Renewable Power Pathways A Review of the U.S. Department of Energy's Renewable Energy Programs (2000) / Chapter Skim
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3 Assessments of Individual Programs
3 Assessments of Individual Programs
Pages 28-91
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From page 28... ...
: A key strategy in accomplishing OPT's mission is to establish and maintain a renewable energy technology base. The OPT works with industry, state and local governments, universities, and the DOE's national laboratories to support aggressive research and development in photovoltaic, concentrating solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower, and biomass power technologies and systems.
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From page 29... ...
Bioenergy has become a major initiative of the Clinton administration, and OPT should position itself to play an active role. The goals of the Biopower Program closely match the goals defined in the Comprehensive National Energy Strategy (CNES)
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From page 30... ...
The federal government can also promote advanced Biopower technologies by using them to provide electricity for federal government facilities. Although state organizations will be the primary near-term partners for the deployment of renewable energy technologies, the development and commercialization of new technologies will require partnerships with research institutions and private industry.
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From page 31... ...
DOE's annual budget uncertainties also make it difficult for contractors to plan ahead and can ultimately cost the project money. Reaching the deployment targets for biopower technologies will require a concerted effort by OPT to change the perception that the combustion of wood, waste wood in particular, is not a "green" (i.e., environmentally friendly)
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From page 32... ...
Based on budget presentations, the committee was unable to determine if the Biopower Program has considered the need for a long-term partnership with industry to develop the technologies selected for scale-up or the impact of such a partnership on the overall program budget. Given the dramatic changes in the power generation business and the new customers for OPT technologies, the Biopower Program should focus on developing the biomass resource base, understanding infrastructure needs, and identifying market opportunities.
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From page 33... ...
A comprehensive understanding of the market will also be necessary for the successful adoption of biopower technologies, including a clear understanding of customers' needs and the ability of biopower systems to compete with existing systems in terms of price and performance. So far, the Biopower Program has not effectively promoted biopower systems as viable alternatives to traditional energy sources.
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From page 34... ...
Cofiring coal with biomass energy crops promises environmental as well as financial benefits to new and old participants in the electric power-generation industry. The Biopower Program's R&D program on modular systems is targeted toward the distributed power-generation industry in the United States and abroad.
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From page 35... ...
The Biopower Program should highlight the role of waste feedstocks in the current and future Biopower market and should leverage existing public benefits for the development and deployment of other renewable energy technologies. This will require an outreach program to engage new participants in the power-generation industry, regional and state program administrators, and local environmental communities.
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From page 36... ...
As a first step, the federal government should take the lead in adopting advanced Biopower technologies to promote commercial acceptance. As a major purchaser of electric power, government sites could provide a baseline market for electricity from Biopower and reduce the risk of power plant construction.
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From page 37... ...
The Biopower Program should develop a strategy for working with the state public benefit programs to leverage funds and assist in the development of effective initiatives. The Biopower Program could use the Regional Biomass Program more effectively to deploy technology and develop local links for the eventual commercialization of bioenergy crops.
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From page 38... ...
OPT's Hydrogen Research Program considers its mission to be the development of cost-competitive hydrogen technologies and systems that will reduce the environmental impacts of energy use and enable the penetration of renewable energy technologies into the U.S. energy mix.
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From page 39... ...
In that case, the development of a "hydrogen-based economy" in the United States would be the logical goal for research. Status of Research The Hydrogen Research Program is currently focused on improving the production, storage, and end-use devices for the near term based on the thermal processing of fossil fuels as the source of hydrogen.
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From page 40... ...
Education to overcome public perceptions of the dangers of hydrogen will also be vital to the success of hydrogen as a fuel. The first challenge facing the OPT Hydrogen Research Program is to develop better methods of producing hydrogen directly from sustainable energy sources (e.g., biomass, sunlight, etc.)
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From page 41... ...
Unless and until environmental concerns become a high priority, critical issue to the public and politicians, there will be no need for hydrogen as a bulk commodity. Discussion In some ways the Hydrogen Research Program is the most intriguing and difficult to assess of all OPT programs.
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From page 42... ...
on the development of fuel cells and other hydrogen research, especially if the hydrogen program is eventually obliged to adopt a longer-term focus on hydrogen production technologies and allow others to concentrate on storage and/or end-use technologies. Although the presentation to the committee on new production technologies fossil-based, biomass-based, and solar/water-based and their underlying science (Pedro, 1999)
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From page 43... ...
The Office of Power Technologies (OPT) should concentrate on research aimed at the production of hydrogen from renewable resources and secondarily on hydrogen storage for distributed power generation.
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From page 44... ...
and a power generation output greater than 100 MWe (megawatts electric)
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From page 45... ...
, which complicates many of the issues associated with managing hydropower resources. The potential of hydropower to serve as a storage medium for other renewable energy technologies is another possible application of the technology.
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From page 46... ...
These new enabling technologies should also substantially reduce or even eliminate silt buildup and flooding. As with other renewable energy resources, a comprehensive understanding of the resource base can help to maximize hydroelectric resources.
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From page 47... ...
However, the current Hydropower Program is not aggressive enough to develop new technologies that could expand the hydropower option in the United States, as well as provide more environmentally sustainable hydropower technology to developing countries. Measures could be taken to expedite the current and licensing process.
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From page 48... ...
The specific goal of the Hydropower Program is to develop technology that could reduce fish mortality during turbine passage from the current levels of 5 to 10 percent to 2 percent or less (Brookshier and Flynn, 1999~. Although OPT is not currently conducting market analyses or resource assessments for hydropower, earlier estimates indicated that a considerable amount of untapped hydropower was available in the United States.
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From page 49... ...
Recommendation. The Office of Power Technologies should develop a coordinated program to assess the benefits of hydropower to meet the storage needs for other renewable energy technologies.
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From page 50... ...
The Geothermal Energy Program has historically included a broad range of technologies for tapping the full spectrum of geothermal energy resources for electric power generation. Geothermal resources range from vapor-dominated hydrothermal resources, for which technologies are well known but need refinement to accommodate different environmental conditions, to hot dry rock (HDR)
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From page 51... ...
Some hydrothermal and geopressured resources may require control technologies to lower natural hydrogen sulfide and other potentially toxic emissions to acceptable levels. Other environmental concerns about the development of geothermal energy include water consumption, subsidence, and seismic risk.
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From page 52... ...
However, hydrothermal and magma systems are located only in limited areas, mostly along the Pacific coast in the United States, and geopressured resources are located only in the Gulf Coast region. Therefore, geothermal energy could be used extensively in the United States only if the HDR resource can be exploited.
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From page 53... ...
Discussion In light of the significant advantages of geothermal energy as a resource for power generation, it may be undervalued in DOE's renewable energy portfolio. Significant amounts of high-grade resources are available, and geothermal power technologies can operate in a variety of duty cycles (from baseload to peak load conditions)
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From page 54... ...
geothermal resource base for competitive power production. Currently, the Geothermal Energy Program provides all of the government funding for NADET.
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From page 55... ...
The Office of Power Technologies must either increase its program funding for the Geothermal Energy Program or make some hard choices about which research it can fund at meaningful levels and cut back or drop the rest. Finding.
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From page 56... ...
Geological Survey and improve coordination among key stakeholders, including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Office of Power Technologies, the Bureau of Land Management, and others. Finding.
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From page 57... ...
The CSP Program believes that CSP technologies have the potential to make a significant contribution to OPT's goal of tripling domestic nonhydroelectric renewable energy generating capacity by 2010. At the time of the committee's review, OPT had no overall strategic plan, although one was under development.
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From page 58... ...
58 Trough Systems RENEWABLE POWER PATHWAYS In trough systems, solar energy is concentrated by a field of parabolically curved, trough-shaped reflectors onto a receiver pipe running along the inside of the curved surface. The energy heats oil flowing through the pipe and the heat energy is then used to generate electricity in a conventional steam generator (see Figure 3-1~.
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From page 59... ...
ASSESSMENTS OF INDIVIDUAL PROGRAMS Dish/Engine Systems 59 A solar dish/engine system comprises a collector, a receiver, and an engine. Sunlight is collected and concentrated by a dish-shaped surface onto a receiver that absorbs the energy and transfers it to the engine's working fluid.
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From page 60... ...
Program Priorities CSP's most recent multiyear program plan outlines four subjects for R&D based on their applications rather than the complete development by a set date: distributed power; dispatchable power; advanced components and systems, and alliances and markets. The program goal is to accelerate the commercial readiness of all concentrating solar technologies, advancing the technology in three ways: FIGURE 3-3 Power-tower system.
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From page 61... ...
. 61 Develop and demonstrate high-reliability distributed power systems.
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From page 62... ...
Resource assessments, they believe, are the key to identifying cost-effective applications of CSP technologies; they also create market opportunities by making potential users aware of the magnitude of the renewable resource that is available to them. Responses to the committee's questions indicated that the CSP Program faces no serious R&D issues.
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From page 63... ...
stakeholders to benefit. Timeline for Deployment CSP's response to the committee's questions about the viability of the CSP technologies in the marketplace seem to indicate the readiness for deployment of some technologies (OPT, l999b)
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From page 64... ...
The problems encountered by the CSP Program are similar to the problems facing all OPT programs. OPT has not been able to chart a strategic course for the development of technologies that have both strong positive and negative features.
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From page 65... ...
Recommendation. The Office of Power Technologies should limit or halt its research and development on power-tower and power-trough technologies because further refinements would not lead to deployment.
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From page 66... ...
. Program Plan and Goals The stated mission of the DOE's Solar Photovoltaics Program is to implement a balanced, aggressive R&D program to develop clean, competitive, reliable solar photovoltaic power technologies for the twenty-first century.
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From page 67... ...
The primary opportunity is that distributed power-generation technologies (such as photovoltaic systems) are likely to play a role in power generation commensurate with their technical and economic capabilities.
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From page 68... ...
The Solar Photovoltaics Program has supported resource assessment for many years, including the development and validation of solar radiation models and the development of solar resource databases. A critical outstanding issue for the commercial-scale manufacture of thinfilm modules is the lack of a capability for design, operation, and control of deposition units and other steps required to make modules continuously.
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From page 69... ...
For example, work is being done on the development of consensus standards and codes to increase product acceptance; work is also being focused on improving component characterization procedures and developing reliability tests. The Solar Photovoltaics Program also supports the development of new products to address the needs of specific market segments.
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From page 70... ...
Discussion OPT's Solar Photovoltaics Program is subject to political pressures from outside and inside DOE; nevertheless, the program has been well managed and responsive to industry pressures, some of which have been well formulated and some of which have been misguided. Effective progress in developing low-power, off-grid applications has kept many firms in business and is partly responsible for today's billion-dollar industry.
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From page 71... ...
The Solar Photovoltaics Program should focus more on balance of systems components, which will require expanding and refocusing basic research on eventual commercial-scale manufacture. To facilitate the setting of priorities and effective budgeting, the Office of Power Technologies should ensure that more systems analysis is done.
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From page 72... ...
The Office of Power Technologies should institute a process for regular peer reviews of the Photovoltaics program to determine directions for future research. Finding.
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From page 73... ...
Although the overall capacity for developing wind technology and deploying it widely in domestic and overseas markets remains strong, sustained federal support will be required for the next decade. Program Plan and Goals The DOE Wind Energy Program is organized around the following three functional areas (Thresher and Hock, 1999~: applied research, designed to provide the fundamental underpinnings of the program, including design codes and standards, techniques, and databases for various segments of the wind industry turbine research, which is focused on advancing conceptual and engineering designs of wind turbines and subsystems primarily by industry/ laboratory partnerships; initial performance is verified through experience with small numbers of turbines cooperative research and testing, which addresses near-term problems and the needs of industry by establishing certification testing and procedures, developing international standards, tracking industry performance, and sponsoring analysis and testing at the National Wind Technology Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory In addition to these principal program areas, in June 1999 Secretary Richardson announced a DOE initiative, Wind Powering America, to increase the use of wind energy in the United States (DOE, l999g)
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From page 74... ...
The Wind Powering America program is neither managed nor funded by OPT's Wind Energy Program. If Congress appropriates the funding for this initiative, it will focus on technology transfer through regional partnerships, an increase in the use of wind power at federal facilities, and further technology development.
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From page 75... ...
Research Issues Reducing capital cost is the principal driver for R&D in wind technology, and continued investment will be necessary for the United States to remain competitive in short-term emerging markets, especially in developing countries, and in long-term domestic markets. Great strides have been made, such as improvements in the durability and reliability of turbines, but wind turbine technology is still far from mature, and substantial gains could be made with relatively modest investments.
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From page 76... ...
The emphasis on research, testing, and field verification should be renewed. According to OPT's strategic plan, the mission of the Wind Energy Program is to complete the research, testing, and field verification necessary for development of fully advanced wind energy technologies that will lead the world in cost effectiveness and reliability.
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From page 77... ...
Recommendation. Better coordination between the Wind Energy Program and state programs will be essential for maximizing the efficiency of overall wind power development.
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From page 78... ...
The recent Wind Powering America initiative is not coordinated well with the current activities of the Office of Power Technologies' Wind Energy Program. Recommendation.
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From page 79... ...
As renewable energy technologies mature toward true market viability, these and other crosscutting issues should be included in the structure of OPT' s technology programs. A strong commitment to the integration of renewable energy technologies into the broader energy economy through crosscutting, or matrix, functions could improve the real-world success of all renewable energy technologies.
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From page 80... ...
The most obvious change is reflected in the change in OPT's name from the Office of Utility Technologies to the Office of Power Technologies. Regulated utilities are no longer the main developers of power plants.
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From page 81... ...
81 will largely determine whether renewable energy sources are developed primarily as an element of the competitive market or as a public policy. As the country moves toward market-based governance, competitive markets will be used to implement public policy.
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From page 82... ...
The newly organized independent system operators (ISOs) across the country are responsible for ensuring open access to transmission facilities for electric power generators, and FERC is responsible for commercial oversight; but the private sector now has few incentives to support R&D on renewable energy technologies.
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From page 83... ...
Because no other single institution has adequate incentives to undertake this evaluation, DOE should support research on the system behavior, operation, and control of the electric distribution system. The successful implementation of distributed powergenerating technologies (which is the essence of the Office of Power Technologies' programs)
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From page 84... ...
Research in support of long-term, reliable grid operation, including the effect of interconnecting distributed energy sources to the transmission and distribution system, should be included in DOE's responsibilities. Distributed power technologies now entering the market face significant barriers to interconnection at any commercial scale.
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From page 85... ...
The same kind of process will be necessary to establish national standards for the next tier of institutional issues, which range from the prohibition of interconnecting distributed technologies under state and local codes to a patchwork of permitting, tariff, and contract practices that are impeding the emergence of new smaller-scale technologies, despite the growing market demand for them. Other institutional issues are effective, reliable operation of the power grid with distributed power technologies, as well as protocols for grid operations and public access to information.
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From page 86... ...
The Office of Power Technologies, in cooperation with the Environmental Protection Agency, should analyze the impact of diesel and other fossil-fuel powered technologies for backup or specific energy supplies and the impact of renewable-energy distributed resources. Finding.
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From page 87... ...
Many programs in the Department of Energy besides the Office of Power Technologies (as well as other government programs, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) have an interest in distributed resources for electric power generation.
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From page 88... ...
should coordinate its assessment of the market for distributed power with all relevant DOE programs, other government programs, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the Environmental Protection Agency. INTERNATIONAL ISSUES One reason emerging technologies produced by U.S.
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From page 89... ...
Presentation by R Berkmire, University of Delaware, to the Committee on Programmatic Review of the DOE's Office of Power Technologies, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado, June 9, 1999.
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From page 90... ...
l999f. Office of Power Technologies Solar Photovoltaics Program: About Our Program.
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From page 91... ...
1999a. OPT letter response to questions from the Committee for the Programmatic Review of the DOE's Office of Power Technologies: Biopower Program, April 28, 1999.
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