental trend, and not a
  substitute for more far-reaching measures on
  market regulation

11
Exploiting solar energy-Scheer 251-285

• Tax-exempt status for solar resources overcoming
  legitimacy crisis of environmental taxation
• Eco-tax became unpopular because
• winners and losers of energy tax-hike are very
  different
• Resistance from business community, as
  eco-taxation damages international
  competitiveness
• Can there be a global eco-tax?
• So a mix of eco-taxes for conventionals, and
  tax-breaks for renewables are preferable.
  Subsidies for conventionals (e.g. shipping,
  aviation) should also be removed

12
Exploiting solar energy-Scheer 251-285

• Possibilities and problems in the market for
  green electricity
• 1997 common market directive on electricity i.e.
  functional separation of generation, HV
  transmission and retail distribution by LV grid
• Enduring conflict surrounding grid feed-in laws
• Private renewable investors
• PV generation at peak demand, so differential
  purchase prices will benefit PV (and wind)
• But existing utilities are purchasing more and
  more LV gridsutilities do not want renewables,
  because renewables are not under their direct
  control
• Utilities prefer quota-system (or renewable
  portfolios)
• Minimum price legislation

13
Exploiting solar energy-Scheer 251-285

• Independent markets for green electricity and the
  intermediary problem (green pricing issues)
• Green suppliers and municipal self-sufficiency
  (decentralized networks)
• Creative destruction in the energy industry
• Hard roads to soft resources