[rktman]

LOL! Of course they did. Wait until the high speed rail undertaking gets cranking. Talk about greased palms.

[palmer]

From the news six years ago: "Authorities in Spain have launched an investigation into solar energy installations that have been selling electricity apparently generated at night." At that time Spain's economy was tanking thanks to the doubling of electric rates on average (more than doubled for businesses). They said that would not happen here. But it did: http://docketpublic.energy.ca.gov/PublicDocuments/07-AFC-05C/TN203064_20140915T132932_ISEGS_Order_Approving_Petition_to_Amend.pdf They even struck out the language to verify that it is green. Obviously nobody gives a crap about greenery, that is just window dressing.

[Ben Ficklin]

"LOL! Of course they did."

That is a poor choice of words. You should have said: Of course they WILL.

Their costs were offset by funds from the federal renewable energy tax credit, which was extended for 5 years last December by the GOP. Soooo, this subsidy WILL be available for at least 5 more years

Ivanpah was obsolete before it was built. That is and will always be a problem when new technology is advancing rapidly. If the investors wait on technology to plateau, nothing ever gets built.

Ivanpah heats water and can't store heat
Crescent Dunes heats the salts to heat the water and for storage.
Solana heats the DowTherm oil which can heat the water or heat the salt for storage.
Antelope Valley is photovoltaic.

These are all centralized generation. The future is actually in distributed solar, roof top/consumer solar, which also qualifies for the tax credit.

The irony of this is that the GOP in congress is subsidizing roof top solar while the GOP in state leges penalize roof top solar with taxes to protect the utilities because the utilities give gigawatts of campaign money to the GOP.

In Texas, they let California be the 'avant garde', make all the mistakes, then avoid those mistakes.