The $2.2 Billion Bird-Scorching Solar Project

Wall St. Journal ^ | February 12, 2014 | Cassandra Sweet

[grundle]

At California's Ivanpah Plant, Mirrors Produce Heat and Electricity—And Kill Wildlife

A giant solar-power project officially opening this week in the California desert is the first of its kind, and may be among the last, in part because of growing evidence that the technology it uses is killing birds.

U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz is scheduled to speak Thursday at an opening ceremony for the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating Station, which received a $1.6 billion federal loan guarantee.

The $2.2 billion solar farm, which spans over five square miles of federal land southwest of Las Vegas, includes three towers as tall as 40-story buildings. Nearly 350,000 mirrors, each the size of a garage door, reflect sunlight onto boilers atop the towers, creating steam that drives power generators.

The owners of the project— NRG Energy Inc., Google Inc. and BrightSource Energy Inc., the company that developed the "tower power" solar technology—call the plant a major feat of engineering that can light up about 140,000 homes a year.

the BrightSource system appears to be scorching birds that fly through the intense heat surrounding the towers, which can reach 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

The company, which is based in Oakland, Calif., reported finding dozens of dead birds at the Ivanpah plant over the past several months

[thackney]

I helped build a Natural Gas compressor station across the street from Solar One, in Daggett, CA on old Route 66, quite a few years back.

[varyouga]

Far less power is needed at night since most air conditioning load is solar.

This would work very well for desert communities where there is lots of extra land and sun.

[Travis McGee]

For a group-participation public execution, folks could be asked to bring bathroom mirrors to a football stadium at noon, with the condemned prisoner tied to a stake at mid-field.

[MrTed]

In the summer of 1977 I was at Kirkland AFB, New Mexico, with ROTC. During that visit I got to see a test at Sandia Labs where they were testing the ability to focus sunlight from multiple mirrors on a tower. As part of the test they first focused on a point a few feet to the right of the target on the tower. While focused on that point a bird flew the hot spot - instant roosting! So this has been known for a long time!

[catnipman]

Powers 140,000 homes. Except for the 67% of the time when the sun doesn’t shine or shine brightly enough.

And given 132,452,405 housing units in the U.S., it’d take only about 1,000 more of these 33% efficient plants covering 5,000 square miles of the U.S. at a cost of only two trillion dollars. All in all, quite doable. IF you are a “Progressive” who graduated in Lesbian Dance Theory and believe in the economic and scientific nature of Unicorn and Rainbow power.

[gleeaikin]

That sounds reasonable. Actually the figure was 140,000 homes, not 144,000, but that is still under $11,500. I know people who are spending $20 and $30,000 to put solar on their roofs, so this seems possible.

[gleeaikin]

I read loan guarantee, not subsidy. Also, energy produced goes into the grid. Other resources are also producing energy at night, so the energy gets distributed as needed. If all those mirrors need cleaning/dusting? sounds like a good employment program.

[GeronL]

I oppose government guarantees on loans