Posted on 02/13/2014 7:54:04 PM PST by ckilmer
A massive solar plant in the Mojave Desert officially began operation today after years of construction, testing, and development. Co-owned by NRG Energy, BrightSource Energy, and Google, the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is said to be ready to generate nearly 30 percent of all solar thermal energy produced in the United States. The plant consists of three 459-foot tall towers each with tens of thousands of robotic, garage-door sized mirrors that angle sunlight toward a water boiler sitting atop them.
NRG says that the nearly 5.5-square-mile plant is the largest solar project of its type in the world, and that it will be able to provide clean energy to 140,000 neighboring California homes. But though its owners see Ivanpah as a beacon for clean energy sources, the plant has not been without its controversies. The Wall Street Journal reports that its more than 300,000 mirrors have been scorching birds that fly through their path, and the Associated Press reports that local protected tortoises had to be relocated during the plant's construction.
While regulators are continuing to look into the plant's environmental impact, it's still a big moment for clean energy in California. "At Google we invest in innovative renewable energy projects that have the potential to transform the energy landscape and help provide more clean power to businesses and homes around the world," Rick Needham, Google's director of energy and sustainability, says in a statement. "Ivanpah is a shining example of such a project and we're delighted to be a part of it."
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None of the pictures shown do it justice. It is pretty wild looking in person.
That appears to be about a 3% return on investment at $0.10 per kWh not including inflation or maintenance.
It’s an empty desert. Few live anywhere near this place.
Corporate idiocy.
I am a pilot who has had to fly over it regularly, and it is annoying to say the least. And that is with only one of the three plants working. . It is like having a constant reflection of the sun in your eyes from that position within 40 miles of it.
Very, very, very bright, like having a small sun on the ground. It isn’t dangerous, but you can’t stare at.
I imagine a lot of birds get fried.
Why not solar panels with fewer moving parts..
much less maintenance fewer personnel.. less cost..
no bird problem.. much simpler system.. no water..
Saw them flying from PHX to LAX. Bright points of light - always visible from any angle - only on a sunny day of course. Always find liberal logic perplexing. Can’t use DDT on mosquitoes because it kills off birds, but killing those same birds with solar collection is okay.
But then the dark will reflect off the mirrors and freeze them! ;-)
Not enough for the money invested. With overhead, mechanical failures, cloud cover plus the initial cost of instalation it will never be profitable, pretty much the same with wind energy.
PBS had a program on ENERGY a couple years back — I wish I could find it. The conclusions from it were stunning:
10% of all energy worldwide was wood and dung burning primarily in 3rd world countries and not likely to change.
Wind and solar useage despite all the hype and investment was pathetically low like 3% and not expected to grow even in best case scenario beyond beyond like 6%.
They kept talking about bringing fossil fuel useage down from like 50% to 25% — but what would fill the gap since wind/solar are so limited.
Their answer was stunning — hydroelectric and nuclear energy had to grow significantly to fill the gap.
These loons who spent a generation condemning the damming of rivers and building of nuclear power plants are now being forced to embrace them.
And yet the program following that one was about the salmon runs in the Northwest as they called for all the hydroelectric plants to be eliminated and rivers returned to nature.
Gives me an idea - install solar/light collectors near all the lights in my home to recoup some of the energy. I figure that with a government grant and leaving all the lights on, I can regenerate about .00057% of my power at a cost of about 270 times the original power. Since it’s a government grant, it will basically be free energy.....
Bethesda Softworks are prophets. I cannot be convinced otherwise.
Real? First set of photos look Photo Shopped to me.
Called Solar Two on the California Side of the Mojave.
I know, I live within 100 miles of the Nevada and Barstow facilities ;)
I don’t visit often though without my plasma rifle. Too many Legion scouts running around...
Ah , I see you’ve been snooping in my NSA file again....interesting...very interesting... ;)
Oh just a note to all. the site that plant exists on used to be part of an off road race course that was shut down because of the poor desert tortise. The 20 foot wide road running across the area was ‘totally devastating’ the poor dear apparently. Yet leveling all of it’s ‘endangered habitat” for this fiasco got not a peep from the greenies that screamed like banshees about that 20 foot wide road.
Imagine my complete shock.
IF it reaches full capacity and operates as planned, 392 megawatts.
Consider all the acreage, all the cost of mirrors, plus the $1.2 billion loan guarantee from the feds and it seems like a total waste. In the name of being green, they are wasting land, resources, and wild life ( apparently birds are being toasted if they get to close to the towers). Typical Jerry Flakeman effort.... I am convinced the bullet train will make a stop here
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