Posted on 02/04/2025 6:16:30 AM PST by V_TWIN
What was once the world’s largest solar plant of its kind may soon shut down more than a decade earlier than planned. This potential closure comes as the facility has struggled to compete with newer, cheaper solar technologies and faced accusations of causing thousands of wildlife deaths.
Why is this solar plant closing so much earlier than expected? Opened in 2014 , the $2.2 billion Ivanpah Solar Power Plant spans five square miles in the Mojave Desert near the California-Nevada border. The facility operates using concentrated solar power technology, which utilizes thousands of mirrors to focus sunlight onto towers to generate steam-powered electricity.
However, utility officials said that cutting ties with the plant could lead to lower energy prices for consumers, as industry advancements in photovoltaic solar panels and battery storage have made other renewable energy sources more cost-effective.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsbreak.com ...
Total waste of money building that monstrosity.. Two billion down the drain.
Oh joy, anther couple of billion wasted on “ clean” energy that fried birds in flight.
“energy that fried birds in flight.”
Streamers, Smoke from burning feathers.
It is already built. Power lines are already connected to it.
Its operating costs are what matters.
Two dozen people at top-dollar rates?
There’s also the fact that California is sometimes electricity short and has to resort to brownouts.
The bigger problem with electricity supply in California is that the electric utilities have not been able to maintain lines safely and now have to pay many billions to rebuild communities. The electric utility system in California might even collapse economically.
“...utility officials said that cutting ties with the plant could lead to lower energy prices for consumers”
I don’t think a single utility in California is worried about lowering consumer electricity costs. The only things they’ve been worried about are satisfying the ultra-greeniacs in CA and satisfying their CA State energy masters (and to a lesser extent their Federal energy masters).
Hmm? Abandoned or cleaned up?
Save money, how big was the loan guaranteed by Californians and other federal taxpayers and how much of it was ‘forgiven’? What is the cost to decommission remove the hazmat and return the land to it’s former state? And who is left holding the bag for that?
Yes, a typical modern gas turbine plant needs 24 x 7 operating staff at 4-6 people per shift x 4 rotating shifts. A few more on dayshift for EHS, paperwork, admin, and parts and maintenance planning/monitoring.
This things regular maintenance even to the level of every reflector controller and regulator and mirror.
From Wikepedio: “The plant has a gross capacity of 392 megawatts (MW).[8] It uses 173,500 heliostats, each with two mirrors focusing solar energy on boilers located on three 459-foot-tall (140 m)[9] solar power towers.”
I’d suspect that the cost of existing contracts makes it uncompetitive, that PGE wants a buyout and to turn to more efficient and cheaper sources.
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