Gallup Solar sees sun as salvation
Group wants to build 40 megawatt solar power plant

By Kevin Killough
Staff writer

GALLUP — Can solar energy become a viable alternative source of energy?  Gallup Solar, a project of Work in Beauty, Inc., believes it can.  The organization is pushing for a 40 megawatt solar power plant, which is a plan the City Council has endorsed.

The plan is still in its earliest phases, but according to local activist and artist Be Sargent, the plant could cost around $170 million.  Ideally, Sargent says, the city would own the plant and be completely independent for an energy source.  But, she admits, that’s highly unlikely since the plant could not be profitable without a significant rate increase to the city.

“Gallup would never allow rates to rise,” Sargent said. 
While solar technology is the cleanest of power sources, it is the most expensive, which has made it uncompetitive to the present day.  Sargent says all this is about to change.  With the rising price of coal and greater efficiency of solar technology, she predicts the cost of solar electricity will intersect with competitors by 2014.

Solar 101
There are basically two types of solar electricity: photovoltaic and solar thermal.  Photovoltaic uses Einstein’s photoelectric effect in which light particles knock off electrons to create an electrical current.  Solar thermal simply uses mirrors to concentrate sunlight.  The heat generated brings a liquid called “therminol” to 1,500 degrees Celsius.  Therminol does not boil at such high temperatures, but can be used to heat water that does.

The resulting steam turns turbines to generate power.
California took a crack at solar thermal plants beginning in 1980.  In collaboration with the Department of Energy, Sandia National Laboratories erected Solar One near Barstow.  An array of mirrors focused the sun’s heat on a 15-story tower, which held the therminol.  Solar One produced a modest 10 megawatts of electricity.  The plant covered roughly 23 acres.  To produce the 500 megawatts of a small commercial plant, it would have had to cover 10 square miles.

The main problem with Solar One was its intermittent supply.  On cloudy days, the plant produced nothing.  Deemed impractical, the plant was closed in 1988.  Using a method of storing power for those inevitable cloudy days, the plant reopened in 1996 and operated for three years.

The DOE saw that Solar One wasn’t panning out as any suitable alternative and funded a second facility, called the Solar Electric Generating System.  The project was built by the Luz Corporation and consisted of 100 acres of four-story parabolic mirrors.  Using the therminol system more efficiently, the plant produced 354 megawatts, still far less than a significantly smaller conventional plant. 

Besides the land it consumed, the system was a monster to maintain.  Each of those mirrors had to be washed daily and cleaned several times a month with high-pressure hoses.  In addition, the plant was plagued with fires and explosions. Luz Corporation went bankrupt in 1991, but SEGS continues to operate.  Regulations require California to purchase 10 percent of its electricity from renewable resources regardless of whether or not their pricing is competitive.  Though maintaining operations, there are no plans to expand the plant.

Regulations
Many states face such regulations that require them to buy from alternative sources.  Several southwest energy providers have found an innovative way to meet these regulations while expanding solar capacity. They are currently seeking bids from private companies to build a 250-megawatt solar thermal plant in Arizona or Nevada.  In return for the company shouldering the risk of construction costs and profitability, the consortium will sign long-term purchasing agreements, which ensures revenues even when cheaper electricity is available to consumers.

The location, cost, and size will depend on the designs of the winning bidder.  Many factors ranging from cost to environmental impact will be considered in the process.

“The consortium is going to make the best decision to suit our customers’ needs,” APS spokesman Steve Gotfried said.

Aesthetics
Sargent of Gallup Solar says she is a proponent of photovoltaic.  She says its more aesthetically pleasing than a thermal plant and it’s getting more efficient. 

The main problem with photovoltaic is that you can’t increase the power output from the sun.  Therefore, to get more power from a cell, it must grow larger to capture more sunlight.  The most economically viable material for solar cells is silicone glass, which is heavy and requires enormous substructure to bear the weight.  The economics of electronics technologies demands that to be competitive the product must get smaller with time, which has been the death of the solar cell.

But some innovators are thinking in two dimensions.  Thin film technologies are showing some promise to decrease the depth of photovoltaic, since little can be done about the width.  Swiss start-up company Flisom has developed a dark polymer film as thin as paper.  It’s 200 times lighter than glass-based materials and can be any color.  This would make it possible to cover buildings and houses, turning any city into its own power plant without consuming a large amount of open land.  The company claims the material can still produce power at 25 percent on cloudy days and that it’s efficient enough to compete with other power options.

Whether or not thin-film solar technology will pan out still has yet to be seen.  Flisom says its product will be commercially available in 2009, so we will soon see its potential in practice.  Past performance of solar technologies has left many skeptical of its potential. But despite all the setbacks, solar has many allies, who are drawn to its promise of environmentally friendly energy.

Gallup Solar is as determined as ever.

”We want solar one way or another,” Sargent says.

This Saturday, the group is hosting a presentation on renewable energy at the First United Methodist Church on Red Rock Drive. The event will feature Garrett Yazzie, a Piñon, Ariz., teenager who invented a domestic solar energy device.  A hot soup lunch will be served at noon, followed by the presentation at 1 p.m. 
Iinformation: Gallup Solar, 726-2497.