Solar and Wind Electric Power Production and Distribution in San Antonio TX - Coursework Example

Energy In San Antonio TX. The need for more energy is San Antonio, has been driven by job growth. Being the 7th largest in the US, the business environment in CPS Energy of San Antonio has by far improvement. There has been a growth in the number of industries and manufacturing plants in this city (Barry, 2009). Many more business have been established here due to the city’s strategy to provide the business environment with incentives that has attracted a lot of them job opportunities and employment creation in the city has been on the rise. These components have justified the city’s need for more renewable and sustainable energy. There are various forms of sources of energy that San Antonio city has embarked on establishing so as to meet the great need for energy that the city has currently (Michael, 2010). The major power projects that are supplying the energy need in this city includes the CPS Energy, the Texas Grid, solar power, On-grid wind generation and off-grid power generation for individual homes and business. This study embarks on discussing the entire energy project in this city and how they have helped in addressing the energy needs that the city has. The most important thing to understand is that environmental conservation is a core objective of the city of San Antonio, Texas (Paul, 1998). Therefore, all the energy sources are established in line with the need to conserve the environment and eliminate any form of environmental pollution. No wonder then, renewable energy has become the core for energy sources in the city of San Antonio, Texas. CPS Energy of San Antonio, is the largest city municipality owned energy utility, that provides both electric and gas energy (Jones, 2007). The revenues generated from this utility are huge, and they account for above 20% of the city’s operating budget every year (Michael, 2010). The utility was founded in 1942, and it is well known to serve above a million energy consumers, both in electrify and gas energy. The utility is comprised of a range of fuel generation combination, with nuclear power, coal, renewable energy and natural gas, a fact that has made this utility a very effective one for its clientele (Paul, 1998). For electric energy, CPS energy is the sole licensed producer supplying the electricity energy need for its territory that is well over 4060 square kilometers. The electricity energy produced by this utility is sufficient to serve all the electric energy need so f the resident clientele and for wholesale to other municipalities in the south Texas, that are not as big (Barry, 2009). CPS produces natural gas to well over 300,000 customers, being residential, commercial and industrial customers, with coverage of 640 square miles. There is a plan underway to expand the production to be able to serve other areas (Jones, 2007). The combination of these forms of energy produced by CPS Energy of San Antonio, Texas, ranks as the most economical and well managed in the US. The energy utility is not only meant to supply the present energy need but also to address the future needs that will arise in the city, owing to its fast growing economy, based on expanded industrial and commercial base. The gas energy system of the San Antonio, Texas, ranks as the most reliable system nationwide. This system is sufficient to produce natural gas, enough to supply the needs of the industrial operations in the city (Barry, 2009). The utility is well equipped with an emergency management center to address the for primary and secondary control, a fact that makes CPS energy of San Antonio, Texas, the leading utility in systems control. Most notable of the utility is its communication system which is so advanced. The system ensures efficiency and effective internal communication for the operation needs as well as its communication with the widely distributed clientele that the utility serves. The communication system comprises of both the fiber optic and the wireless technology. The utility has a system well advanced to enable it to manage and safely and reliably deliver of energy to its clientele (Michael, 2010). CPS energy also uses clean energy, that it harvest t from wind and solar to serve the energy needs of the city. The utility offers some incentives to its clientele, both commercial and industrial to consume more of the clean energy. It offers reimbursement for new tools and equipment foe new commercial constructions. This is meant to serve as an incentive to encourage more new commercial and industrial firms to consume the CPS energy (Jones, 2007). The utility uses more of wind renewable energy, notably the wind energy more than any other in the US. Texas consists of many wind power firms, being the state that produces the highest wind power in the US. The fact that accounts for the immense wind power in Texas is its wide wind resource. Since the electric power is considered relatively expensive to wind power, then wind power has thrived to take its place. Though wind as a resource for power is very variable, Texas has suitable conditions that allows for wind power (Emily, 2011). The land owners in Texas leases land to the wind power companies to establish their turbines, from which they earn royalties. The growth in wind power has been boost by several reasons. Government subsidy on tax incentives as well as the advancement in technology has seen a revolution in the field of wind energy generation (Barry, 2009). The advantages associated with wind power are that it has no power requirements, does not pollute the environment and is not dependent on water to generate its power. There are some economic benefits associated with wind power in the city of San Antonio, Texas. For any wind turbine sited in the properties of the land owners, they receive compensation. Therefore, the benefit of wind power in the San Antonio, Texas is not only a benefit for providing energy but also for economic gains. The construction of wind power plants, its operation and maintenance requires labor. Therefore, wind power has played a great role in employment creation in San Antonio, Texas (Barry, 2009). The consumption of wind energy in this city is high. Wind energy accounts for 2.9% of all energy consumed in the whole of Texas State. Within the city of San Antonio, Texas, the percentage of wind consumption as a source of energy is relatively high to that consumed by the state. San Antonio city’s natural gas and electric utility ranks as the greatest purchaser of wind energy in Texas. On grid wind energy is the most used in the city of San Antonio, with this city energizing their commercial, industrial and residential. There are many wind energy firms that are supplying to this city, having the city purchase the entire production of all these firms. However, off grid wind energy is also popular in this city (Emily, 2011). Solar and wind power generators are used to generate renewable energy for homes, commercial and industrial consumption. Off grid is not very popular in homes since many residents consider the purchase of solar panel or wind generators as more expensive, compared to the consumption of the already generated and supplied electric energy (Barry, 2009). This viewpoint has been counted by the fact that there is now a well established system in the city of Antonio that can be used to prepare the windmills from the locally available materials. Ordinary parts can be bought from the hardware to supplement the locally available materials in building these windmills. There are already prepared manuals that can be applied to make these windmills from the locally available materials that are providing a step by step explanation and diagrammatic illustration to this effect (Michael, 2010). Solar energy is yet another key power for industrial, commercial and residential use in the city of San Antonio. The city is in the process of establishing a huge solar company at the center of the city that will generate up to 400 megawatts of solar energy, while creating more than five hundred jobs (Barry, 2009). Solar power is conducive for the environment, since there is no pollution arising from the production and utilization of solar energy. The emissions that are associated with the generation of solar energy are not in any way considered as very harmful. San Antonio has unlimited solar energy supply, as it is for the whole State of Texas. Its potential to generate this power is immense, owing to the direct radiation experienced by the city (Jones, 2007). There are two forms of solar energy involved in its generation; the active and the passive solar energy forms. The active form comprises of a solar system that is able to collect and convert the direct radiation of the sun into electric or heat energy. The solar panels for this purpose are built with a heat storage device inside them or some circulating air or ware that will direct the conversion of the radiation to electric energy (Barry, 2009). In this city, the energy generated from the direct sun radiation is mostly used for heating water or warming room spaces in the residential or commercials buildings. Passive form of solar energy on the other hand does not entail any mechanical means in its generation. This where the building itself or some elements of it are prepared in such a way that they can take the advantage of the sun radiation and heat, and use it either to warm or cool the residential or commercial rooms. This system only requires that the materials be exposed to the sun to trap its natural energy, without the use of any moving parts. The system is simple to maintain, as it just calls for its installation on the building. A weakness associated with solar energy is that the solar radiation provides very minimal of convertible solar to electric energy and thus requires a great acreage of the solar panels to the sun, so as to generate a sizeable amount of electric energy (Paul, 1998). For every megawatt of convertible solar to electric energy, it requires an exposure of solar panels to direct sun on acreage of 10-15 acres. Therefore, this limits the usability of the solar energy in the city of San Antonio. To produce as little as 200MW of electricity, it requires that the solar panels be distributed to the exposure of sun on acreage of 1300acres (Barry, 2009). This limitation of acreage required to generate solar energy however, has not limited this city from applying a sizeable use of this energy. In the city of San Antonio, many homes are built fitted with solar panels, the so called green building. This is in line with the city’s policy towards environmental conservation, which requires that any form of environmental pollution should be abolished. In this light, the homebuyers in this city are categorical about energy efficiency. It is apparent that the residents of the city of San Antonio wants to get as far from the grid as possible, and therefore prefers the installation of solar panels on their homes (Paul, 1998). There are ranges of incentives that are granted to homeowners who wish to buy and install solar panels in their homes, making solar energy in the city of San Antonio one of the cheapest and affordable. These incentives associated with solar energy installations include the CPS reimbursement that covers almost 50% of the cost of the solar panels. The rest of the remaining cost is further reduced through a 30% federal credit waive. This leaves the buyer with just a cost of 40% of the entire cost of the solar panels for which to pay (Barry, 2009). It is such incentives that have seen almost the entire city of city of San Antonio go green, with either wind power or solar power present in every home. Compared to the electricity and natural gas as sources of energy, solar power is advantageous, in that it only entails the big initial cost with no bills to pay thereafter, as opposed to the other sources which requires that the consumers have to foot bills on interval basis. Thus, the city of San Antonio is an integrative city that has integrated various energy sources to power its commercial, residential and industrial operations (Emily, 2011). Works Cited Barry, S. (2009). Electric Utility Restructuring and the Commitment to Renewable Energy in San Antonio, TX. Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Emily, Hutchison (2011). The city of San Antonio TX. Journal of Economic Development analysis. Springer. Jones, Alfred (2007). Budget Management of San Antonio TX City: Adopted annual and capital operating Budget. Michael, D. (2010). Power to the People. Association of American Geographers. Springer. Paul, K. (1998). Energy Development for Environmental and Social Sustainability. Journal of Economic Issues. Association for Evolutionary Economics. Read More