Copyright © 1996 Eileen M. Smith, M.Arch. All Rights Reserved
Written for the proceedings of the:
Cairo April 14-18, 1996
THE ADVENT OF THE HEADRICK SOLAR-VOLTAIC DOME™ POWER STATION
ABSTRACT
Mainstream commercialization of photovoltaic solar energy technologies through the commercial real estate development industry will begin the massive changes needed in the energy industry. The Advent of the Headrick Solar-Voltaic Dome™ Power Station provides a special opportunity for large-scale market deployment of PV increasing use, production, and knowledge of photovoltaics. This unique 2,100 m2 solar array configuration increases packing density on an acre over four times from a solar field like Hesperia, California at 60 kWp to 262 kWp and provides 3,400 m2 leasable space under the dome roof. Herein, we use the number of sun hours in Cairo to figure the average yearly output of approximately 2 MWh perday. This is enough energy for 30 homes and a 10,000 m2 commercial building. The German States (above the 49º latitude north of the United States) recently completed the largest PV deployment program world-wide installing over 6MWp in their 1000 PV Roofs Program. We present step-by-step calculations for estimated development costs of a Headrick Solar-Voltaic Dome™ Power Station in Cairo to assist you with making a loan proforma for the bank. We use Solar Bonds as a PV market deployment incentive.
How clearly the sky reveals Divine glory! How plainly it shows what the Divine has done! Each day announces it to the following day; each night repeats it to the next. No speech or words are used, no sound is heard; Yet, the message goes out to all the earth. The Divine made a home in the sky for the sun; it comes out in the morning like a happy youth. It starts at one end of the sky and goes across to the other. Nothing can hide from its light. |
By the sun in its Divine splendor by the moon that follows (the sun) by the day as it reveals Divine glory by the night as it conceals the firmament by the earth and its expanse by the soul and the proportion and order given to it and its inspiration as to wrong and right; truly, they succeed that purifies it, and they fail that corrupts it. |
Solar Energy - Autonomous and Clean Energy For Every Nation
Many passages, poems and scientific works have been written about the sun. Its nurturing and constant presence throughout time is a natural blessing to us all. What an exciting era we live in. Like the transition that brought us to mass energy production in the past one hundred years, the transition to solar and sustainable energy products will evolve over time. It is an adventure of technology and new economics that every nation may develop autonomous, clean, sustainable and safe energy with photovoltaics, together, as responsible members of our unique global community.
People around the world are asking for responsible and economic energy products. The mission of the Solar Development Cooperative -Lighting the Way With Creation's Original Remedy is to put solar energy products within reach and within budget, today. Cost of production is no longer the major hurdle in the process of making photovoltaics a viable energy technology. PV modules have reduced in price from $500 watt in 1972 to $5 per watt peak in 1990. Mass production and mainstream use of photovoltaics within the commercial real estate construction industry is an economic focus for successful market deployment of this evolving technology, today. Substituting building materials with photovoltaic modules in all new construction and within renovation projects will accelerate the demand for PV modules increasing production expertise as we expand production volume and reduce the cost of PV world-wide.
SUMMARY OF MARKET STUDY IN CAIRO
Egypt is a Third World Country where energy costs around twenty-five piastres (8 cents) per kWh. The energy source is not always reliable and there is a tremendous need for grid-connected peak shaving to relieve the grid as well as the need for more remote site applications. Cairo has an average of six to eight peak hours of sunlight per day throughout the year. The sunlight is strong with little cloud cover providing an excellent source for reliable solar energy deployment.
With over fifteen million people in Cairo, the need for solar energy through photovoltaics is tremendously important. This mid-size Solar-Voltaic Dome™ power station could provide important improvements in the reliability of energy throughout Cairo and Egypt. Figure 2 provides a summary of two types of materials that may be used to construct the Headrick Solar-Voltaic Dome™ Power Stations in Cairo. Other suggestions are aluminum and wooden frames. The estimated development costs per meter squared are based on information from a well-known local developer and development banker.
The prices quoted for solar modules are from Solarex in the United States for crystalline silicon panels and Iowa Thin Film Technologies in Ames, Iowa. EGYCEL is the only solar module manufacturing plant in Egypt. They have a small plant where they assemble modules from solar cells provided to them by Siemens Solar. For the large-scale order needed for this project it may be more cost-effective to buy direct from the factory than through a marketing company. The cost was approximately $5 watt installed or 16 Egyptian pounds.
Economic Considerations
Solar energy through photovoltaics creates a unique structure of production, deployment, management and economics. A program of incentives focused on restoration of existing buildings, new construction and large-scale deployment of building-integrated photovoltaics will produce attractive proformas for local and state commercial real estate developments. We strongly discourage economic evaluations of building-integrated photovoltaics (BI-PV) comparing PV with fossil fuels and nuclear energy and even remote site photovoltiacs unless the evaluation includes clear delineation of the cost/production level ratio and other externality values like savings provided due to dual use as a building material. Coal is 55% of the United States energy industry while photovoltaics is one line in the category of other energy production industries representing 0.6% of the United States energy marketplace in 1994.[11] The other category has increased only 0.1% in the past twenty years from 0.5% in 1975. However, PV modules have reduced in price from $500 watt to $5 watt peak. The missing incentive for rapid deployment of photovoltaics into the mainstream marketplace is attributed to the lack of a defined, affordable and significant market to accelerate mass production of PV modules within industrialized nations. February, 1996 Washington Post article, "Who's Afraid of Global Warming?"[12] indicated global insurance and banking industries have come to realize CO(2) emmissions put at risk literally trillions of dollars worth of insured property and long-term investments. Government, utilities and/or insurance companies could guarantee solar bonds that would wrap into the financial proformas for the Headrick Solar-Voltaic Dome™ Power Stations. By 2050, utiities will be transformed from energy producers to grid managers as 50% of the energy mix is produced by building-integrated photovoltaic arrays.
Large-Scale Deployment Efforts for Building-Integrated Photovoltaics
The 1000 PV Roofs Program in the German States set precedents for large-scale PV deployment successfully installing over 6MWp. The 100 Headrick Solar-Voltaic Dome(TM) Power Stations By 2000 - A Three World Powers Photovoltaic Competition Of Discovery & Sharing for the United States - European Commission - Japan I initiated at the 13th European PV Solar Energy Conference in Nice France October 1995 would evolve the demand for over 600,000 square meters (6.3 million SF) of photovoltaics consequently increasing production and reducing the cost of PV world-wide. We welcome all nations to join in this commitment to be formalized in a ceremony at the World Renewable Energy Congress IV at the Adams Mark Hotel in Denver, Colorado June, 1996. Greenpeace has developed a prefabricated rooftop PV module in an effort to generate economic large-scale deployment of photovoltaics for residential applications. All of these efforts will increase use, knowledge and production of PV while they reduce the cost of PV across thet industry.
We encourage local, regional and national programs of every nation to futher strategies for large-scale deployment to timely assure mainstream commercialization of building-integrated photovoltaics.
CONCLUSION
Daily we may read articles addressing the global concern about energy technologies that pollute and degrade the quality of human life -and in fact all life forms. The threat of drastic global impact due to Greenhouse Warming is significant.[13] There is a tremendous need to evolve sustainable technologies within our decisions, today. The Headrick Solar-Voltaic Dome™ Power Station is a solar array that was patented in 1986. It increases packing density on an acre over four times due to its harmonious design with the natural shape of the earth and the path of the sun across the heavens. It was designed by a pilot -who had his commercial aviation license at the age of 16 in the 1930s. He made over ninety bombing missions to end the tyranny in World War II. Yet, a premier of this valuable solar application has not been built, to-date. To have a premier of this important mid-size power station constructed in Egypt would have numerous benefits: (1) The sun hours in Egypt increase daily output from this solar configuration. (2) There are incentives in the United States to develop sustainable energy products to reduce CO(2) emissins and our massive contribution to this problem which can be used in other nations. (3) The labor market in Egypt would reduce the cost of building an initial power station. (4) The ancient history of the Egyptian people representing the origins of human civilization worshipped the sun god Horus. This theme could be incorporated into the design of a Headrick Solar-Voltaic Dome™ Power Station creating added value as a tourist attraction. (5) It is appropriate and necessary to recognize the serious role this solar array may take in redirecting our energy production habits from primarily fossil, nuclear and hydro fuels to at least 50% sustainable fuels. It is one of several critical steps that we need to take to reduce the impact of humanity's energy production choices upon the earth's ecology in the past two hundred years. We welcome your responsible involvement in this process.
