Google Invests $168 Million in Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System

The project is the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (ISEGS), and Google has invested $168 million toward the cause. The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, which is being developed by BrightSource Energy, is 450 feet tall and began construction in October 2010 by the engineering firm Bechtel. It will be the world's largest solar power tower plant.

"We need smart capital to transform our energy sector and build a clean energy future," said The Official Google Blog. "This is our largest investment to date, and we've now invested over $250 million in the clean energy sector [total]. We're excited about Ivanpah because our investment will help deploy a compelling solar energy technology that provides reliable clean energy, with the potential to significantly reduce costs on future projects."

The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is expected to generate 392 gross megawatts of solar energy, and will have a lifespan of about 25 years. This amount of solar energy produced is like taking 90,000 cars of the road over the plant's lifetime.

This new system works by using 173,000 heliostats, which are mirrors that focus the sun's rays onto a solar receiver, which is located at the top of a tower. These mirrors pack a large amount of solar energy into one small area. The solar receiver then generates steam that spins a turbine and generator to create electricity. The steam is produced at high pressure and a high temperature of up to 1000 degrees Fahrenheit.

The project is expected to be completed in 2013, and will be funded by clean energy technology guarantees offered by the U.S. Department of Energy and by NRG.

Rhetoric like the quote below makes suspect the motives of either the writer or the project sponsors (whoever originated the quote), as if dumb and false arguments to the ignorant masses are necessary to sell something that one would think should be worthy without trying to fool anyone.

They said: “This amount of solar energy produced is like taking 90,000 cars off the road over the plant’s lifetime.”

Well, actually, no it is not. Not in the least.

Will “90,000 cars” magically be dispensed with, magically NOT be sold and used simply because this solar power plant will be built? No. No number of fossil-fuel powered cars will change because of this power-plant; not now, not over its life time.

It is similar to the another idiotic excuse given on a solar power industry advocacy site, which said:

“Solar thermal electric systems operating in the US today [Solar Parabolic Troughs] meet the needs of over 350,000 people (equal to the population of the city of Fresno, CA or Miami, FL) and displace the equivalent of 2.3 million barrels of oil annually.”

Again, in reality, “solar thermal electric systems” in the U.S. will NEVER “displace the equivalent of 2.3 million barrels of oil annually”, because oil plays an insignificant role in U.S. electricity generation and building the power plant will NOT magically transform any number of autos to electric-powered autos either.

Additionally, almost every solar power plant on the boards represents additional electric generation capacity and not one (yet) will be built to displace any existing coal, natural gas or nuclear powered plant, nor have projected plans for fossil fueled or nuclear plant additions changed much during the period that solar and other plants have been added. Solar essentially, so far, makes a net addition to power and electric generation but does not (yet) DISPLACE existing or planned generation in other modes - in spite of all the hype.

IF solar is actually “better” it should be able to argue on 100% economic terms, and promote itself on “dollars saved” and “reduced cost of electricity to the consumer”. Those are arguments you never hear from the solar powered electricity generation industry. Why? Because such arguments would be false?

"We need smart capital to transform our energy sector and build a clean energy future,"

Uh... Yea...Al Gore is a friggin genius. Give your smart money to him and his kind....

Here is the deal with google. This is risk management. They need to imbed themselves as fast as they can in as many places as they can. In as many industry as they can. Especially industry such as this which is nothing more than a con job but one with the backing of the fake president's handlers. Why? Why must google do this? Easy answer. They have made their money by taking content without compensation. No matter how cool google is or how valuable it is it is still built on theft. They walk on your lawn without permission and take what they want. Someday someone is going to kick them in the crotch over this. There only way to keep this from happening and to keep the government as a shield is to do dumb crap like this solar garbage that stupid political types push so they can shake down someone like google. Like birds of a feather thieves stick together...

“We need smart capital to transform our energy sector”

Translation: “We need the taxpayers to invest in our projects with us, or give taxpayer owned assets (like land) for the projects we (Google) put our capital into [so we - Google - get off with spending less of our own capital - that’s “smart”].

No different than what Google did in choosing a city to try to construct its own version of a new high speed Internet. It angered a lot of locations that had vied for the business when Google chose Kansas City, Kansas. What advantage did Kansas City have? The local power utility is city owned and is partnering with Google and sharing its rights of way - for free.

Google surely does represent “new” capitalists - crony capitalists that can’t go out in the world and actually do something entirely on their own.

“It seems quite likely that Google has no risk with their investment thanks to you and me, the taxpayer.”

####

Only utter fools or enslaved, coerced taxpayers put their OWN money into the Green mythology.

This is just a feel good exercise for liberal hypocrites, like the Google geeks.

Actually, for the secularists, moralistic preaching via the environmentalism sham or “responsible” investing is a substitute for a real religion, like Christianity.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System will be world's largest solar power tower plant