Summary of three regional assessment studies of solar electric generation opportunities in the Southwest, Southeast, and Northeast United States

Abstract

Market opportunities for solar generation of electricity for utility and for residential/commercial/industrial applications in the Northeast, Southeast, and Southwest regions of the United States were evaluated in three studies (JBF 1979, Stone and Webster 1979a, 1979b) and are summarized. The evaluations were based on both economic analyses and user perception of what they would require to select or approve the use of solar electric generation for themselves or for their employers. Over 30 utilities and several industrial and commercial firms and homeowners were involved. Solar electric technologies considered included biomass, hybrid retrofit, OTEC, photovoltaic, solar thermal, and wind. The studies projected that solar electric technologies could account for several percent of the forecast generation in year 2000 in the Southeast and Southwest regions,and up to 10 to 20% in the Northeast region. No single solar electric technology or application (for utility or industrial/commercial/residential use) arrived earlier at economic breakeven than other technologies in the Southeast region, but wind generation for both utility and industrial applications predominated in the Northeast region. The Southwest region, in which only utility applications were considered, showed wind energy and retrofit hybrid (a solar adjunct to an existing fossil-fueled plant) to be the most likely earlymore » applications.« less