Posted by admin | Posted in Solar Panels | Posted on 12-03-2010
Tags: alternative_energy, clean_environment, home solar panels michigan, michigan, panel, wind_bird
Solar Power Testing largest in the U.S. Site
On Wednesday, October 21st a historic groundbreaking took place in Aurora, Colorado.
When completed, the 74-acre Solar Technology Acceleration Center, or SolarTAC, will become one of the largest installations of solar technology testing in the United States, offering a comprehensive and integrated way to test the commercial viability of solar photovoltaic technologies ranging from simple to large, the utility-scale concentrating solar power options.
With over 300 days of sunshine a year, and a value of solar irradiation of 5.0 (on a scale of 2.0 to 6.0 in the contiguous United States), flat terrain of the site and access to Denver and Denver International Airport make it a win-win for energy solar, and the collaboration of seven partners – all involved in research and power generation – shows that solar energy is ready and willing to join conventional energy generation.
Partners include the City of Aurora, based in Spain, Abengoa Solar, Kansas City, Missouri-based Midwest Research Institute (SolarTAC manager), Beltsville, Maryland-based SunEdison, Minneapolis, Minnesota-based Xcel Energy (serving Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, North and South Dakota, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas), Colorado School of Mines, the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory (or crew, member of the University of Colorado, Boulder), Palo Alto, California-based Electric Power Research Institute, or EPRI, and – more recently – Golden, Colorado-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory, with a research arm of the Department of Energy, based in Washington DC
Located in the newly designated 1762 acres Aurora Campus for Renewable Energies, dedicated to research and development in alternative energy technologies for generating energy without generating greenhouse gases, The site is part of the Aurora City Development Master Plan.
Aurora, which paid about $ 10 million for the land five years ago, plans to lease to SolarTAC, whose facilities are sponsoring research in three areas: property (in which the results are not common, frequent, in which research is shared among participants or stakeholders and the public research, which can be shared with all stakeholders to monitor the evolution of energy solar.
The only partner that stands out is Xcel Energy, an investor owned utility. However, Xcel Energy officials have long acknowledged the need of "cleaner" energy utility scale power generation, as witness their pioneering wind project in Minnesota, a 600-well installation of wind turbines started in 1999 along the Buffalo Ridge, a promontory that provides the highest wind resources throughout the state level in California. The facility, and additions in recent years has been to rename the small town of Lake Benton as "Capital of wind energy in the world."
Xcel Energy also offers a program of participation of solar energy solar taxpayers through rewards, which costs taxpayers about.35 cents per month, but pays $ 2 per watt for installing solar energy systems and a REC (Renewable Energy Credit) rate of $ 2.50 per watt, which cover roughly half the cost of a 2-3-kilowatt system.
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2010 NAIAS Ford Plugin-Hybrid Escape and DTE Energy Display
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