My mail box is being flooded this morning with press releases and advisories announcing a major new solar power facility to be built just north of Cle Elum:
A privately-held solar company today announced plans to install a 400-acre solar park on property north of Cle Elum, Washington. The Teanaway Solar Reserve is designed to generate about 75 megawatts of renewable energy — enough to power approximately 45,000 households — making it the largest photovoltaic (PV) solar project ever proposed in the Northwest.
[…] The Teanaway Solar Reserve will employ PV solar technology to directly convert sunlight into electricity. The power it generates will be connected to the utility grid and will offset about 275-million pounds of carbon dioxide every year compared to the equivalent amount of energy produced from coal. The target date for completion is fall 2011.
It’s not entirely clear, but it sounds like the company plans to build a manufacturing facility near the site to build the 400,000 panels necessary to complete the project… which would surely be an economic boon for the county, lasting far beyond the solar reserve’s initial construction.
And since I just took a shot at Sen. Maria Cantwell in a previous post, I suppose it’s only fair to give her a shout out on an issue on which she has shown great leadership:
Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) says, “Last year, I fought to pass my bipartisan clean energy tax incentives bill, and now, thanks in part to that legislation, we’re seeing this project get off the ground. Washington State is leading the way to transitioning our world to a clean energy economy, and I am so proud that our state will be home to one of the largest solar generating facilities in the nation. This groundbreaking project will create construction and manufacturing jobs, bring hundreds of millions of investment dollars into Central Washington, and generate fuel and emissions-free electricity for our citizens.”
2011 seems like an awful ambitious target, but we need to be ambitious when it comes to renewable energy.
This is primarily about CO2 emissions, because the world still has lots of fossil fuels. Petroleum supplies are getting tight and may be peaking, but there are vast amounts of coal and tar sands in the ground — enough for far beyond our lifetimes. The problem is, as an atmospheric scientist quoted by National Geographic a couple years ago said, “We’re going to run out of atmosphere before we run out of fossil fuels.” Energy issues should be considered from that perspective.
This is fantastic news and Maria annoys me %30 less this morning because of it. More generally speaking though we need to be even more aggressive with respect to CO2. We need to build plants like this one, no doubt, but should also be looking at Nuclear to fill in where wind and solar can’t do the job (on windless nights, for example).
Furthermore, we need to seriously start sucking CO2 out of the atmosphere. Planting trees is a good idea, but I think we need to begin building plants whose only purpose is to remove CO2. There are a lot of ideas for how to do this…we need to pick the best ones and begin putting them into effect now.
PV in this region is silly!
I’m all for clean energy, but covering 400 acres with panels is beyond crazy, especially when compared to the already abundant, clean hydro energy we enjoy…
BTW has anyone done the EIS? What “insert endangered critter here” will be effected that would prevent this?
Wouldn’t this make better sense somewhere in the vast desert wastelands in southern Nevada where sunlight coverage is not an issue? Seems like a waste of resources..especially if they are taxpayer resources..
http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/ol...../serve.cgi
Gee, I really hate to echo RS, but why solar, and why here in the Northwest? I would think that wind energy farms would be a better usage here in the Northwest, one that also keeps most of the ground surface available for farming.
Now better and cheaper rooftop solar collection panels I’d go with. Roofs aren’t being used for anything anyway other than to disperse rainwater, and if they can tie into the electric grid safely so homeowners could sell their power back to the utility during the summer months (it could be used in So. California for air conditioning there), then it would offset the cost of importing power during the winter to heat our homes.
re 3: You have some good points.
Another option is to equip every household with their own capacity to generate electricity and plug it all into the existing grid.
With the energy generating source de-centralized, the U.S. becomes less of a terrorist target. Even bad weather would have less impact.
The downside is that the rich layabouts that you refer to as ‘the Producers’ would not be collecting free money from the populace.
Somehow, a wind farm at Entiat or Vantage would seem to make more sense.
Stuff @3,
According to their documentation, the area gets about 300 sunny days a year. Don’t confuse our side of the mountains with their side of the mountains.
The country that is furthest sown the photovoltaic road is Germany. Germany has fewer solar friendly days than W. Washington on average. Conservation is still the low hanging fruit. PV Yes! Wind Yea! Gimme tidal! Nukes, meh. Pretty expensive when compared to alternatives.
@3 “abundant, clean hydro energy”
Uh, no. Hydro isn’t abundant anymore. Recent additions to Northwest energy capacity have been coal-fired. The hydro capacity is fully tapped and we can’t get more power from that source.
@5 “With the energy generating source de-centralized, the U.S. becomes less of a terrorist target.”
Uh, no. The U.S. is the terrorist target. If the electrical grid isn’t vulnerable, they’ll look for something else that is. Skyscrapers full of people work fine for their purposes. In Europe, crowded train and subway stations have served terrorists’ purposes adequately. If they want to go after the power grid, hacking the distribution network’s computer system is easier and more effective than trying to blow up dams or generating plants.
Sounds similar to a project they’re planning in NE California, about 100 miles or so northwest of Reno in Ravendale, with utilities in Northern California lining up behind it like heroin addicts at a methadone clinic. It’s pretty sensible to put a solar farm there, believe you me. But Cle Elum ain’t a bad place for one. Hell, anyone here with a pulse could find a good location for one in Eastern Washington. But we still have to give legitimate consideration to nuclear power, no matter the hysteria it may inspire in some.
Two things come to mind about this solar project.
First, the power will be generated during the day, which is when demand peaks.
Second,t it will deliver the most power during the warmer half of the year which is when the dams run low on water and we buy power from California at higher rates.
As to wind farms, PSE does have a big one just East of Ellensburg called Wild Horse. Well worth the visit if you have the time.
First problem with wind is location. Extensive site surveys are required to make sure there is enough wind, both speed and duration, and does it blow at the right time of the day/year to make the investment worthwhile.
Second problem is NIMBY. (Not in my back yard.) The Wild Horse farm ran into this problem even though it is located quite a distance from anybody. I seems the same crowd who don’t want to be told what they can and can’t do with their own land have no problem with denying others the same rights. You know, Republicans.
To the person that stated that all the hydro was tapped out. Here’s one that will make you think twice. Did you know that Grand Coulee dam’s third powerhouse is not fully operational. It lacks about half of the generators that could be installed!! I repeat, it isn’t fully operational. It could have approximately 10 -14 more generators installed, the penstocks are already there to feed them. The only reason it hasn’t been done is the environmental impacts, yes that means salmon impacts. What is more important, the welfare of humans, or the welfare of fish and the people that run casinos and have no limits on the amount of fish they can get each year?