It’s a good time for big solar. The Ivanpah Solar Energy Generating System - recipient of a $1.6 billion loan guarantee from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) - hosted visiting dignitaries for its official ribbon-cutting on Feb. 13. (See “Ivanpah CSP Plant Dedicated”.) The 392 MW facility is one of five concentrating solar power (CSP) projects that received loan guarantees from the LPO. When completed, the facilities will provide 1.26 GW of solar capacity.

At the other end of the spectrum, Ray Thackeray, founder of the International Rescue Group (IRG), reminded me what can be done with solar power on a very humble scale. Thackeray’s organization uses donated boats to deliver relief supplies and volunteer labor to coastal communities hit by natural disasters. As a science-fiction geek, I immediately recognized the names Thackeray assigns to his vessels: “Thunderbird,” with a number after it.

The IRG’s Thunderbird 2 is a 57-foot steel sailing trawler with a 10-ton cargo hold and a diesel-electric hybrid drive engine. In 2012, BenQ Solar donated six EcoDuo PM220 240 W multicrystalline solar panels. The panels were mounted on a welded steel frame in a canopy configuration over the vessel’s flybridge. Outback Power provided two of its FLEXmax 80 maximum power point tracking charge controllers to enable the vessel to essentially operate all of its onboard electronics under the right conditions, using 1.5 kW of solar power that produces about 5.76 kWh of electricity per day.

According to Thackeray, the boat’s daily communications, refrigeration and lighting load at anchorage average about 2 kWh per day. The surplus is used to run desalinization systems that produce fresh water using a process of reverse osmosis. Thackeray’s rough estimate of the water-maker’s power consumption is about 15 Wh per gallon, resulting in an output of 250 gallons per day.

“That means by sunlight alone, without having to start up a diesel-guzzling generator, we will be able to provide enough perfectly clean drinking water to keep 1,000 people alive,” Thackeray says. “This is a huge deal!”

Thackeray has resolved to equip the rest of his Thunderbirds with water purification systems, along with solar power and storage systems, if practical.

Big and small, it’s a good time for solar. R