Worldwatch Institute,Washington, DC Email: sdunn@worldwatch.org
Recent surges in the stock value of ‘micropower’ technology companies are symptomatic of systemic change in the electric. This solar dish/Stirling system can run on natural gas, landfill gas or hydrogen, as well as solar, generating about 22kW. It was built by Science Application International Corporation of Golden, Colorado, and was installed at the Pentagon in Washington, DC in June 1998. After several months’ operation it was transferred to a test site in Arizona (Sandia National Laboratoriesity business, writes Seth Dunn of the Worldwatch Institute. Here he looks at the near-and longer-term growth potential of distributed generation in developed and developing countries, and at how it will be affected by electric industry restructuring, nuclear power plant decommissioning, and new environmental regulations, as well as by policy issues.
