RE systems come on-line, there will come a point when there will always be enough power being generated to meet the needs of the region. It may still be desirable to have storage so that the peak load can be met with a dispatchable system. For example, the most solar energy can be collected between 10 AM and 2 PM, but the peak load usually occurs from 3 PM to 6 PM. Large scale storage can be done with any of the means described above, depending on cost and site issues. It is always tempting to do a study of the costs of using one form of power generation and/or one form of storage. This is impractical because different regions have different resources and needs. So while water pimping is probably the cheapest form of large scale storage, it is only practical where there is land and water available to implement it. While batteries may seem impractical for a specific load like a factory, they may be practical and even cost effective for the utility to use them as a standard amount of dispatchable power for the peak load each day. A test of this idea, (solar array phis battery bank) is actually in progress at the Dehnarva power company in Delaware. The have found that a solar array and battery bank can reliably shave the peak every day in the summer time. When to use space solar power Large, dense, power-hungry cities cry out for high density power sources such as fuel cells or space solar power. Since large cities have large aggregate buying power, the cost per kWh to them will have to be about $0.1. In our discussions of markets for space solar power, we have talked a lot about selling to rural areas in the developing world. While these areas generally pay more per kWh ($0.5 to $1.00), the competition from terrestrial PV is stiffer there. Also, rural regions do not need power 24 hours per day, or at least their night-time load is much smaller. A market in between might be developing regions that are growing new industry at a fast pace. If they are compact enough, space solar power would serve them better than terrestrial solar power. Such areas (there are many in India now) need industrial power 12 to 24 hours per day. Indonesia may also be such a place. They have a rapidly growing industry sector and little of no land area to install PV farms. The main competition to space solar power is the solar-hydrogen-fuel cell system. However, the development of this system (as an infrastructure and installed capacity) is still in infancy. If may be that space solar power could best serve as the provider of power to make hydrogen. But space solar power systems will have to either be 1) built first for other purposes and make money with those customers or 2) wait until the costs of creating the solar-hydrogen-fuel cell system infrastructure have been sunk, then build SSP to make more hydrogen. Of course, we can wager that the solar-hydrogen-fuel cell system is coming and develop space solar power in parallel This is best done only if other initial markets can be found. From a business perspective, we should do #1. If there is a hydrogen market later, all to the better. We need to closely watch rapid developments in terrestrial PV. New developments in higher efficiency and or easier to manufacture PV may lead to extensive expansion into the energy business in as little as 3 years. It is a very real possibility that PV will be $0.5/W in 2001. At the same time, we can take advantage of new PV to make less expensive space solar power plants (SSPs) possible.
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