Conservation group sues to stop California solar plant

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A U.S. conversation group has sued the federal government over its approval of a major solar power plant in the California desert, the latest in a string of challenges to the nation's renewable energy goals from the environmental community.
According to court papers, the non-profit Western Watersheds Project alleged U.S. regulators approved Brightsource Energy's 370-megawatt Ivanpah solar energy plant without conducting adequate environmental reviews, and asked the court to order the defendants to withdraw their approvals.
The complaint names the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Land Management and the Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as the agencies' heads and other staffers, as defendants. None was immediately available for comment.
"In an ill-conceived rush to accommodate massive renewable energy projects ... the federal defendants precipitously approved unnecessarily destructive energy development of the California Desert Conservation Area without first conducting adequate environmental reviews."

...the return on investment on the heat2power CSP solution is much faster than for other solar options.

“The cost is roughly €300/kw (US$407/kw) for a heat2power engine, compared with around €2000/kw (US$2,712/kw) for a Stirling engine or €1000/kw (US$1,356/kw) for a steam turbine,” he says.

Compared to other small-scale renewable energy options, micro CSP is a more efficient and, given its capacity for storage, a more stable option.

“Using micro CSP, heat can be stored which then can be used to generate power or steam when the load is higher in the evening or when the sky is cloudy,” points out Kasetti. “CSP is also much more stable than the PV which is subject to fluctuations,” he adds.

http://theothersolar.com/?p=186

The conversion of solar heat into electricity is currently often done with Rankine Cycle engines and with Stirling engines; sometimes also with Organic Rankine Cycle engines. From various sources we have learned that Organic Rankine Cycles are not the easiest technology to maintenance in developing countries; Stirling engines remain complex and are actually quite heavy (see example1 and example2 with 200 kg {440 lbs} for 3.7kW) and expensive. Rankine Cycle engines (steam engines) need cooling for which a lot of water is needed (cooling towers) which is an important inconvenience in dry and sunny countries. The heat2power engine running on solar heat overcomes these inconveniences:

• it has a high power density which lowers the cost of construction
  
• it is cheap to produce because it is based on mass produced automotive technology
  
• it is easy to maintenance
  
• it requires no cooling towers because it runs on air and rejects heat with hot exhaust gas

heat2power CSP market development

heat2power seems to be the perfect technological partner for solar power. Therefore we are developing this market with partners in solar concentrating equipment to offer low cost energy solutions for developing countries. We are currently working with Kyoto Energy (http://www.kyoto-energy.com/) to come up with our first product that will be an electric generator of 15 kW including a thermal buffer so that electricity can be generated around the clock. Since a lot of electrical equipement in developing countries is based on mobile power supplies and runs on DC (LED lighting, battery chargers, mobile phone chargers, 12/24V iceboxes, laptop computers) we can directly offer DC output instead of AC output which reduces the cost of an installation even further since no inverter is needed. Because electricity is consumed locally, AC which is normally used to transport electricity over long distances with minimal losses is not required. For larger power outputs AC power will be available as well. This represents a major market potential for traditional power generation equipment suppliers. They are also invited to contact us if they desire to develop in the solar power applications.

The low grade heat that is rejected by the heat2power engine is sufficiently high to be used for air conditioning systems, drying processes and desalination of sea water. The evolution of our products therefore focusses on integrating these functions and here also we have selected potential partners. We also plan to have power outputs available in the range from 10 kW to 300kW.

http://www.heat2power.net/en__markets_solar.php

The mission of Western Watersheds Project is to protect and restore western watersheds and wildlife through education, public policy initiatives and litigation.

Western Watersheds Project is a non-profit conservation group founded in 1993 with 1600 members and with field offices in Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Arizona and California. WWP�s headquarters is located in Hailey, Idaho and the group works to influence and improve public lands management in 8 western states with a primary focus on the negative impacts of livestock grazing on 250,000,000 acres of western public lands. WWP has an annual budget in 2007 of $650,000.

WWP works in partnership with the Oregon Natural Desert Association in Oregon, Forest Guardians in New Mexico, the Center for Biological Diversity in Arizona, the American Lands Alliance in Washington, D.C; and the Larch Company in Ashland, Oregon. With these groups WWP co-founded the National Public Lands Grazing Campaign that supports federal legislation for a generous and voluntary federal grazing permit buyout program to compensate ranchers and restore public lands. Congressman Raul Grijalva of Arizona sponsors that legislation.

WWP�s long-term partner in our efforts to bring the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service into compliance with national environmental laws is the non-profit environmental law firm Advocates For The West in Boise, Idaho.

http://www.westernwatersheds.org/wwpinfo/aboutwwp.html

Edit to add. Paraphrasing:

Due to rising atmospheric CO2 levels over the past century there has been a 26 percent increase in ocean acidification. This acidification has occurred with "startling" rapidity, scientists say - perhaps 100 times faster than anything Earth's sea life has experienced in millions of years.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x271375

Ocean acidification reaches deep-sea corals

Published 15 December 2010
With increasing levels of carbon dioxide accumulating in the atmosphere and moving into the world’s oceans, marine waters have become more acidic, scientists have shown. The long hand of acidification is reaching far down in The Deep. Corallium rubrum (pictured here) and other deep-sea corals are now being affected.

To address the growing concern for acidifying marine ecosystems, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded 21 grants under the Ocean Acidification theme of its Climate Research Investment. The awards are supported and managed by NSF’s Office of Polar Programs, Directorate for Geosciences and Directorate for Biological Sciences. Projects will support research on the nature, extent and effects of ocean acidification on marine environments and organisms in the past, present and future — from tropical systems to icy seas.

Animal species from pteropods — delicate, butterfly-like planktonic drifters — to hard corals are affected by ocean acidification; so, too, are the unseen microbes that fuel ocean productivity and influence the chemical functioning of ocean waters. As oceans become more acidic, the balance of molecules needed for shell-bearing organisms to manufacture shells and skeletons is altered. The physiology of many marine species, from microbes to fish, may be affected.

http://oceanacidification.wordpress.com/2010/12/15/ocean-acidification-reaches-deep-sea-corals/

Increasing Acid Could Kill Most Coral by 2050

By Andrea Thompson, LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 13 December 2007 02:01 pm ET
SAN FRANCISCO — The world’s coral reefs face almost certain death as increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are absorbed by the oceans, acidifying the water in which corals live, a new study warns.

...snip...

“Before the industrial revolution, over 98 percent of warm water coral reefs were bathed with open ocean waters 3.5 times supersaturated with aragonite, meaning that corals could easily extract it to build reefs,” said study co-author Long Cao, also of the Carnegie Institution. “But if atmospheric CO2 stabilizes at 550 ppm—and even that would take concerted international efforts to achieve—no existing coral reef will remain in such an environment.”

At greatest risk of these changes are Australia’s iconic Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest living structure, and the reefs of the Caribbean Sea.

http://www.livescience.com/environment/071213-coral-acid.html