Posted on 03/18/2016 11:46:08 AM PDT by beaversmom
A federally backed, $2.2 billion solar project in the California desert isn’t producing the electricity it is contractually required to deliver to PG&E Corp., which says the solar plant may be forced to shut down if it doesn’t receive a break Thursday from state regulators.
The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, owned by BrightSource Energy Inc., NRG Energy Inc. NRG, -1.72% and Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG, -0.37% GOOGL, -0.54% Google, uses more than 170,000 mirrors mounted to the ground to reflect sunlight to 450-foot-high towers topped by boilers that heat up to create steam, which in turn is used to generate electricity.
But the unconventional solar-thermal project, financed with $1.5 billion in federal loans, has riled environmentalists by killing thousands of birds, many of which are burned to death — and has so far failed to produce the expected power.
PG&E PCG, +0.51% is asking the California Public Utilities Commission for permission to overlook the shortfall and give Ivanpah another year to sort out its problems, warning that allowing its power contracts to default could force the facility to shut down. The commission’s staff is recommending that it grant the extension Thursday.
Spokesmen for BrightSource, which developed the technology, and NRG, which operates the plant, declined to comment on its future. NRG has said it has taken more than a year to adjust equipment and learn how to best run it.
The Energy Department said last week it supports giving the plant, which started operating in early 2014, more time.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2704103/posts
That's only 7 1/2 % of the project, not very impressive for Google’s amount of money.
I bet they are making more in “credits” with gov. Moonbeam's conversion to a green Kalifornia than it's costing them.
I thought there was a similar plant in Spain that was actually working.
Thanks for the link. I haven’t read about it, but when I was looking up pics of Ivanpah, I did come across some for the Spain one.
Ironically, this plant produces power for approximately eight hours AFTER the sun sets, because the boilers stay hot that long.
And it's still losing money!
The operators claim that it hasn't been as sunny as they thought it would be. Let me just say that there probably aren't many places on Earth that are sunnier than the Mojave Desert. If it isn't sunny enough here, it isn't sunny enough anywhere.
I Can't quote numbers, but Thermal-Solar needs direct sunlight to reflect onto the boiler to heat the liquid. Even a thin overcast renders it non-functional. Photovoltaic, on the other hand, can produce SOME power, even on a cloudy day, but produces nothing after the sun sets. The fact that Thermal-Solar can continue to produce electricity for eight hours after the sun sets was supposed to be the great leap forward.
Damn those little puffy clouds, anyway!!!
2.2 Billion (with a “B”) boondoggle! Morons.
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