Huge solar plant lags in early production [because there's not enough sunlight!]

AP ^ | November 17, 2014 | MICHAEL R. BLOOD

[exit82]

Better keep fracking:

“Operators initially expected to need steam from gas-powered boilers for an hour a day during startup. After operations began, they found they needed to keep boilers running more than four times longer - an average of 4 1/2 hours a day.

State energy regulators in August approved the plant’s request to increase the natural gas it is allowed to burn by 60 percent.

Additional natural gas could also be needed to operate boilers when clouds thicken or to maintain output at the end of the day and extend the capability for power production, the company said.

“Because the plant requires sunlight to heat water and turn it to steam, anything that reduces the sunlight will affect steam conditions, which could damage equipment and potentially cause unsafe conditions,” said the commission, which approved the request for increased gas use.

Fromer said it was surprising that so much additional gas is needed, adding that it “signals to me they have some very large problems that they are going to need to sort out.”

[KarlInOhio]

So far, however, the plant is producing about half of its expected annual output for 2014,

Unless they are completely incompetent (always a possibility), they will have their estimated daily solar flux at the site which they based their design on. Did only half the amount of sunlight fall on their location? Did they get 90%, but that pushed it below a break point in efficiency so they only got half the power planned, which would be a very bad design with an input as variable as sunlight? Was the original estimate inaccurate so they are now getting the real average amount of sunlight? Lots of questions and like most press reports there are just about no answers here.

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

Oooh! Oooh! I know! Giant flashlights to shine on the panels at night!