Electricity can be cleanly generated from sunlight using either solar-thermal technology or photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV technology is used today by many rural Americans who generate electricity for their homes, without relying on any utility company. With solar technology, electricity is generated directly from the sun, with no CO2 pollution, no SO2 pollution, and no noise.
In contrast, nuclear power reduces CO2 pollution, but the nuclear waste product, plutonium, is probably the most toxic substance used by mankind! No safe permanent disposal facilities exist in the US, and transportation of large quantities of plutonium represent a potential terrorist threat, since only 20 pounds of plutonium are needed to make a homemade atomic bomb!
Solar power promises to greatly reduce greenhouse warming. The challenge in applying PV technology on a large scale is to get the price of the solar cells down to $1 or $2 per peak watt. Fortunately, reducing the cost is as much a manufacturing problem as anything else. This represents a big opportunity for electronic manufacturing firms, but American companies, partly discouraged by competition from cheap fossil fuels, have reduced their R&D efforts. Japanese firms, however, continue to pursue solar research, and develop manufacturing improvements as they build solar-powered calculators that we buy for $4.88 at Kmart. The Japanese, who depend heavily on imported oil, see the terrific potential in PV power, both for themselves, and for export to developing countries.
By contrast, solar-thermal technology is today in use on a large scale in southern California's Mohave desert. The solar- thermal technique focuses sunlight on oil-filled pipes with parabolic mirrors, the 735 degree F oil (circulating in a closed system) then heats steam to drive turbine-generators. While the nuclear power industry tells us that large-scale electricity from the sun is years away, LUZ International Limited now has more than 270 MEGAWATTS of peak power online, on the electric grid! (Enough electric power for a city of over 350,000.) The most recent portion of the LUZ system of powerplants, SEGES VIII, became operational in early 1990[The LUZ Technologies Revisited,IEEE Power Engineering Review, June 1990]. The new plant has improved technology, delivering electricity for 8 cents per kilowatt hour, less than the cost of nuclear power. While nuclear plants take years to build, LUZ claims it can build a complete plant in less than one year, and has a record to prove it! LUZ has contracts to produce more solar electricity for Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric. Additional contracts are sure to follow - in October 1990, the Calif. Energy Commission released a plan calling for 50% of the state's new electricity needs to be supplied by renewables! ***
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