Here comes the sun
MIT has released a pretty comprehensive study on solar energy, appropriately titled:
The Future of Solar Energy. The study explores the practicality of solar-powered energy being able to help achieve
carbon emissions goals. One of the more important findings of the study was the plausibility of achieving the technological
touchstones needed.
In sum, there appear to be no major commodity material constraints for terawatt-scale PV deployment through 2050. This rule tends to apply generally: growth rates in production capacity for commodity materials are usually not limited by raw materials, but rather by factors such as the availability of good production sites and skilled personnel. For some commodities, such as glass, aluminum, and copper, the amount of material required to support solar PV deployment at a level sufficient to meet 100% of projected global electricity demand in 2050 (i.e., 25 TWp installed capacity) exceeds six years at current annual production levels. This result suggests that large-scale PV deployment may eventually become a major driver for these commodity markets.
The potential for terawatt-sized solar output is achievable. There are companies already hitting some big
solar milestones already.
Late last month, [October 2014] the Topaz Solar project achieved full commercial operation with the completion of its final 40-megawatt (AC) phase. This is the first 500-megawatt plus solar farm to come on-line in the U.S. and the largest solar plant on-line in the world.
Two years ago, the millionth First Solar (FSLR) solar module was installed at the power plant owned by MidAmerican Solar. As of today, the project has installed 9 million solar panels across 9.5 square miles in San Luis Obispo County on California's Carrizo Plain. Construction began in 2012 and was expected to be complete in early 2015 -- so call this an on-time delivery.
The report's conclusions are dominated by policy recommendations, as the MIT researchers believe energy progressive policy changes are the key to reaching global electricity demands in the future: our governments, academics and businesses must focus on researching technology to make
solar energy as affordable as possible.
DOE’s current budget for solar RD&D places a great deal of emphasis on work aimed at meeting a set of short- and medium-term costgoals for currently commercial solar technologies. Progress toward these goals will, of course, be welcome. However, this work is unlikely to yield the step-change in costs that will ultimately be needed if solar energy is to play an important role in meeting the challenge of climate change. Therefore, we believe that DOE should redirect its solar RD&D investment toward broad support for fundamental research to advance those nascent high-risk, high-potential technologies that, if successfully developed, could yield the required cost reductions. We also advocate reforms in DOE’s support for solar demonstration projects that would enable more rapid assessment of a broader range of new technologies. Such reforms should emphasize cost sharing ahead of loan guarantees and should support the establishment of pilot-scale and test-bed facilities to enable rapid and low-cost technology demonstrations.
11:02 PM PT: Pointed out in the comments: The diary has been updated to show that while there will likely be no such thing as a "terawatt solar plant" there very well can and hopefully will be terawatt solar output.