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.
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.
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
Mexico wants to fry its birds to death. Thats whats gonna happen.
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?
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?
I wonder what the $$/kWh cost of this monstrosity is.
Morocco gets about 3,000 hours of sunlight per year
What do they do the other 5760 hrs or at night?
So after billions and billions of dollars, the best solar science can create is a “steam” generator? Pathetic!