Concentrated Solar Power

Plan: The United States federal government should amend the Title V of the Federal Land Policy Management Act and Bureau of Land Management right of way regulations to replace the "fair market value" standard for rental rates of federal lands for concentrated solar power plants. The rental rate for concentrated solar power plants should be set at the same rate as livestock grazing. Will Clarify. _____________________________________________________________________ Contention One; Inherency No solar plants on federal land now – The Bureau of Land Management is half-stepping on contracts for solar plants – this destroys investor confidence in the solar industry Werner, Associated Press Writer. July 2008. http://www.huffingtonpost.com..., accessed July 6, 2008) BLM has yet to approve a solar project on federal land; the solar projects already built or under way in this country are on private property. Still, industry officials already impatient about the BLM's pace worried that putting a stop to new applications would allow other industries to lay claim to federal land that could go to solar. They feared it would also send the wrong signal to potential investors just as the solar industry is getting started. And Concentrated Solar Power, or CSP, works but needs land area – federal intervention is key – CSP is the only form of solar that can be cost competitive with fossil fuels NREL 07 http://www.nrel.gov... The 2000 NRC review found that a major hurdle facing CSP technologies was that they must be relatively large to be competitive, and that large installations are expensive. Parabolic troughs have demonstrated performance and reliability over 20 years of operation in California,24 and the technical feasibility of power tower systems was proven during the mid-1990's. Unless there is a significant market intervention by the Federal and/or State governments, an economically feasible project in the United States will not be possible. Contention 2; Harms A. The economy The economy is collapsing now – rising energy prices, oil, and lack of investor confidence are devastating the US stock market Faiola and Irwin 7-16-08 (http://www.washingtonpost.com...) the stock market has fallen sharply and broader problems have emerged in financial markets, and there have been new signs of slowing global growth and economic downfall. of higher energy prices, tighter credit conditions and a still-deeper contraction in housing markets all represent significant downside risks to the outlook for growth. Plan jumpstarts the Economy in four ways: 1. Investor Confidence Plan spurs an economic boom by invigorating alt-energy stocks – venture capitalists see solar as the new internet stock – they perceive peak oil, rising energy prices, and impending carbon taxes and want alternatives – they'll look to solar and wind now – spurring investment leads to an economic boom Economist 2008 ("The power and the glory," June 21, accessed on July 14, 2008 http://www.economist.com...) The next technology boom may well be based on alternative energy, there is growing concern that the supply of oil may soon peak as consumption continues to grow, known supplies run out and new reserves become harder to find. Americans have become intolerant of large, polluting industrial plants. That has opened up a capacity gap and an opportunity for wind and sunlight. The future price of these resources—zero—is known. That certainty has economic value as a hedge 2. Energy Grid Blackouts are economically devastating Smith, 08 The cost of a large-scale blackout is almost impossible to measure. The economic consequences alone can be billions of dollars. the impact can be wide ranging. Weather can blow down a single distribution feeder affecting a small region, or an ice storm can take out a major portion of a transmission grid affecting millions of people for days. And Independently, Blackouts risk reactor meltdowns which will kill hundreds of thousands Vann 03 http://www.wsws.org... Nine nuclear power reactors were forced to shut down during the blackout. Had the diesel generators used to maintain essential operations at any one of these plants failed, a catastrophic nuclear meltdown would have occurred. Had a meltdown taken place at one of these plants, hundreds of thousands of people in surrounding communities would have received deadly doses of radiation without even being aware of what has happening. Heat storage solves non-peak demand making CSP the most cost-efficient form of solar power – plan solves intermittency issues across the grid solving blackouts. Lockwood 08 http://democrats.science.house.gov... By incorporating large insulated tanks filled with molten salt, heat captured during the day can be stored and used to produce electricity when the sun is no longer shining. The molten salt and heavily insulated tanks are able to retain heat with very high efficiency, and the stored heat not only increases the total amount of electricity generated, it also adds specific operating benefits. Even after the sun has set, the solar trough with thermal energy storage provides the maximum value. 3. High Tech Jobs High-Tech Jobs are key to US economy Norman 08 http://jan.freedomblogging.com... Orange County has more than 100,000 high-tech jobs, ranking it 14th nationally among major metropolitan areas. The average salary for O.C. tech jobs is $81,000, 68% higher than the county's private-sector average of $48,000 and 7.4% of the county's private sector jobs are at high-tech firms. The tech industry has long demonstrated its ability to drive the U.S. economy. A Healthy Solar industry creates massive amounts of high-tech labor Fried 07 http://www.sustainablebusiness.com...) Solar energies are much more impressive job creators than the fossil fuel industry, creating 10 times the jobs. if 20 percent of our energy were to come from CSP, then 188,000 to 240,850 jobs could be created. 4. Competitiveness The U.S. is behind in energy productivity Council on Competitiveness 08 http://www.compete.org... The United States Is a Global Laggard in Energy Productivity. The United States is the most energy-intensive developed region today and lags behind its OECD competitors in improving energy productivity. is an important part of production costs, the United States is losing competitive ground relative to its global competitors. Solar key to tech competitiveness which is key to the economy DOE 08 (http://www1.eere.energy.gov... Technological leadership is necessary for economic competitiveness and to make solar electricity a significant contributor to the nation's economy would result in sound and well-conceived programs and sustained investments. Finally, Economic downturn leads to nuclear war, so vote Pro Mead 1992 Sir Walter Russell, New Perspectives Quarterly, p. 30 Summer) What if the global economy collapsed? In that case, we will face a new period of international conflict: South against North, rich against poor. Russia, China, India – these countries with their billions of people and their nuclear weapons will pose a much greater danger to world order than Germany and Japan did in the '30s. I thank anyone who chooses to debate me. It is a great way to utilize our right of peaceful assembly, to be free to speak, and to let out your mind. Good luck.