The Green New Deal’s Case for Solar
By Pooja Narayanan, Marketing & Social Media @ WeSolar CSP, Inc.
On Thursday, February 7, 2019, US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey released a detailed framework for the Green New Deal, an ambitious and time-sensitive environmental proposal. The framework cites the harmful effects of global warming as outlined by the UN’s Special Report on Global Warming. The bombshell report revealed that climate warming over the past century is largely due to human activity and found that gone unchecked, would cost trillions of dollars, displace millions of people from coastal regions, and lead to massive losses in biodiversity. Initially a “loose set of goals”, the deal’s key provisions have been clearly defined.
The Green New Deal aims to meet the United States’ demand for electricity through “clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources” by “dramatically expanding and upgrading existing renewable power sources and deploying new capacity.” The plan, says MIT Technology Review, adopts a “technology-agnostic approach,” leaving much room for interpretation and innovation, though natural methods and renewable energy are preferred. But it is urgent, calling on the United States to meet these goals by 2030.
Electricity, in particular, is a big issue in America. Electricity is largely produced by burning fossil fuels to drive heat engines. But traditional fuels like oil and gas are harmful to the environment and are facing depletion. In accordance with the Green New Deal, the US must look to viable alternative like nuclear fission, wind, and solar power.
Though Ocasio-Cortez herself discouraged the construction of new nuclear plants, nuclear fission is an extremely powerful energy source that can help curb emissions. Nuclear reactors split atoms, traditionally uranium, and use the resulting heat to drive steam turbines. While nuclear power is clean, it is far from renewable. This is because the materials needed to power nuclear fission, like uranium, are limited. Moreover, the mining and disposal processes are extremely harmful to the Earth, though innovative solutions have begun to address these issues.
Solar energy is a powerful tool, that if harnessed efficiently, can meet America’s ever-growing demand for electricity. Every day, the Earth receives enough sunlight to power the entire world’s energy needs for 30 years. There are two major solar power solutions: photovoltaic cells and concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells (PV) capture sunlight in semiconductor devices, creating electricity. One drawback of PV is that some light is either too weak to generate electricity or generates heat energy. PV power production is also limited to daylight hours. Concentrated solar power, or CSP, collects heat energy from the sun and uses it to power steam turbines that generate electricity. Because the thermal energy from the sun can be stored, CSP is not limited by when the sun is shining; it can be a 24/7 energy source.
Energy storage seems to be the best way to meet the electricity demands of the US. Storage options include lithium-ion batteries and thermal energy storage (TES) from CSP. According to Research Interface, lithium-ion batteries can dispatch and store energy quickly and in bulk. They can also be paired with renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power. However, lithium-ion batteries are extremely costly and have limited lifespans. The price of lithium doubled between 2016 and 2018; mining the material has other costs as well. For example, in South America’s “Lithium Triangle”, it takes almost 500,000 gallons of water to mine one ton of lithium. In Tibet, toxic chemicals from lithium mining poisoned the water supply. Moreover, lithium mining can cause both soil and air pollution. Therefore, lithium-ion batteries are far from a good solution to the world’s energy problem.
Thermal energy storage (TES) through molten salt is a more sustainable solution that requires attention and investment. Two companies utilizing CSP and TES technologies are Google X’s Malta and New York-based startup WeSolar CSP. Malta’s system can store energy for more than six hours, and can be converted to electricity at any time. WeSolar CSP’s system uses molten salt as a filler material, and utilizes proprietary software to manage its CSP fields.
CSP systems can be applied to water desalination, which will become increasingly important as humans exhaust the Earth’s freshwater resources. Water desalination is an extremely energy-intensive process if done through traditional methods such as reverse osmosis, in which water is forced through a membrane at high pressure to separate the salt. Solar thermal desalination creates a desalination by distillation process. This not only lowers the costs associated with capturing and storing thermal energy, but also makes the thermal desalination process more efficient.
Underutilized today, solar power seems to be the ideal solution to meet the goals outlined in Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal. But this legislation faces a steep uphill battle in today’s political climate. Market forces must be harnessed to accelerate the adoption of these low-carbon-footprint solutions.
One effort in this direction is the revenue-neutral plan now being considered by Congress, the Energy Innovation and Climate Dividend Act. The bill would put a price on carbon and incentivize the development of renewable energy technology. The bill is cosponsored by Democrats and Republicans and is a beacon of hope for environmental preservation and prosperity for our children and the generations beyond. To combat the increasingly negative effects of climate change, America must invest in renewable energy sources. Such an investment would not only secure the quality of life for future generations, but also combat inequalities US citizens face today.
