Thermal Solar Power Plant First Step in Creating Alternative Energy Hub

The opening this month of the Sierra SunTower thermal solar power plant is just the beginning to make the Antelope Valley a region known for clean energy production. Power plant designer and operator eSolar hailed as a breakthrough an easy to build modular system and sophisticated software that guides the 24,000 mirrors used to create steam that turns a turbine generator all at a cost that is competitive with that of power made by fossil fuels. Solar energy, in other words, is no longer just a novelty. “We are ushering in the second industrial revolution as we power the planet cost-effectively by the sun,” said eSolar CEO Bill Gross to the crowd that gathered Aug. 5 on the north edge of Lancaster for the dedication of the SunTower. The 5-megawatt demonstration site creates enough power for up to 4,000 homes served by Southern California Edison. More than the power, the plant also shows that the eSolar technology works. That in turn will allow the company to build more power plants in the Antelope Valley and license the technology overseas to countries such as India where energy is in great demand. For the City of Lancaster, the completion of the demonstration site is the first step to make the city and the region as a whole the capital of alternative energy for California if not for the world. Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris could not praise enough the ingenuity of Gross and the technology developed by eSolar that should keep coal-fired plants from ever being built again. “We start the race to save the planet,” Parris said. “With (Gross) leading that race, we will win.” Based in Pasadena, eSolar was founded in 2007 as one of a number of tech startups funded through business incubator Idealab. Other investors include Google.org and Oak Investment Partners. Solar energy has long received the largest share of venture capital when it comes to alternative forms of energy. According to the Cleantech Group, a research, event and consulting company in San Francisco, 56 percent of investment capital went into solar power between 2002 and the third quarter of 2008. By comparison, biofuels received 33 percent of funding, with other energies such as wind and geothermal receiving less. Global investment in solar power reached $114 million during the second quarter of 2009, Cleantech said. The real measure of the success of solar power is in the cost per watt and bringing it down to where it is competitive with coal and natural gas, said Dallas Kachan, a managing director with the Cleantech Group. “The smart money is that concentrated solar approaches are going to do that the fastest.” Kachan said. NRG Energy Inc. will use eSolar’s technology to construct and operate a 92-megawatt solar plant and a 245-megawatt plant out in the Mojave Desert north of Lancaster. The power will be purchased by major utility companies. While the U.S. is an innovator when it comes to research and development of alternative energy, the commercialization of that research is another story. The U.S. has only about 2 percent of the world’s deployment in solar and wind. That makes what eSolar is doing all that more important, said Dan Kammen, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. The U.S. is at a disadvantage but policy makers have woken up in the past few years that more needs to be done to get alternate energies into the commercial space. Certainly the Obama Administration has taken steps to do that by offering grants to companies developing those technologies. “America is doing the right thing to put a commitment behind clean tech but every other country is as well.” Kachan said. Along with showing that eSolar technology works, the presence of the demonstration project is an important step in making the Antelope Valley a center for alternative energy. In an area that Lancaster wants to annex into its border, for instance, BlueFire Ethanol will construct a plant to make fuel from green waste. Proponents tout the benefits of economic development and job creation of such projects locating to the desert region. The eSolar presence created 300 construction jobs and 30 permanent jobs between the power plant and an operations center in Palmdale. With the area is poised for solar development, the Antelope Valley’s school system needs to get on board to provide a curriculum that teaches the skill sets needed so that the jobs go to area people, said Linda K. Jones, executive director of the High Desert Region Green Jobs Initiative. “It makes no sense for education to go in one direction and not work hand-in-hand to bring a highly skilled workforce to the area,” Jones said.