Booz - Allen & Hamilton Inc.

ABSTRACT:
The heightened interest by all sectors of the energy marketplace in the renewable or virtually inexhaustible energy sources has led to the formation of the New Energy Resources (NER) Department at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). This Department serves as a focus for
electric utility industry efforts in the fusion, solar, and geothermal areas.

In examining the performance and plans of the NER Department, it is appropriate to question our national need for these technologies and the appropriate role of EPRI and the electric utility industry in their development, and then, assuming an EPRI role is indeed merited, to develop a specific strategy or set of strategy options for pursuit of each technology.

Strategy development at EPRI requires significant effort to:

- Determine the appropriate EPRI and utility role at each stage of development
- Illuminate the tradeoffs involved in connection with various levels of NER Department funding
- Provide for utility industry input into the program formulation and prioritization process.

This report represents the Department's initial efforts at strategy formulation. It details the rationale for national and utility industry involvement in NER technology and describes the procedures currently being used to formulate EPRI programs in each of the NER technologies.… (altro)

ABSTRACT:
During the past decade, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), and private sector corporations have funded the development of solar central receiver (SCR) technology. This extensive development activity, which currently involves several national laboratories and about 50 companies, has brought the technology to the pilot plant stage. Technical development activities and preliminary market evaluations have suggested a broad mix of applications for SCR, including: industrial process heat (IPH) production, electric power generation, and cogeneration of power and heat. Although these generic market areas have been identified, it is not yet clear how these markets will develop, and how the SCR technology currently under development will best match these markets. To help address these uncertainties, this study provides an assessment of solar central receivers, focusing on technology development status, candidate manufacturers and suppliers, markets, and economic factors. Although the study investigates all three application market areas, special emphasis is placed on characterizing the industrial process heat markets for SCR.

The first chapter reviews the objectives of the study, the methodology, the critical planning issues, and the key findings. The following four chapters address management-level considerations of the major technical options, the supply industry, the market potential, and the economic driving factors.… (altro)

ABSTRACT:
During the past decade, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), and private sector corporations have funded extensive development of solar central receiver (SCR) technology to the pilot plant stage. Technical development activities and preliminary market evaluations suggest three major applications for SCR:
- Industrial process heat (IPH) production
- Electric power generation
- Cogeneration of power and heat.

It is not yet clear how these markets will develop or how the SCR technology currently under development will best match these markets. To help address these uncertainties, this study provides an assessment of solar central receivers, focusing on technology development status, candidate manufacturers and suppliers, markets, and economic factors.

The goal of the DOE Solar Thermal Energy Systems program is to reduce the nation's dependence on scarce and imported fossil fuels by encouraging the development of a viable supply industry offering marketable solar thermal technologies. This program is currently developing four technologies that use concentrating collector concepts: hemispherical bowls, parabolic troughs and dishes, and SCRs.

SCR technology development is being supported by DOE through research and development of components and subsystems and funding of conceptual design studies. The 21 government-sponsored conceptual design studies, listed in Exhibit 1, assess the performance and economics of central receiver systems applied to site-specific utility, industrial, and cogeneration facilities.

Based on the conceptual design studies and this overall assessment, it is clear that the markets for IPH, cogeneration, and utility power generation in the southwest could be addressed by SCR technology.

Even though the market for SCRs has not yet developed, an industry of potential SCR vendors who are continuing SCR technical and market development is evolving to meet the potential demand for SCR equipment and services.

The major conclusion of this study is that there is a near-term utility market that could be supplied by SCR technology which can grow to include significant IPH applications in the 1990's. The implication for the DOE Solar Thermal Energy Systems program is that the acceptance of SCR technology will largely depend on the success of early demonstrations. Encouraged by successful demonstration, the growth of early utility market applications, such as the repowering of existing oil-fired generating stations, can provide the demand which will produce the economies of scale in heliostat production necessary to significantly penetrate IPH markets in the 1990's.… (altro)