These are
exactly the type of technological breakthroughs that are going to help us offset 2.5 Billion new humans coming online in the next 40 years. It is so fantastic to see this coming to California -
helping the American economy with an American company! What's that?? Oh nevermind -
helping the American economy with a Portuguese company! We are still too busy funding corn ethanol and giving big oil subsidies - we can't be bothered with solar or wind subsidies or creating a Manhattan project for alternative energies - nope,
instead we'll attach stupid windfall big oil taxes to bills that help stimulate those sort of initiatives so that they never stand a chance of passing. (I love how these people in Washington cannot put bills together that just focus on 1 thing at a time - instead they have to throw it all in 1 big bill and then spend months fighting over it, accomplishing nothing for Americans) Just for reference this bill was the one Democrats wanted to attach "suing OPEC" to. Both parties = stupidity.
- Senate Republicans thwarted Democratic-supported legislation that would increase windfall- profit taxes on oil companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. as Democrats set their sights on tighter energy trading scrutiny.
- The proposal, announced last month, would have imposed a windfall profit tax of $10 billion to $12 billion this year on oil companies, according to Senate Democrats. (which would then be funneled back into pork for each Congressional district to help people win favor and get re-elected)
- Senate Republicans today also blocked debate on a tax measure to extend credits for wind, solar and other forms of renewable energy. Republicans objected to that legislation, which was 10 votes shy of the required 60, partly because of concern over the source of funding for the tax breaks. (for god sakes, spending has increased at a rate we've never seen the past 8 years and now you are getting religion on sources of funding?)
Anyhow let's see what those Portuguese have up their sleeve - it sounds too good to be true.
- California utility PG&E will buy 106.8 megawatts of electricity from a hybrid biofuel solar power plant to be built by a Portuguese firm in the state’s Central Valley.
- The hybrid technology will allow two 53.4 megawatt plants to tap the sun and agricultural waste produced in surrounding Fresno County to generate green energy around the clock For PG&E (PCG), 107 megawatts is just enough to keep the air conditioners running for some 75,000 homes.
- But if the biofuel solar hybrid performs as billed and can be scaled up, it’s a win-win - recycling ag waste - a huge and expensive problem in California - into electricity.
- The percentage of electricity to be produced by solar versus biofuel and other details of the project’s design are sketchy. Andrew Byrnes, an executive with Spinnaker Energy - the San Diego company developing the project for Martifer - told Fortune that such information is “confidential” as are images of what the hybrid plant will look like and the identifies of the company’s U.S. investors.
Here is how it works- They will use long arrays of curved mirrors called solar troughs to focus the sun on liquid-filled tubes to produce steam that will drive electricity-generating turbines. That’s a standard solar technology currently operating in California and elsewhere. The biomass component of the plant will use agricultural waste, green waste and livestock manure to create heat that will generate steam.
- It appears the biofuel will be used to keep the plant running at night or on overcast days. “The technologies can run simultaneously,” said Byrnes in an e-mail. “And when a cloud passes overhead (and after the sun sets) the solar facility can still generate energy, since the generation process is dependent on heat rather than direct solar radiation.”
- Each power plant will each need 250,000 pounds of biomass a year to operate. Finding that fuel shouldn’t be a problem: Byrnes says a study shows that Fresno County alone produces nearly 2 million tons of ag waste annually.
Again, sounds almost too good to be true - I assume this is part of Obama or McCain's plan to create 5M new green collar jobs in Portugal? Or will it be in China? Or Germany? Spain? Because we are too busy fighting over who gets to sue OPEC first or how the whole run up in oil is due to "speculators" here in the U.S. So another thing we're going to need to outsource - green workers and technology... go team USA.
