Fresh impetus for clean air

photo: Siemens AG

The United States has joined the long list of countries that are increasingly turning their backs on fossil fuels. “America is on the verge of technological breakthroughs that will enable us to live our lives less dependent on oil,” announced President George W. Bush in his Seventh State of the Union Address.


Heating oil to generate electricity

To replace oil and gas, there is growing demand for renewable energies, which usually supply electricity and heat generated by solar and wind power. The United States is also relying on technology from Germany for this major energy shift. One example is America’s ecological showcase project, the Nevada Solar One solar thermal power plant. For 250 million dollars, one of the world’s largest solar power plants has been built in Boulder City, south of Las Vegas, to supply 15,000 households with electricity. Enormous mirrors focus the sunlight at a receiver in which oil is heated to 400 degrees Celsius.

The hot oil is used to produce steam that eventually drives the turbines to generate electricity. “That’s high-technology made in Germany,” says Gilbert Cohen, Project Leader of Spanish plant operator Acconia Solar Power. After all, the mirrors stem from Nuremberg, from Flabeg, the specialist glass firm. Siemens supplied the generating unit and Schott, the Mainz-based producer of special glass, contributed most of the receivers.



German businesses can hope to receive further orders from the United States because work has already begun on Nevada Solar Two, which is planned to be even bigger. The dry and hot South is eminently suited for solar energy. “The power plant proves that the time is ripe for large-scale solar energy generation,” says Mark Finocchario, President and CEO of Schott Solar in the United States. “We expect that the reliability and cost-effectiveness of solar thermal power plants, along with the Southwestern United States’ vast solar resources, will help make solar thermal power one of the United States’ leading sources of renewable energy by 2025.”

The switch to renewable energy

Even in this sun-rich region, solar electricity is still more expensive than conventional electricity from coal or nuclear power plants, but the climate debate has meanwhile also forced Americans to change their minds. Like approximately half of all American states, Nevada has placed its electricity utilities under a legal obligation to use renewable energy sources. By the year 2013, at least 15% of the electricity in Nevada is to stem from renewable energy sources – and 5% of that figure from solar energy. Sunshine State California is going even further: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to invest several billion dollars in renewable energies.

These are plans that offer great opportunities for Germany’s energy specialists: “In our estimation, the market for renewable energies in the United States will at least double in the next five years,” explained Udo Ungeheuer, Chairman of the Board of Management of Schott AG, at the groundbreaking ceremony for a production facility for solar technologies in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Photovoltaic cells and modules will be produced here from next year for additional solar thermal power plants. The Mainz-based company is initially investing 100 million dollars in the new site; in the long term, 500 million dollars will be spent on the production plant to satisfy the growing demand.

Building the largest solar factory of the continent

SolarWorld, the Bonn-based solar technology group, is also investing in America. The company is building the American continent’s largest solar factory in Hillsboro, Oregon, where it is converting a previously unused microchip plant for 300 million euros. The integrated solar silicon wafer and solar cell production facility will reach a capacity of 500 megawatts by 2009. The new production capacities will significantly strengthen SolarWorld’s position as the leading supplier and producer of solar electricity technology in the rapidly expanding American market. SolarWorld also plans to double the capacity of its solar module plant in Camarillo, California, to 100 megawatts.

In addition to the sun in the South, many companies are relying on wind in the North. “The stampede has begun,” says Tod Lantz at the Leaning Juniper 1 wind project in the Northwestern United States. “The utilities are buying more and more energy from alternative sources, and most of it is wind energy.” Currently, no other country is expanding the production of this energy faster. By 2020 the wind power market in the United States is expected to treble to 7,500 megawatts in order to achieve the agreed target of meeting 6% of total electricity needs with wind power. German companies have become involved here too. Siemens, for instance, is now the second largest producer of wind power systems in the United States. In 2007 the Munich-based group received orders here worth more than a billion dollars.

Ecological energy also enjoys increasing popularity further to the north. Canada is planning a tenfold increase in wind power capacity to 150,000 megawatts by 2012. The Canadian province of Ontario has agreed input fees, similar to those in Germany, which guarantee producers fixed prices for every kilowatt hour of wind-generated electricity for a period of 20 years. German wind power firms like Enercon are very welcome here. “German technology is popular in Canada,” explains Bernd Schneider, founder of Schneider Power, the wind farm developer that initiates wind power projects in Canada. It would appear that German energy firms have already written the first chapter of another success story.