StratoSolar-PV: A Complete Energy Solution
By Edmund Kelly
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About this ebook
The problem:
Most of the world's energy comes from burning fossil fuels, which adds CO2 to the atmosphere. The consensus of the world scientific community is that rising CO2 levels are warming the planet and causing climate change. Warming of over one degree Celsius is already evident and climate variability is already exceeding expectations for that level of warming.
Governments have generally accepted the truth of the situation for some time but the unwillingness to accept the economic costs and political consequences of the measures proposed to reduce CO2 emissions have resulted in little change in the status quo.
There is no political will by governments to impose costly change or by citizenry to demand or accept costly change, so the default behavior is effectively to defer substantive action to a time when either climate change has a tangible cost (like very high food and/or energy prices) or resource constraints (like peak oil) force the issue. This is likely to take a-decade or two by which time we will have passed the generally agreed goal of not exceeding a 2-degree Celsius average temperature rise.
Within the current political and economic constraints, there is an emerging awareness that the only way to cause substantive change is by developing market-competitive carbon-free energy alternatives that are cheaper than fossil fuel energy. Market competition driven by profitable investment opportunities should then result in the decline of fossil-fuel energy use.
A solution: StratoSolar-PV
Solar PV based on crystalline silicon (c-Si) is a well-established technology with a forty-plus -year history of cost reduction along a consistent learning curve. However, even with the recent dramatic reduction in PV-panel prices, electricity generated by PV systems at the sunniest locations costs more by a factor of two times, than electricity generated using fossil fuels. To get costs down to competitive levels will take around 5 doublings of current cumulative generation capacity. This is a capacity of 1Terra-Watt to 2Terra-Watts compared to today's 80Giga-Watts.
The recent growth in PV installations worldwide has been due to the support of massive government subsidies, mostly in Europe. In a world of growing fiscal austerity, subsidies for PV electricity are reducing or disappearing. As a result, PV manufacturing capacity is declining as demand has slowed dramatically and the industry restructures. With slow growth in PV capacity, costs can not reduce significantly and as a result, PV will remain a very small provider of electricity. Were governments worldwide to maintain current levels of subsidy (with say Japan and China making up for Europe) PV may reach an installed capacity of 1TWp to 2TWp and become cost competitive in between ten and twenty years.
StratoSolar-PV power plants reduce the cost of PV electricity by more than a factor of two. In energy, a factor of two is of enormous consequence. Almost all technologies are increasing in cost. With fossil fuels, the fuel costs are volatile and can temporarily drop, but the trend is inevitably to higher costs. A doubling of effectiveness makes today's PV technology immediately viable and cost effective without subsidy.
In addition, StratoSolar-PV technology avoids other large costs limiting the deployment of both intermittent wind and solar power. It does not need spinning backup generation or massive re-engineering of the electricity grid to transport electricity thousands of kilometers. StratoSolar-PV is also an affordable alternative for northern cloudy locations like Germany and Japan.
This book is an attempt to explain StratoSolar-PV power plant technology and why it can be a real and complete energy solution that provides abundant, clean, cheap energy exactly where it is needed. It is perhaps the first economically credible solution to mitigating climate change due to CO2 induced global warming.
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Book preview
StratoSolar-PV - Edmund Kelly
StratoSolar-PV
By Edmund Kelly
Copyright 2012 Edmund Kelly
Smashwords Edition
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person,please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Table of contents
Introduction
The problem
Policy and Strategy
A solution: StratoSolar-PV
What the StratoSolar-PV system does
Key insights
Why it generates electricity for a low cost
A description of the StratoSolar system
Big engineering issues: Sunshine and wind
Solar energy available
Behavior of system under wind load
Cost Issues
Long term PV electricity cost reduction projection
StratoSolar PV system cost analysis
StratoSolar-PV LCOE compared to other technologies
Alternative energy land use for total energy for selected countries
Cost of ground PV subsidy
Deployment examples
NREL 80% renewable electricity
California deployment example
Deployment scenarios for Japan
Frequently asked questions
How do you handle static electricity and lightning?
Hydrogen vs. helium for buoyancy gas?
How do you handle hydrogen safety?
Is station keeping an alternative to tethering?
Will the FAA and other airspace regulators have jurisdiction?
Will finance and insurance be difficult to obtain?
How will you survive extreme weather events like thunderstorms and hurricanes?
Will icing on the tethers be a problem?
Won’t the structures be vulnerable during deployment?
How will you handle maintenance and repair?
How will you handle construction and deployment?
Won’t the large scale structure cast a large shadow?
What will be the consequence if a structure losses buoyancy and falls from the sky?
How will you handle hydrogen leakage and air contamination?
Beyond electricity generation.
The big picture
Solar energy potential
Current EIA 2011 and World Bank assessments
StratoSolar deployment to 2035 scenario
Options enabled by the continual reduction in the cost of electricity
The long term view
Conclusion
Appendix
List of abbreviations
Bibliography
List of Figures
List of Tables
Introduction:
The problem:
Most of the world’s energy comes from burning fossil fuels, which adds CO2 to the atmosphere. The consensus of the world scientific community is that rising CO2 levels are warming the planet and causing climate change. Warming of over one degree Celsius is already evident and climate variability is already exceeding expectations for that level of warming. Governments have generally accepted the truth of the situation for some time but the unwillingness to accept the economic costs and political consequences of the measures proposed to reduce CO2 emissions have resulted in little change in the status quo.
There is no political will by governments to impose costly change or by citizenry to demand or accept costly change, so the default behavior is effectively to defer substantive action to a time when either climate change has a tangible cost (like very high food and/or energy prices) or resource constraints (like peak oil) force the issue. This is likely to take a-decade or two by which time we will have passed the generally agreed goal of not exceeding a 2-degree Celsius average temperature rise.
Policy and Strategy:
Within the current political and economic constraints, there is an emerging awareness that the only way to cause substantive change is by developing market-competitive carbon-free energy alternatives that are cheaper than fossil fuel energy. Market competition driven by profitable investment opportunities should then result in the decline of fossil-fuel energy use. This perspective was well articulated by Bill Gates in his TED2010 energy talk. He is part of an emerging consensus(1) (2) (3) that thinks that the current rate of spending subsidizing the deployment of high-cost wind and solar technologies is not and will not make a significant dent in CO2 reduction. At the current low level of government funding a better strategy is to focus investment on R&D for development of several high-risk miracle
alternatives that have a real potential to provide sufficient cheaper energy. This is not basic research R&D, which is probably already adequately funded, but power-plant R&D that has no real funding.
As an example, Bill Gates and others have funded Terrapower, a company developing a new kind of nuclear reactor. This clearly has to overcome strong financial, technical and political barriers, but it is a serious attempt with a reasonable case that--should it succeed--would be a complete long-term energy solution. Terrapower does illustrate a general issue faced by a technology-led policy; the development timescale for many technologies could be decades before deployment.
StratoSolar is another high-risk miracle
energy technology that builds on the foundation of current solar photovoltaic (PV) technology. With a quick and inexpensive R&D effort it could prove to be a complete, long-term clean-energy