Posted on 06/16/2015 10:20:46 AM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
Sometimes when I’m reading about renewable technologies, I just break out laughing at the madness that the war on carbon has wrought. Consider the Ivanpah solar tower electric power plant. It covers five square miles in Southern California with mirrors which are all focusing the sun on a central tower. The concentrated sunlight boils water that is used to run a steam turbine to generate electricity.
Sounds like at a minimum it would be ecologically neutral … but unfortunately, the Law of Unintended Consequences never sleeps, and the Ivanpah tower has turned out to be a death trap for birds, killing hundreds and hundreds every year:
“After several studies, the conclusion for why birds are drawn to the searing beams of the solar field goes like this: Insects are attracted to the bright light of the reflecting mirrors, much as moths are lured to a porch light. Small birds — insect eaters such as finches, swallows and warblers — go after the bugs. In turn, predators such as hawks and falcons pursue the smaller birds.
But once the birds enter the focal field of the mirrors, called the “solar flux,” injury or death can occur in a few seconds. The reflected light from the mirrors is 800 to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Either the birds are incinerated in flight; their feathers are singed, causing them to fall to their deaths; or they are too injured to fly and are killed on the ground by predators, according to a report by the National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory.”
– David Danelski, Solar: Ivanpah Solar Described as Deadly Trap for Wildlife,” Riverside-Press Enterprise, April 8, 2014. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at wattsupwiththat.com ...
He he he...good one.
From French Embassy website:
Nuclear energy is the cornerstone of french energy policy.
In the ‘70s France chose to develop nuclear as its base load electricity source as a response to the oil crisis and assure its energy independence.
Nuclear Electricity Production: France currently counts 58 commercial nuclear reactors in operation responsible for producing 80% of French domestic electricity. As a comparison, the 104 US reactors produces 20% of US electricity.Despite scarce natural resources, France has reached an energy independence of 50% thanks to its strategic choice for nuclear energy.
Environment: As well as providing safe and reliable energy, nuclear helps to reduce French greenhouse gas emissions by avoiding the release of 31 billions tones of carbon dioxide (contrary to coal or gas generation) and making France the less carbon emitting country within the OECD.
As a leader in nuclear energy, France has developed clean technology for radioactive waste disposal. Reprocessing currently allows France to recover valuable elements from spent fuels and permit a significant reduction of high level waste and lead to safer and optimized containment, for final radioactive waste disposition. French nuclear power plants produces only 10 g/year/inhabitant of highly radioactive waste. . .
http://ambafrance-us.org/spip.php?article949
Someone have a chat with Ted Cruz!
I frequently read references to birds burned or incinerated by these solar plants, but I wonder what the distances are where the birds are not burned but are blinded by the light and what becomes of them. It must be something like looking at the sun through a magnifying glass.
You have been pinged because of your interest in environmentalism, alarmist wackos, mainstream media doomsday hype, and other issues pertaining to global warming.
Freep-mail me to get on or off: Add me / Remove me
Please ping me to all note-worthy threads on global warming.
Senate GOP launches attack on EPA climate rules
Global Warming on Free Republic
speaking of solar and nirds
Hillary is far too Odd a DUCK to ever be elected...legally
I would think that a closed loop "radiator" would require a much thicker wall thickness for the tubing because the steam and condensed water would be at the same pressure as the exhaust steam from the turbines. A thicker walled tube would reduce the rate of heat transfer and require a larger radiator to dissipate the heat of condensation. Overall, it seems to be rather inefficient, given that the radiator is exposed to desert conditions as a heat sink.
Wasn't this sort of power plant tried in Spain? I seem to recall that it didn't move up to large scale use. Passing clouds produced swings in "solar flux" which translated to transient stresses in the boiler.
Regards,
GtG
PS A solar power plant suffers from the same deficiencies as does a wind turbine. The quixotic nature of the energy input means that both require nuclear or fossil fueled backups for the grid to be reliable.
Thanks for all the links. I bookmarked them and posted a story from TerraDaily:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3301181/posts
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.