The Consumer Voice for Renewable Energy Activities Meet Quarterly Internet Yahoo Chat Group

1. HREG The Renewable Energy Solution • The Consumer Voice for Renewable Energy • Activities • Meet Quarterly • Internet Yahoo Chat Group • Annual Houston Solar Tour • Earth Day Booths • Educate Houston • Non-profit, local section of the Texas Solar Energy Society (TXSES) Houston Renewable Energy Group www.txses.org/hreg written by Chris Boyer 2006

2. US Energy Demand Growing

3. The Energy Problem • Rising cost of fossil fuel extraction • Trade deficit • War over finite resources • Pollution and climate change • Threat of nuclear proliferation and waste disposal

4. Direct Solar Wind Hydro Biomass Geothermal Its Plentiful Its Everywhere It lasts “forever” Its Healthy Its Safe The Renewables Solution

5. All the energy we use could be supplied by Renewables!

6. Solar Energy 80,000 Terawatts of Solar Power fall on the Earth constantly, compared to 14.5 Terawatts current used for human power. • Solar Electricity – Photovolatics (PV) • Solar Thermal Heating • Hot water – residential and commercial • Utility Steam & Electricity • Cooking • Solar Building Design • Shade & venting • Solar heating

7. Solar Thermal

8. Solar Thermal: Hot Water • Hot Water roof systems subsidize hot water. • $500 to $6,000 for system • Last ~20 years • 1 to 2 ft2 of panel for each gallon used per day. • 4 yr payback • If hot water use does not match solar availability, economics is not so attractive. Controller Panels Pump Tank

9. Solar Thermal: Utility Electricity $1million/MWp Capital Investment 20-60% Capacity Factor (100% with N.G. Hybrid) 5000 acres for a 1 GW plant

10. Solar Photovoltaic

11. Solar PV Integrated into Structures

12. Solar PV: Grid Connected • $6000 to $10,000 per kWp Power Installed • 50% Modules • 25% Inverter • 25% Installation • $1 to $0.18/kWh • Sun Hours/day • Interest Rate • Incentives • 1 kW ~ 100 ft2 @ noon Goal is $3000/kWp installed, or ~$0.10/kWh by 2025

13. Silicon Crystalline Polycrystalline Amorphous Ribbon Nanocrystalline CdTe GaAs CIS/CIGS Dye-Sensitized Organic Wafer P-N Junction Thin Film P-N Junction Multi-Junction Quantum Dots Photoelectrochemical Advancing Solar PV Technology New Materials New Structures Related Technologies -digital camera -LEDs -Solid state lasers

14. P-N Junction Solar Cell Structure

15. Photochemical Cell Structure Structure for high-efficiency (50%) organic PV cell based on a nanostructured substrate onto which thin layers of molecular multi-junctions are grown and anchored onto the nanostructure surface. The red circle denotes an electron acceptor; the blue square, an electron donor; and the yellow circle, a metal nanoparticle.

16. PV cost as a function of Efficiency

17. Improvements in Cell Efficiency

18. Solar PV: What & Where

19. Solar PV: Who in 2005 (Ever-Q)

20. Learning Curve for PV Production

21. Potential US Solar PV Growth Prediction based on 20 to 25% annual growth. Note: Capacity factor is 0.2 Actual World Growth 44%

22. Wind Energy • 60 GW Installed in the world by 2005 • Growing 20%/yr worldwide • $1million/MW Cost • Capacity factor 0.47 • Clean; no water needed • Dual Land Use • 1000 GW possible in the US • Each tower is 1 to 3 MW.

23. Tale of 2 GW Nuclear Wind

24. Too Many Wind Towers? One coal plant equals about 1500 Wind towers. Over a Million oil and gas wells were drilled in Texas at a cost of ~ $1 Million each. The same as the price of a wind tower. A Million Wind Towers would equal over 600 coal fired plants. There are ~50 coal plants in Texas

25. Wind: Who & Where Company Country Data from year 2004: BTM World Market Update

26. Potential US Wind Growth

27. Biomass Energy • Sources: • Energy crops • Crop residue • Animal manure • Municipal Solid Waste • Forrest waste • 1/2 the energy/lb of coal. • 10 Quads/yr available in US • Crop considerations: • water usage • fertilizer requirements • soil depletion. Corn is bad Switchgrass is good

28. Biomass Energy Pathways • Direct Combustion • Solids  Heat • Solids  Combined Heat & Power (CHP) • Direct Extraction • Oils & fats Esterification Biodiesel • Certain plants Solvent Extraction Isoprenoid hydrocarbons • Biochemical • Plant matter HydrolysisFermentation Ethanol • Organic sludge Anerobic digestion Biogas  CHP or H2 • Thermochemical • Organic matter Pyrolysis biogas or bio-oil • Organic matter Gasification Syngas  CHP, FT Liquids, MeOH/DME, EtOH, or H2 BEST! POOR POOR FAIR

29. Ethanol 6.5 Billion Gallons, or 5% of Gasoline 12 Billion Gallon, land limit. ~10% Energy Return is ~4 out : 3 in. Solar land efficiency of ethanol is very low at < 0.1%. Competes for water and land use. • US produced 3.4 billion gallons in 2005. • 85 US Companies, most sized at 20-60 million gal/yr, ADM has over a billion gal/yr capacity. • Brazil made 4.2 billion gal in ‘05. • China & Europe made 1 billion gal in ‘05 • Produces a fuel compatible with existing infrastructure

30. Hydro Energy • Cheapest source of Electricity $0.02/kWh • 200 GW in US by 2005 • US developed about 40% of potential; inhibited by environmental concerns. • Capacity factor 0.5 Hoover Dam Tidal Wave

31. Hydro Production Cycles in US El Nino cycles

32. Geothermal Energy • Free heat • Environmental concerns • Non-sustainable – ground cools. The Earth’s core is hot from decay of nuclear materials.

33. US Energy Flows 2002 (Quad) 56.2 Wasted 35.2 Used Source: LLNL, EIA-DOE

34. The Renewable Energy Solution US Practical Potential for RE energy by 2025 to 2050 with existing technology. Source GWp Cap.Fact. Quads of Work/yr Solar 2000 0.2 10.7 Wind 1000 0.47 12.6 Biomass 336 0.25 (effic.) 2.3 Hydro 300 0.5 4.0 Geothermal 100 0.8 2.1 TOTAL 31.7 RE can cover 90% of the 35 Quads of Work used today. Note: 1 Quad of Fossil Fuel is ~0.3 to 0.1 Quad of useful work. 1 Quad of Renewable Electricity is 0.9 Quad of useful work.

35. Other Energy “Solutions” • Unconventional Oil • Tar sands • Shale Oil • Stranded Natural Gas • Coal • Nuclear Polluted water Polluted air Habitat destruction Climate change Limited Resources Compete for water Easy terrorist targets Monopolized markets Waste of capital Expensive energy The Future Value of Such Investments is NEGATIVE!

36. Pathway to Sustainable Energy • Phase I Achieved! 1975-2005 • Economical Renewable Energy Solutions Realized • Incubation of the RE industry. • Phase II Achievable by 2025-2050 • Up to 25% of electric load can be supported by renewables without energy storage. • Shift transportation from oil to electric. • Technology improvements lower RE cost. • Phase III Achievable by 2050-2100 • Incorporate energy storage to achieve 100% R.E. • Disruptive renewable energy inventions bring costs lower

37. Action Items – For NOW • Practice Energy Conservation • Switch to a “Green” Electric Provider. • Buy Electric Vehicles and Biofuels • Make investments in Solar and Wind projects/ companies. • Vote for politicians with platforms promoting “Sustainability” • Inform the public about the wind and solar energy solution.