Posted on 03/20/2016 5:49:47 PM PDT by Lorianne
A federally backed, $2.2 billion solar project in the California desert isn’t producing the electricity it is contractually required to deliver to PG&E Corp., which says the solar plant may be forced to shut down if it doesn’t receive a break Thursday from state regulators.
The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, owned by BrightSource Energy Inc., NRG Energy Inc. NRG, +0.79% and Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG, +0.02% GOOGL, +0.15% Google, uses more than 170,000 mirrors mounted to the ground to reflect sunlight to 450-foot-high towers topped by boilers that heat up to create steam, which in turn is used to generate electricity.
But the unconventional solar-thermal project, financed with $1.5 billion in federal loans, has riled environmentalists by killing thousands of birds, many of which are burned to death — and has so far failed to produce the expected power.
(Excerpt) Read more at wattsupwiththat.com ...
Could California’s massive Ivanpah solar power plant be forced to go dark?
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/could-californias-massive-ivanpah-solar-power-plant-be-forced-to-go-dark-2016-03-16
They could probably rebrand it as a Kenny Rogers Roasters.
“But the unconventional solar-thermal project, financed with $1.5 billion in federal loans, has riled environmentalists by killing thousands of birds, many of which are burned to death...”
Lol, what cluster-fudge these enviros are!
How much has NRG and Google’s parent corporation donated to Obama and his cronies?
And how much to Trump?
Did they plug it in?
Not necessarily to you Lorianne.
I don’t know much about this plant, or this technology.
It would seem that this type of an operation could be successful since it’s in the dessert, and I suspect the days are sunny and bright most of the days of the year.
Is this flawed technology? What gives?
I already know about the birds folks...
Why isn’t the plant producing?
Trump has not been taking large corporate donations.
Sure, grant them another $1 or $2 Billion and give them an additional 3 to 5 years to give a return on taxpayer dollars. /sarc
It is producing electricity, just far more expensively than advertised. Green projects are engineered with extremely rosy best case scenarios that just don't pan out in real life. This solar plant uses natual gas to start up, but is now using so much more natural gas than anticipated it might be reclassified as a gas plant.
It uses coal-burning electricity off the grid to power it, and burns coal to daily to start up the boilers. After attaining a high temperature, the mirror reflected sunlight keeps heating the boilers. So the truth is, it is not a "green" project at all. It requires coal and the grid to make it "work". PG&E is on the hook because they were promised electricity that is not being generated, but has to deliver electricity to the project, losing money in the process.
Poor link.
Lack of detail an not up to date.
Roadcat,
You are mistaken. This definitely is a green project. Obama’s campaign receives the green from the “businessmen”. It in turn gets a large amount of green from the taxpayers. They give the green to the “businessmen”. The cycle is then repeated.
Maybe they could just take the $2.2B dollars and set it on fire to generate electricity.
LOL, a gas burning station... ?
God made a very effective solar heater. Look up, you might see it, but don’t look directly at it.
Yes, right now the solar is an assist for the natural gas. As more mirror motors break and the mirrors get dusty that will only get worse. The state regulators already tossed out the language in the contract that would verify that they produce green power. Not only that, their use of natural gas is much less efficient than a combined cycle gas plant. Furthermore a gas plant is dispatchable and this solar thermal crap is not. It is basically a very inefficient baseload plant. Capacity factor less than 15%, worse than any other power source (means they can’t make their money back to pay off the debt).
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