CA: Huge Solar-Plant Project Approved ( near Blythe )

Wall Street Journal ^ | OCTOBER 26, 2010 | CASSANDRA SWEET And SIOBHAN HUGHES

[Osage Orange]

Been there.....

Spent too many nights along I-40......

Did not have enough time to explore.......

[aruanan]

So solar might actually work - there are no obstacles when it comes to physics - it just isn't competitive yet with today's technology.

Even if you could get a 100% conversion of all incoming solar energy to electricity, there is not a great enough energy density per square meter to justify the extremely enormous expenditure for any kind of large scale "harvesting" of solar when you have coal and nuclear means of generating the electricity.

[Rebelbase]

Broke down on 40 about 30 miles east of Needles late August once. Buddy and I pushed our little truck 4 miles to get into the shade of an overpass.

[Osage Orange]

Well that totally sucked.........

I can't recall how many times I've drove that road...

Thank God...I never broke down between here and there.....

[wolf78]

US electricity consumption (industrial AND domestic) is approx. 40 kHh per capita and day. Average insolation in the US is in the 5-6 kWh/m²/d range, which using your 100% conversion factor would mean ~7m² per person (of course, 100% is just a dream).

In the end, it's all economics. If in 2018 solar cells are just slightly more expensive than roof shingles, everybody will use them to cover their roofs instead.

If it is cheaper to cover a desert with mirrors than to move a mountaintop PLUS run a rail network (a necessity for coal fired power plants), it should be done. If not it shouldn't.

Personally I prefer to sit back and watch it play out. I find the religious fervor with which some present their "it will never work / it is the only way"-arguments preposterous. And frankly anti-free-market.

[Marine_Uncle]

I would find it also interesting to see when the Enviro wacko clubs issue law suits against the companies charging them with disturbing the natural surrounding habitats. Will they wait till huge sums are poured into the project(s), or will they wait for the day the plant would start to operate then slap them with a court suit to halt operations.
Of course a handy far left fed judge will stop the plant from producing.