POWER July 2010 - 66

ELECTRIC POWER 2010: WHERE THE GENCOS MEET
" The two biggest barriers for renewables in
the U.S. are that we haven't yet developed
successful energy storage technology and
we don't have a national grid. "
On the other hand, Austin Energy is not
guided by a state RPS, according to Kapner.
" We have our own renewable goals: 35% by
2020 and 200 MW of solar by 2020, " he said.
" We're not sure that a national RPS is a good
idea or a bad idea. Some regions of the country
are clearly far more blessed with renewable resources
than others; why should the areas that
are deficient in the resources be penalized? "
The PV Technology Market
In her presentation, Kurtz primarily focused
on the developing solar photovoltaic (PV)
market. She pointed out that in the past the
U.S. has mainly had a distributed market with
little utility involvement. In contrast, Portuguese
and South Korean utilities are very involved
in using PV for electrical generation
(Figure 1). Nonetheless, she emphasized that
many predict that U.S. utilities are poised for
large PV growth in the future.
Recently, solar PV systems have undergone
important increases in the following
areas, according to Kurtz:
■ Maximum system size.
■ Average system size.
■ Ground mount (instead of roof mount).
■ Connection at transmission voltages instead
of at distribution voltages.
■ Utility ownership.
Selection Criteria for Renewables
In general, utilities use some basic metrics
when choosing a renewable energy technology,
according to Kurtz:
■ Acceptable cost, which depends on local
resources.
■ Energy payback, which also depends on
local resources.
■ The match between generation and load
profile (peak shaving).
■ Demonstration of the product.
■ The future potential for the product (PV
technology is still maturing).
■ Installation details, such as the size of the
installation, site preparation, and dual use
of land.
1. Worldwide use of PV. The Jan. 2010 Solar Technologies Market Report shows that
the countries on the right side of this graph have the highest percentages of grid-connected
solar PV power. Source: U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Office
Grid-connected utility
Off-grid non-domestic
100
Grid-connected distributed
Off-grid domestic
Off-grid undefined
■ Maintenance requirements (for example,
trackers require regular maintenance, but inverters
are typically the most problematic).
■ Water use.
■ Other environmental concerns, such as
permitting challenges.
Kapner gave a specific example of the
renewable technology selection criteria that
Austin Energy uses: " We consider wind,
solar, hydro, biomass (landfill methane,
anaerobic digestion of organic waste, and
combustion of wood and crop residue), and
geothermal as qualified renewable energy
sources. "
What the Future May Hold
for Renewables
Session participants provided valuable insights
into the variety of challenges that lie
ahead related to adding more renewables to
utilities' generation portfolios.
" Renewable energy is gaining in market
share as the prices drop. Within a few years,
renewables may be a substantial fraction of
new electricity generating capacity, " Kurtz
said. " Any utility out there needs to be diversified
and able to move quickly in new
directions. "
In a different vein, Turner emphasized the
impact that utilities' increased use of renewables
will have on their personnel. " There
will be a huge transition for the U.S. utility
workforce as utilities move from coal-fired
power plants to facilities based on renewable
energy like wind and solar. The workforce
will need to retrain for more maintenancetype
jobs, " Turner said.
Kapner chose to focus on plans that Austin
80
Energy has related to using more renewable
energy sources such as wind or solar. The
utility's generation expansion plan calls for
1,000 MW of wind, 200 MW of biomass, and
200 MW of solar by 2020.
He also addressed the question of how crit60
40
ical
the role of energy storage is for his utility.
" Energy storage should not be viewed as
a show-stopper for the addition of renewables
until Austin Energy runs out of flexible generating
capacity, " he said. " In addition, when
storage is considered, it should be viewed and
analyzed as a system resource, not a cost to be
assigned just to the renewable sources. "
Hoffman had a different view of how the
20
U.S. should handle the expected growth in
demand from both business and residential
consumers. " Going into the future, we're
going to need it all: renewables and traditional
energy sources, " he said. " In addition,
looking ahead, the electrification of the U.S.
transportation fleet is critical. " ■
-Angela Neville, JD, is POWER's
senior editor.
66
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POWER | July 2010
Market share of cumulative installed PV capacity (%)
Norway
Mexico
Turkey
Malaysia
Canada
Israel
Australia
Sweden
U.S.
Denmark
France
Austria
Netherlands
Switzerland
Great Britain
Portugal
Japan
Italy
South Korea
Spain
Germany

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POWER July 2010

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