California Agency Licenses 663-MW Calico 'SunCatcher' Solar Plant (4500 MW approved or in review CA)

[jpak]

http://solarhbj.com/news/california-agency-licenses-663-mw-calico-suncatcher-solar-plant-01066

The California Energy Commission has approved the giant Calico Solar Project, the seventh solar power plant the commission has licensed in the past two months, marking a sudden and remarkable shift in the sourcing of the electricity Californians will receive in coming years.

Since August, the commission has licensed 3,492.5 megawatts of renewable solar power capacity in the Southern California deserts. That is a measure of the maximum rated electrical output at a particular point in time. For comparison, the hulking Hoover Dam between Nevada and Arizona, which sends the majority of its energy to California, has a rated capacity of 2,080 megawatts.

California’s two large nuclear power plants, at San Onofre and Diablo Canyon, have rated capacities of 2,254 and 2,202 megawatts respectively. Although the solar power plants produce energy in the daytime, their generation coincides relatively closely with the daily rise and fall in electricity demand. Numerous private and governmental studies are examining ways to cost-effectively store renewable electricity to extend its use into evening hours.

Power produced from the state’s newly approved solar projects, which will take years to fully build out, will be transmitted to electricity customers throughout California by the private utility companies Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric.

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[txlibdem]

1. Energy storage for renewable sources

I read a headline that we need super big batteries to save all that power from the solar, wind or other renewable energy plants. Fortunately, there are other options:

A variety of energy storage solutions other than batteries are in the pipeline. What are the options?

Cheap, utility scale energy storage is viewed as the holy grail for the cleantech sector, providing a balancing force to the intermittency of many renewable energies. Some say we are nearly there and that utility scale energy storage will be having its coming out party this year.

While the current focus is on battery technologies, it is expensive to size it up to utility scale. What other energy storage mechanisms are in the pipeline?"

http://cleantech.com/news/5649/energy-storage-not-all-about-batter

That article deserves a read; it highlights 6 of the most promising energy storage technologies for storing renewable energy. The author ends by asking which of the 6 will "win" in the end. I think I can answer that question: we all win (when we shut down the last coal power plant and turn off the foreign oil spigot because we're so well served by stored renewable energy).

:patriot: