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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Corbel","sans-serif"'>A new study,
<a
href="http://climateprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/nuclear-costs-2009.pdf">“Building
Risks and Costs of New Nuclear Power,”</a> puts <b><u>the cost for nuclear
power at 25-30 cents per kilowatt hour -- </u><u>triple current U.S.
electricity rates</u><u> – and double the cost of solar-thermal power
using salt technology (see article below)</u></b>. This nuclear power study
fills a critical gap in the current debate over nuclear power – transparency.
As the study notes:<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><u><span style='font-family:"Corbel","sans-serif"'><o:p><span
style='text-decoration:none'> </span></o:p></span></u></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><b><u><span style='font-family:
"Corbel","sans-serif"'>“Utilities promoting new nuclear power assert it
is their least costly option. However </span></u></b><b><u><span
style='font-family:"Corbel","sans-serif"'>independent</span></u></b><b><u><span
style='font-family:"Corbel","sans-serif"'> studies have concluded new nuclear
power is not economically competitive.”<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Corbel","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Corbel","sans-serif"'>But here’s
something that is economically competitive … a few highlights from <b><i>How
to use solar energy at night</i></b>: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Corbel","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><i><span style='font-family:"Corbel","sans-serif";
color:#33302D'>And <a href="http://www.aps.com/"><span style='color:#0AA1DD;
background:white;text-decoration:none'>Arizona Public Service Co.</span></a>
(APS) has contracted with Abengoa Solar to build a 280-megawatt solar thermal
power plant—dubbed <a href="http://www.aps.com/solana"><span
style='color:#0AA1DD;background:white;text-decoration:none'>Solana</span></a>
or "sunny place"—70 miles (110 kilometers) southwest of Phoenix
on nearly 2,000 acres (800 hectares) of land. "One of the great things
about molten salt technology is that you can get more out of the pure solar
resources, more energy out of the same facility," says Barbara Lockwood,
manager for renewable energy at APS. "It's an alternative that provides us
with additional green energy," <b><u>as much as 1,680 megawatt-hours when
cloudy or after sunset</u></b>.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><i><span style='font-family:"Corbel","sans-serif";
color:#33302D'><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><b><i><u><span style='font-family:
"Corbel","sans-serif";color:#33302D'>Electricity from a <a
href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=sunny-outlook-sunshine-provide-electricity"><span
style='color:#33302D'>solar-thermal power plant</span></a> costs roughly 13
cents a kilowatt-hour,</span></u></i></b><i><span style='font-family:"Corbel","sans-serif";
color:#33302D'> according to Glatzmaier, both with and without molten salt
storage systems.<br>
<br>
<b><u>That price is still nearly twice as much as electricity from a <a
href="http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=coal-war-can-the-fossil-fuel-be-cle-2008-12-23"><span
style='color:#33302D'>coal-fired power plant</span></a>—the current
cheapest generation option</u></b> <b><u>if environmental costs are not taken
into account</u></b>. But Arizona's APS and others can then use solar energy to
meet the maximum electricity demand later in the day. "Our peak demand
[for electricity] is later in the evening, once solar production is trailing
off," Lockwood says. That's "the reason we went that direction and
are so interested in storage technology</span></i><span style='font-size:7.0pt;
font-family:"Corbel","sans-serif";color:#33302D'>."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><i><span style='font-family:"Corbel","sans-serif";
color:#33302D'><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><i><span style='font-family:"Corbel","sans-serif";
color:#33302D'>Ultimately, it will come down to how much value policymakers and
consumers put on electricity that is renewable and emissions-free. <b><u>"If
we start valuing carbon and force a coal plant to go <a
href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=future-of-clean-coal-tied-to-success-of-carbon-capture-and-storage"><span
style='color:#33302D'>carbon-free via sequestration</span></a> then we're at or
over 10 cents per kilowatt-hour from coal</u></b>," Mancini says.
"Any of these technologies can get to that same 10 cents level with
[molten salt] storage. Then the market will make the call."<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Corbel","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Corbel","sans-serif"'>Article
here:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Corbel","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#33302D'>How to Use Solar Energy at
Night<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#33302D'>Molten salts can store the sun's heat during the day and provide
power at night<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#33302D'>By David Biello <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Corbel","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:7.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#33302D'>Near Granada, Spain, more than 28,000 metric tons of salt is now
coursing through pipes at the <a
href="http://www.solarmillennium.de/Technologie/Referenzprojekte/Andasol/Die_Andasol_Kraftwerke_entstehen_,lang2,109,155.html"><span
style='color:#0AA1DD;background:white;text-decoration:none'>Andasol 1</span></a>
power plant. That salt will be used to solve a pressing if obvious problem for
solar power: What do you do when the sun is not shining and at night?<br>
<br>
The answer: store sunlight as heat energy for such a rainy day.<br>
<br>
Part of a so-called parabolic trough <a
href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=sunny-outlook-sunshine-provide-electricity"><span
style='color:#0AA1DD;background:white;text-decoration:none'>solar-thermal power
plant</span></a>, the salts will soon help the facility light up the
night—literally. Because most salts only melt at high temperatures (table
salt, for example, melts at around 1472 degrees Fahrenheit, or 800 degrees
Celsius) and do not turn to vapor until they get considerably hotter—they
can be used to store a lot of the sun's energy as heat. Simply use the sunlight
to heat up the salts and put those molten salts in proximity to water via a
heat exchanger. Hot steam can then be made to turn turbines without losing too
much of the original absorbed solar energy.<br>
<br>
The salts—a mixture of sodium and potassium nitrate, otherwise used as
fertilizers—allow enough of the sun's heat to be stored that the power
plant can pump out electricity for nearly eight hours after the sun starts to
set. "It's enough for 7.5 hours to produce energy with full capacity of 50
megawatts," says Sven Moormann, a spokesman for <a
href="http://www.solarmillennium.de/index,cat1.html"><span style='color:#0AA1DD;
background:white;text-decoration:none'>Solar Millennium, AG</span></a>, the
German solar company that developed the Andasol plant. "The hours of
production are nearly double [those of a solar-thermal] power plant without
storage and we have the possibility to plan our electricity production."<br>
<br>
<strong><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Using mirrors to
concentrate the sun's energy</span></strong> is an old trick—the ancient
Chinese and Greeks both used it to start fires—and modern power plants
employing it might provide a significant source of renewable energy without any
<a
href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=from-bad-to-worse-with-greenhouse-gas-emissions"><span
style='color:#0AA1DD;background:white;text-decoration:none'>greenhouse gas
emissions</span></a>.<br>
<br>
That is a step forward in its own right, but such power plants are limited to
generating energy only when there is sunshine. So engineers have tried a number
of different technologies to store the sun's energy so that such power plants
can be more broadly employed. They have tried <a
href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=storing-the-breeze-new-battery-might-make-wind-power-reliable"><span
style='color:#0AA1DD;background:white;text-decoration:none'>batteries</span></a>
but too much of the energy that goes in is not returned, and they tend to be
too expensive, according to an analysis from the <a href="http://www.nrel.gov/"><span
style='color:#0AA1DD;background:white;text-decoration:none'>National Renewable
Energy Laboratory</span></a> (NREL) in Golden, Colo. Compressing air or pumping
water uphill are more promising, but the opportunities to do that are limited
by the number of caverns and the availability of water and reservoirs.</span><span
style='font-family:"Corbel","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Corbel","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Corbel","sans-serif"'>More here
::: <a
href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=how-to-use-solar-energy-at-night">http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=how-to-use-solar-energy-at-night</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><span style='font-family:"Arial Narrow","sans-serif";
color:#913200'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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