Posted on 09/23/2016 10:57:43 PM PDT by aquila48
Morocco has turned on its massive solar power plant in the town of Ourrzazate, on the edge of the Saharan desert. The plant already spans thousands of acres and is capable of generating up to 160 megawatts of power. It's already one of the biggest solar power grids in the world, capable of being seen from space. And it's only going to get bigger.
The current grid, called Noor I, is just the first phase of a planned project to bring renewable energy to millions living in Morocco. It will soon be followed by expansions, Noor II and Noor III, that will add even more mirrors to the existing plant. Once the project is complete around 2018, the entire grid will cover 6,000 acres. It will be capable of generating up to 580 megawatts of power, comparable to that of a small nuclear reactor.
Right now, the solar farm is made up of 500,000 curved mirrors, each standing at about 40 feet tall. These mirrors concentrate the sun's light onto a pipeline filled with fluid, heating it up to 739 degrees Fahrenheit. This fluid is used to heat up a nearby source of water, which turns to steam and spins turbines to create energy. Morocco gets about 3,000 hours of sunlight per year, so there will be plenty of solar energy to harness. But the plant can also keep generating power at night. "The heat from the fluid can be stored in a tank of molten salts," NASA writes.
Currently, Noor I can provide solar power to 650,000 locals from dawn until three hours past sunset, according to The Guardian.
(Excerpt) Read more at theverge.com ...
But it does promote peace. No country would go to war with a fat target like that.
How many islam are there? They will mung it up no matter watt.
Send a bunch of Muslim refugees there. We’ll see no long those solar cells last.
Could this affect the global climate?
Send a bunch of Muslim refugees there. We’ll see how long those solar cells last.
I wonder how many European Storks it’s going to fry, seeing as how 3 of their major migratory routes pass over Morocco.
There are no photovoltaic cells
So, off the top of my head; in order to generate enough power to be equivalent to a nuke plant, you would need an area that is almost 20 miles by 20 miles of solar panels.
OK; in the middle of the desert, there is plenty of room for that. But those panels have to be kept clean (deserts are dusty). They have to be maintained. They have to be repaired and replaced.
How many workers are going to be required to maintain that plant? How many workers are going to be required to maintain the grid that connects the desert power plant to the end users?
Aside from the fact that solar power only works during the daylight hours, and thermal solar power further requires a cloudless sky (even though it continues to produce power for several hours after sunset; how economical is this?
As an aside; my neighbor is in the hospital with numerous broken bones, including his pelvis. He fell off his roof while trying to clean his rooftop solar panels. I'm currently in the desert. Did I mention that deserts are dusty?
Re: the thermal solar comment; feel free to do a search for the Ivanpah Solar Plant in California, just South of Primm (Stateline) NV.
YMMV.
There’s one type of solar power plant that I know of which the Israelis have, I think... it focuses the light onto a column of salt and it becomes molten.
It’s able to store the heat and use it to heat water for making steam and can function into the wee hours or under clouds.
Of course over here there would be protests if anyone wanted to mine salt for the things.
I think there are plans to build similar ones in Tunisia... on whose land I don’t know.
This one in Morocco sounds very similar if not the same, though it doesn’t specify what the fluid is.
I suspect that the answer is yes, depending on scale. The sun is no longer heating the earth as muchg, so local temperatures will be depressed by some small amount. The greenies love to agonize over tenths of a degree, so this should get them going, if anyone gets their attention.
Might affect the local, since it’ll be reflecting heat that would otherwise warm the soil... which could change the soil conditions just enough to allow some weeds to grow under the partial shade of the mirrors, if there is any condensation at all....
My parents bought a nice Turkish ottomon made with Moroccan leather. And it had a little bell on one end.
The Ottomon empire was much nicer when it was making things like foot stools, and like this, and not blowing them up.
Emily Litella
That’s up to the progressives.
Mexico wants to fry its birds to death. Thats whats gonna happen.
It’s Morocco, not Mexico...
These type of solar plants are different than the one that’s frying birds in the California desert.
The reason the california plant fries birds is because it concentrates the light from the mirror on a tall tower (at altitudes where birds fly around).
The one in Morocco consists of small concave mirrors with a pipe running down the middle where the mirrors concentrate the light, no birds are flying there.
Molten salts in a trough with mirrors. And uses massive amounts of water - in the desert.
The design uses wet cooling and the need to regularly clean the reflectors means that the water use is high – 1.7 million m3 per year or 4.6 liters per kWh.
Water usage is more than *double the water usage* of a “wet cooled” coal power station and **23x the water use per kWh** of a “dry cooled” coal power station.
Got water?
MMDV.
At 640 acres/square mile, 6000 acres is a little over 9 square miles, or about 3 miles on a side, so four times this would be a little over 6 miles on a side, not 20 miles.
This solar plant does seem like a pretty good idea, assuming they’ve thought through and accounted for the maintenance issues. The set up is mostly a half a million 40-foot tall curved mirrors, which should be pretty easy to dust off. I suspect the wind will keep them pretty clean. If Morocco is anything like Arizona, the biggest cleaning problem will be when brief rain storms leave dust/mud splotches behind. Perhaps they can turn the mirrors face down when rain threatens.
The numbers in the article don’t make sense.
First, the final installation is said to be able to provide “energy to millions”. Final capacity is 580 mega (million) watts. But some of that energy has to be stored for nighttime use, and there will be losses in that. Let’s say 300 megawatts can be delivered, on average, to 2 million consumers, for 20 hours a day. This adds up to a whopping 150 watts per consumer, for 20 hours a day. I guess it’s better than nothing, but, call me underwhelmed.
Then there’s the matter of the mirrors: The initial installation, capable of generating 160 megawatts, consists of 500,000 mirrors, each 40 ft. tall. I don’t know how wide they are, or how thick, but I’ll guess at at least 1 meter wide. That is a lot of mirror. And I assume each has to be supported by a reasonably strong structure that can track the sun. This is not to mention the collection and conversion of the reflected light. What was the environmental footprint to make this thing?
At least, I’ll guess, they don’t get many severe hailstorms...
So when are the muzzies going to blow it up?
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