Solar Far locations with a reasonably good solar resource, a highly efficient option is to deploy photovoltaics with efficient direct current ( DC ) applications such as lighting and motors. DOE ' s Solar Renewable program is an integral resource far this effort. PV deployment in on -grid applications in congested areas offer the potential far effective load management, power quality and the opportunity far utilites to defer costly distribution upgrades. As more appliances become 'smart' and require DC digital power such DCPV systems will become ubiquitos in areas with a good solar rsource. Solar thermal energy systems can provide hat water far domestic use or far hydronic space heating. A solar water heater provides about 3000 kWh of energy annually, turning the roofs of buildings into distributed energy resources - even though they are less obtrusive than skylights. Hat water systems that use PV powered pumps provide hat water when the grid is down. Some utilities are exploring installing, owning and operating solar water heaters on customer's roofs and billing them far the solar heated water. Such an approach could be used by power parks; incerasing their energy capacity without increasing electric loads. This hat water may alsa be plugged into the district heating loop. Since power and thermal sold to others is a profit center far the building and developer, !here is alsa an incentive to deploy cost effective passive solar technologies. Wind Recent experience in pennsylvania has shown that alocation need not have an especiaaly good wind resource far small (<100 kW) wind technologies to make economic sense. Wind turbines in the 3 - 1 O kW size range ( large residential / small commercial fuel ) now approach commercial fuel cells in installed costs. in Kotzebuke, Alaska, DOE has worked with a remote native Alaskan community located north of the Arctic Circle in the design and installation ofa 660 kW wind farm, which suppelments electricity produced by an existing 11.3 MW diesel power planı. The wind planı consists of ten Atlantic Orient Corporation model 15/50 wind turbines, each with a rated output of 66 kW. Altouhg the wind planı is located in an area with an annual average wind speed of only about 14 mph (measured at a height of 1 O m), the plant is capable of providing approximately 5 - 1 O % of the electricity required by the village. This prototype wind planı produces electricity far approximately 13 cents per kilowatl hour, which is about one - third less than the 20 c/kWh far the Kotzebue diesel planı. The high cost of electricity produced by diesel generators in remote Alaskan villages is due in large measure to the great expense of transporting fuel and equipment to those remote sites. in Burlington, Vermont, a 50 kW AOC 15/50 wind turbine will be installed in an area with a Class 3 wind resource ( annual average wind speed of 11.5 to 12.5 mph - measured at a height of 1 O m). Vermont electricity consumers have among the highest electiricity rates in the lower 48. ı 61 ECOGENERATION WORLD Geothermal Geopower nad direct heating technologies capture the erath's heat to warm and cool buildings, heat water , and generate electricity. Gethermal technologies include electric power generation, direct use far process and space heating, and ground source heat pumps. Even tough the smallest current geothermal electric project in the US is fairly large ( 700 kW ), geothermal resources with high enough temperatures far electric generation fit in well wth !he power park concept of delivering both electricity and thermal services to nearby customers Cascading of electric generation and direct use provides multiple uses of asingle geothermal brine stream. When processes are designed with collocaton in mind. Betler use of !he brine can be obtained. Far instance, !he discharge brine from geothermal power plants has significant thermal energy !hat is largely unavailable far conversion to electric power. This thermal energy can, however, be used far space heating or process heating if the heating equipment is designed with the low temperature brine in mind. it is essential that !he complete system be designed far multiple uses from the beginning; in this way !he greatest benefit can be obtained. Like solar and wind, geothermal resources are betler in certain geographic regions. Some geothermal technologies, such as heat pumps, work anywhere but are cost effective in ares of extreme temperatures. in areas where natura! gas supplies are not available and heating season temperatures are often below freezing, geothermal heat pumps can provide significant cost savings over electric resistance heating and air source heat pumps. The district energy geothermal installation at Mammoth Lake, Califarnia is an example ofa faundation upon which to build a power park Assesments indicate more than 20 other communities in the western US have such a cost - effective resource. Biomass Biomass power date has been applied in larger, MW - scale baseload applications. Unlike many other renewables, İt is not intermittent and is not limited to a particular geograpic area. it can improve a community's econımic self sufficiency and / or create rural jobs by creating markets far renewable ' home - grown ' energy crops . A new thrust of DOE's biopower effort !hat is complementary to the power park effort is the ' small, modular biopower program which is facused on small systems, those with rated capacities of 5 MW far village power, or far power parks in industrialized countries where !he power is attched to the grdi but close to where the consumer uses electiricity. Electrical energy storage Energy storage will play a significant role in the future power parks far both grid tied and islanded systems. Energy storage serves in an integrating role and provides unique capability far
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