Posted on 02/09/2015 3:26:24 PM PST by Olog-hai
One of the nation’s largest solar projects was dedicated Monday in the Riverside County desert, as California rushes to expand its use of green power to meet the state’s renewable energy requirements.
The dedication of the Desert Sunlight Solar Farm comes about a month after Gov. Jerry Brown called on the state to increase renewable electricity use to 50 percent by 2030, up from the current goal of 33 percent by 2020. […]
The plant, which uses photovoltaic panels, is expected to produce enough power for about 160,000 homes. Constructed on about 4,000 acres of federal land, it is owned by NextEra Energy Resources, GE Energy Financial Services and Sumitomo Corporation of America. First Solar is building and operating the plant, the California Energy Commission said. …
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Actually, that’s the Ivanpah Solar Thermal Plant (rather than photovoltaic cell plant), which is in the Mojave Desert close to Las Vegas. Solar thermal plants use heat derived from the sun to create steam, which is then used to turn turbines to generate AC power
This new one is in the Sonoran Desert. Photovoltaic cells generate DC power, and there are going to be inherent losses due to needing to invert the DC power to AC for transmission.
All of these are money siphons
Ah well . . . what with this being desert land, that just may fit into the “cultivation of wastelands” part of the Ten Planks of Communism.
Those damned commies aren’t around in the desert during the Spring...it isn’t a wasteland...
But in the interests of “progress”...Desert Tortoises are expendable.
High-tech bird fryer. But hey, it’s “green”.
good point SZonian.
The article makes no mention of storage batteries either.
Without them duplicate generation must be maintained.
(You know for minor things like clouds, storms and night.)
Double the systems = double the cost.
I suppose those 160,000 homes all go to bed at sundown.
“The plant, which uses photovoltaic panels....”
Read the article before responding.
Kenny Rogers Roasters
Gee i wonder where those thousands of solar panels were built.....
Not the way photovoltaic systems work. No fried birds.
That part of the article is bullshit.. The birds would have to dive head first into panels to die. No way to burn them.
“160,000 homes”
Roughly about 1/4 of what a single nuke reactor or large coal plant can produce.
Try again California.
These people are bleeping crazy.
Four thousand acres shot to hell.
Birds and game killed, broiled, heedlessly.
Taxpayer money goes to start the thing, run the thing, endlessly repair the thing.
It is insanity on display and it is cheered by those who supposedly cherish the land, wildlife, small and beautiful technology, and independence from a giant, monstrous government.
The world has gone beserk.
Well, for Desert Sunlight’s sake, it’d better be false.
Maybe they can get some of those coal miners from West Virginia to move out there and take “high paying high tech jobs” washing solar panels at $8.00 a hour.
Oh my gosh did I step on the solar gods toes with sarcasm, abashed am I!
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