Ameren Corporation, the holding company for AmerenEnergy and Ameren UE, announced Monday, Dec. 1, that it plans to install solar energy systems at its headquarters in St. Louis and, eventually, another in Illinois.

Operating as Ameren UE, the company is one of the nation’s largest utilities, with 16,600 megawatts of generation and 2.4 million electric customers in Missouri and Illinois. AmerenEnergy is the risk management and energy marketing arm of the company. As a utility, Ameren also provides gas services, but its generation mix of 84 percent coal – and its status as the 5th largest coal consumer in the United States – creates a very bleak picture for the future of air quality in the region.

The initial solar installations will be either roof- or ground-mounted arrays, the company says, and range between 25 and 550 kilowatts. This is far from a large investment, particularly for a company the size of Ameren, but executives say the arrays will include cutting-edge solar technologies which will be used to evaluate solar’s enrichment value, at least in corporate terms.

Installation is slated for the fall of 2010 – again, nothing to write home about (many projects are up and running within three months of the announcement) – but a company spokesperson did say that, once the systems go online, Ameren will provide a range of information (available via the Internet) about its findings, which should help potential solar energy customers in Ameren’s service territory evaluate next steps.

AmerenUE will also be offering customers a rebate of $2 per watt (up to 25 kilowatts), or a maximum of $50,000 for solar electric systems installed after Jan. 1 of next year.

Ameren’s cautious venture in solar energy is reportedly a response to the state’s renewable energy mandate, Prop C, passed in 2008, which calls for utilities to use renewable energy for at least 15 percent of their generation mix by 2021 (with solar at least 2 percent of that renewable mix).

This will be quite a stretch for the company, which currently has only 2 percent vested in renewables, namely hydro, but the solar energy installation will, according to Ameren President Thomas Voss, help the company learn how to achieve the mandate.

Voss, who thinks that Missouri is not a very good geographic location for either solar or wind, apparently doesn’t realize that the wind-class values found in the northwestern part of the state (Class 3+) are fully as good as anything Minnesota – currently classed the “wind power capital” of the nation – can offer.

Solar insolation values are even higher, ranging up to 4.5 (on a scale of 2.0 to 6.5 in the continental U.S.). This is far greater than New Jersey (3.5), which currently challenges California for the role as the nation’s solar capital, based solely on installed solar power (2009).

Ameren, which was eyeing a new nuclear power plant until state regulators failed to nix a 1976 provision that prevented them from assessing ratepayers for the plant before it started producing energy, is at least exploring its renewable options. But this latest foray into solar energy is so cautious it’s like damning the technology with faint praise.

Cooler Planet is a leading solar resource for connecting consumers and commercial entities with local solar Installers. Cooler Planet’s solar panel resources and solar energy page contains articles and tools to help with your solar project.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/environment-articles/largest-missouri-power-utility-going-with-solar-energy-1590394.html

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The 21st century is full of examples of sci-fi becoming just plain science, and none is more startling than PowerSat Corporation’s determination to float solar panels in space to trap sunlight and beam the energy back to earth in the electromagnetic equivalent of radio waves.

It’s an idea ahead of its time, but solar radiation is five times stronger than any place on earth because all the atmospheric particulates and carbon dioxide don’t reduce solar inputs. There are also no clouds or storms to worry about; thus the Sun transfers nearly 100% of its energy to the solar panel.

There are, however, obstacles to space-based solar power, one being getting the panels into the ionosphere without spending a gazillion dollars, and the other involves wiring the array.

PowerSat recently filed a patent meant to solve both problems. Of course, we can’t give you the precise details, but it seems the company will build a solar array and use the power from that (code name SPOT, or Solar Power Orbital Transfer) to launch some (half, one-quarter?) of the panels into orbit via electronic thruster technology – a move that reportedly saves $1 billion.

The second solution is similar to cloud computing, or linking remote desktops to create a more powerful computer. Reportedly, PowerSat’s system – code name Brightstar – could connect as many as 300 smaller arrays into one huge one, convert the direct-current (DC) energy into radio-frequency energy, and beam that down to earth to be converted into electricity at the substation. Scotty is not part of that plan, however.

PowerSat says the inventions could save $1 billion of the estimated cost of putting 2,500 megawatts of solar panels in space, but doesn’t say how much money is still required to accomplish the feat. A 2007 Pentagon report suggests $1 billion per megawatt, with the project technically doable by 2016. Still, if one does the numbers, the distance to grid parity remains enormous. At least on earth, we’re getting close to parity, with the U.S. aiming for $.10 cents in 2010 and Europe, with its much higher utility costs, expecting parity within a decade.

Parity is the point at which renewable energy technologies like solar and wind cost customers the same amount per kilowatt hour as traditional energy sources like coal and oil.

PowerSat isn’t the first company looking to space for solar energy. Two months ago, Solaren announced a contract with California-based Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), which has promised to buy its entire output of space-based solar power – 200 megawatts by 2016.

Solaren, now 10 years old, remains confident it can meet that deadline. PowerSat, a mere eight years old, seems equally confident of its expertise. Is it the optimism of youth, or do these guys know something that has eluded the rest of us science neophytes?

Time will tell, perhaps in as little as three years, when PowerSat launches a low-earth-orbit, 10-kilowatt demonstration project at a cost of about $100 million, followed in 2015 by a prototype. If success ensues, the company will seek out a partnership with a utility or the government, or offer an IPO to generate the funds needed for step two. Projections estimate the cost of a 2.5-gigawatt project at about $4.5 billion.

Cooler Planet is a leading solar resource for connecting consumers and commercial entities with local solar Installers. Cooler Planet’s solar energy resource page contains articles and tools about solar panels to help with your solar project.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/environment-articles/solar-power-in-space-can-power-the-planet-1317132.html

Please Note... All links within articles are placed by their author-owners and not by this blog.Products with in those links may or may not be the best in the world.If it sounds too good to be true it could be a scam.Articles are posted for their info,ideas and or entertainment value only.

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