American Solar Action Plan

Submitted to the House Science and Technology Committee by Ken Zweibel 3/2008

Thesis

Solar energy can be harnessed immediately as a solution to U.S. energy, economic security, and climate change problems [1].

Basis

All aspects of a dependable, dispatchable, cost-effective national solar electric system meeting all of our needs are ready for use and nearly cost effective today.

What should be done?

A Federal incentives program focused on solar installations and R&D to bring down system cost through technical innovation and economies of scale.

What is the deployed energy system that would meet our national needs?

The U.S. Solar Energy System would be composed of the following major components:

• Solar fields in the US Southwest populated with photovoltaics (PV) and concentrating solar power (CSP) arrays.
• Intermittent solar electricity made firm and dispatchable by coupling PV to compressed air energy storage (CAES) plants and by adding thermal storage to CSP plants.
• Solar electricity produced in the Southwest transmitted via high-voltage, direct-current power lines (HVDC) to demand centers.
• CAES plants located near demand centers and with access to the normal AC grid.
• Electric and plug-in hybrid electric/fuel vehicles employed to reduce gasoline use.

What are the economics for these systems?

The system economics are summarized in Table I.

Table I. U.S. Southwest Solar Energy System Economics

Technology	30 Year Levelized Cost [$/kWh]
	Today [2008]	After Program [2016]
Photovoltaics [PV] at $4/W Installed	0.16	0.08
Concentrating Solar Thermal [CSP] with Thermal Storage	0.20	0.13
PV with Compressed Air Storage [CAES]	0.20	0.13
High Voltage DC Power Transmission	0.007	0.007
Electric Vehicles	Barriers	Defined Pathway

There will be an additional small distribution overhead of about:

• $750 million/1000 miles
• $450 million/DC-AC converter station

What specific actions are needed?

During the eight years of the Program:

1. Create a National Workshop to determine the best way to incentivize PV, CSP, thermal and compressed air storage.
2. Deploy 20 GW each of PV and Concentrating Solar Thermal [CSP].
3. Deploy 6 GW of Compressed Air Energy Storage [CAES].
4. Build two HVDC lines from the Southwest to California and to Southeastern markets.
5. Convene a National Transportation Electrification Plan Workshop, and then act on the workshop’s recommendations for vehicle electrification.

What would be the payoff?

After the progress during the solar incentives period, firm, dispatchable solar installations would reach 13 ¢/kWh and be competitive and self-sustaining on their own. Solar would then provide an open-ended, economical source for all our energy during the 21st century. Based on the U.S. model, this approach could be implemented worldwide. Having solar energy as the source of our energy would resolve our issues with:

1. Energy – we gain self-sufficiency and stabilize prices (Figure 1)
2. Environment – we solve CO₂ buildup (Figure 2)
3. Employment – we gain a huge number of jobs by domesticating our energy supply
4. Economy – we step back from the brink of an unsustainable balance of payments
5. Peace – we eliminate international energy-supply tensions.

Figure 1. Projected annual increases in U.S. electricity production by renewable energy power plants.


Figure 2. Projections of U.S. carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions through 2050 showing the reduction (in green) implied by the Plan.