renewable energy sufficient and affordable

En

the sun

the wind

the landthe waters

passive solarsolar hot watersolar radiant heatingphotovoltaics

building integrated photovoltaicsconcentrated photovoltaics

concentrated solar (solar thermal electricity)

solar is sufficientnow:25% coal

37% oil23% natural gas6% nuclear

9% renewable

world will need

18 TW total energy in 2015according to US DOE

18,000,000,000,000 watts

translate coal, gas, oil and electrical energy into18 trillion watts

18 TW

during peak sun hours, the sun provides 1 kW of energy per square meter

photovoltaic panels are only 20% efficient, so one square meter PV provides about 0.2 kW or 200 watts.

regions southof US/Canada Border3 – 7 hours peak sundaily

estimate4 hourspeak sunnonpolarworldaverage

world needs 18 TW

now to get time into the picture

think about

deserts

earth has 20 million sq km of nonpolar deserts which is 20 trillion sq meters

nonpolar deserts have a lot more peak sun hours than average land, so we’ll use a desert-like 5 hours of peak sun per day peak sun 5/24 of the timepeak sun 21% of the time

instead of getting 20 trillion kW from 20 trillion sq meters of desert sun

we will only get

20 trillion kW X 20% (PV efficiency) X 21% (peak sun availability) = 0.84 trillion kW = 0.84 trillion (1000 watts) = 840 trillion watts = 840 TW

need 18 TW

840 TW from deserts

18/840 = 2% of desert land

so solar energy could easily power the world, but is it affordable?

“DOE SunShot initiative looks to reduce the total costs of photovoltaic solar energy systems by about 75 percent so that they are cost competitive with other forms of energy without subsidies before 2020. Chu is targeting $1 per watt, which he said corresponds to roughly 6 cents per kilowatt-hour.”

why is $1/watt the “Holy Grail” of solar?

$10 billion reactor1000 MW baseload power

“Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko said that permitting new reactors could take four years or more, and that storing the waste is not a pressing concern, but that paying for the new reactors remains a significant concern for most utilities. The best estimate for a new reactor's price tag is about $10 billion, he said. Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2010/02/01/20100201biz-nuclear0202.html#ixzz1D6lHv81I”

1000 MW reactor = 6000 MW solar with 4 hours of peak sun daily

1000 MW x 24 hours = 6000 MW x 4 hours = 24,000 MWh/day 24,000 MWh/day

at today’s PV cost, $2/watt, Reactor costs $10 billion 6000 MW PV costs $12 billion at $1/watt,

6000 MW PV costs $6 billion

concentrated photovoltaics (CPV)

• higher efficiencies• lower cost per watt

“100 suns”

http://gigaom.com/cleantech/solar-thermal-jv-to-spend-124b-in-spain/

metal reflectors focus sun to heat fluid steam turns turbinefluid can be molten salt retaining heat

to produce electricity at night

wind farms

micro-windoff-shore wind

Global Wind Resources

could wind only power the world? “Archer and Jacobson use

worldwide weather stations (more accurate than the above GEOS-1 data, but not covering the oceans) and estimate the worldwide land and near-shore wind resource. Their calculation of total wind resource is 72 TW” http://www.ceoe.udel.edu/windpower/

Estimated levelized cost of new generation resources, 2018, DOE

Advanced Coal 12.3¢ per kWh

Natural Gas 6.7¢ per kWh

Advanced Nuclear 10.8¢ per kWh

Wind 8.7¢ per kWh

Geothermal 10.0¢ per kWh

Solar PV 14.4¢ per kWh

Hull, Massachusetts

NREL: US could produce nine times our current electrical consumption from onshore wind alone

Texas is #1 in wind

wavestidesdamsmoving rivers: hydrokineticmicro-hydro

waves

the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) says that “global wave power potential has been estimated to be around 1000-10,000GW, which is the same order of magnitude as world electrical energy consumption.”

http://www.suite101.com/content/green-power-from-oceans-a178466#ixzz1D7EZGzQs

Australia very excited about ocean energy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V27ZBODcv0c

http://www.carnegiewave.com/index.php?url=/ceto/what-is-ceto

thenLa Rance, France

tidal barrage generating 250 MW max since 1966average output 60 MW

now“Scotland Plans to Use 100

Percent Renewable Energy by 2025”

Scottish plan includes world’s largest tidal energy plant

dams

China’s 3-Gorges dam

hydropower provides about 1/5 of world electricity according to the World Bank.

moving rivers

hydrokinetic power Hastings, Minnesota 4.4 MW

Vivace

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcR8HszacOE

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcyM3c5ylSU&NR=1

micro-hydro

BiomassAlgaeAnaerobic DigestersGeothermal Heat PumpsGeothermal ElectricityAdvanced Geothermal

US uses 100 EJ/year of energy from all sourcesUS has 14,000,000 EJ potential from Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS)

Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS)

http://www.google.org/egs/

geothermal electricitycould power the world alone

geothermal heat pumps

Always 55 degrees 10 feet under

http://www.originoil.com

Algae ponds

or bioreactors make fuel from CO2Algae – 5000 gallons / acre

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5391

Corn – 420 gallons / acre

So, the entire world could be

powered by

the sun alone,

geothermal energy alone,

the wind alone,

and probably the oceans alone.

But we have them ALLand they can easily power the

entire worldtogether.