This is going to be a short entry, but what if we’re going about this the wrong way? It’s no to suggest that renewably generated electricity is a bad thing, in fact it has many things in its favor. However, consider wind for just one moment. Wind generation has grown from just over 3 GWh in 1993 to over 28 GWh in the most recent rolling 2007 twelve month window; an increase of nearly an order of magnitude. To put this in perspective, the entire electrcity production during the 2007 rolling twelve month period is 4,085 GWh meaning wind accounts for less than 1% of net generation. (Source: DoE)

Make no mistake, renewable electricity is part of the answer. But the scale is not even close to being meaningful. In other words, what if we’re winning individual battles but losing the war?

3 comments

While at the GRC Annual Meeting last month, one of the interesting talks was about the state of geothermal power production in Mexico. The map below shows the major geothermal fields in the country:

There are primarily 3 active sites producing electricity using geothermal harvest:

• Cerro Prieto – 720 MWe
• Los Humeros – 42 MWe
• Los Azufres – 188 MWe

These areas are divided into the volcanic belt stretching across the middle of the country and the Cerro Prieto which is part of the Imperial Valley/Salton Sea production zones working in the US today. Currently, around 950 MWe are online producing some 6.6 GWh of electricity for Mexico, or about 3.1% of their annual electricity consumption. By 2010, it is expected that an addition 220 MWe will be available (100 MWe Cerro Prieto, 45 MWe Los Humeros, and 75 MWe in Cerritos Colorados.) It is estimated that Mexico has some 8,000 MWe of commercial quality, clearly more exploration and development is possible.

The major geothermal operator in Mexico is CFE. Images from the sites are available below.

Turbine at Cerro Prieto


Binary Plant at Los Azufres


Steam emissions at Los Humeros

Comments are off for this post

6 month Ormat (ORA) Stock Chart

Today, despite the earlier dilution from a secondary offering on the public market, Ormat’s market capitalization has surged past $2B. That puts the P/E ratio at nearly 95 trailing twelve months. Ormat is a good company in a hot market. But, does the company’s performance justify this sort of premium? Caveat Emptor.

2 comments

NREL published an interesting paper this month exploring the dynamics of renewable energy supply and demand. The conclusion of the report was demand, driven by fiat (renewable portfolio standard) and choice (voluntary renewable power supply) were likely to exceed supply by as much as 8,000,000 MWh by 2010.

Chart of Supply vs. Demand for Renewables


One other item of note, in the table below, you can see the impact of capacity factor. Note the nameplate installed MW of wind vs. the output of MWh. Then compare that to geothermal, you’ll see that significantly less nameplate capacity of geothermal leads to a disproportionate output of MWh. This is due to capacity factor.

Table of Renewable Electricity Generation Sources 2004

Comments are off for this post

Mock-up of Kite Generation site


This idea is proof that the renewable sector is overheating. There are good wind harvest ideas, and then there is this. If it even proved practical, anyone want to hazard a guess what the O&M cost would be on this approach? My guess is far more than the unit produces. We love innovation, we love new ideas, but there needs to be some there, there. If you’re interested in new ideas in wind generation, we suggest that aeroelastic flutter harvest is a far superior approach.

Comments are off for this post