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Lodestar

(2,388 posts)
Fri May 27, 2016, 10:46 AM May 2016

This Huge Solar Plant Caught on Fire

Even before part of it went up in flames, the controversial Ivanpah project was losing solar energy's civil war.



Ivanpah, the world's largest solar plant, is a glittering sea of mirrors, concentrating sunlight into three glowing towers. It is a futuristic vision rising out of the Mojave desert. But from the day the plant opened for business in 2014, critics have said the technology at Ivanpah is outdated and too finicky to maintain.

The latest problem? A fire at one of the plant's three towers on Thursday, which left metal pipes scorched and melted. As the plant dealt with engineering hiccups, Ivanpah initially struggled to fulfill its electricity contract, and it would have had to shut down if the California Public Utilities Commission didn't throw it a bone this past March. "Ivanpah has been such a mess," says Adam Schultz, program manager at the UC Davis Energy Institute and former analyst for the CPUC. "If [the fire] knocks them offline, it's going to further dig them in." On top of the technical challenges, the plant has had to deal with PR headaches like reports of scorched birds and blinded pilots from its mirrors.

Ivanpah's biggest problem, though, is hard economics. When the plant was just a proposal in 2007, the cost of electricity made using Ivanpah's concentrated solar power was roughly the same as that from photovoltaic solar panels. Since then, the cost of electricity from photovoltaic solar panels has plummeted to 6 cents per kilowatt-hour (compared to 15 to 20 cents for concentrated solar power) as materials have gotten cheaper. "You're not going to see the same thing with concentrated solar power plants because it's mostly just a big steel and glass project," says Schultz. It can only get so much cheaper.

Photovoltaic solar systems also have the advantage of scaling up or down easily. You can have one panel on your roof or the airport can have 100, and electricity can be made where it's used. But for concentrated solar power plants, you need a huge tract of empty land. Ivanpah has 173,500 garage door-sized sets of mirrors spread over 3,500 acres. Each mirror has a motor controlled by a computer, which angles the reflective surface to track the location of the sun.

cont'd
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/05/wired-ivanpah-solar-plant-huge-fire-huge-problems

9 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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tonyt53

(5,737 posts)
1. Been watching the progress, or lack of it, since it started. Seems that there are too many egos
Fri May 27, 2016, 10:49 AM
May 2016

to go along with the complex system. What a mess.

 

Wellstone ruled

(34,661 posts)
3. Sounds like this Solar Plant will be online in about
Fri May 27, 2016, 11:24 AM
May 2016

10 days. Got to love all the comments from the Fossil Fuel Lovers about this Experimental Solar Plant. BTW,there is a next generation Mirrored Boiling Salt/water solution Solar Plant some two hundred miles North of Vegas that recently came on line and it produces Power 24/7. This Plant is exceeding all design and production estimates. Ah,never hear about this do we.

FBaggins

(26,697 posts)
5. Crescent Dunes doesn't produce power 24/7
Fri May 27, 2016, 11:54 AM
May 2016

Nor do they expect it to.

Based on the company's own numbers, they expect a capacity factor a touch above 50%.

This Plant is exceeding all design and production estimates.

So far they're only validating the design elements. They're nowhere near exceeding production - since they have up to a year to ramp up to full production.

 

Wellstone ruled

(34,661 posts)
6. Great to know.
Fri May 27, 2016, 12:19 PM
May 2016

Stopped in Tonapah couple of months ago,and the info we received was incorrect. Thanks for the feedback. Did drive back to the Guard Shack,talk about impressive,wow,the fellow on duty was polite and mentioned that the Engineers had tested limits on output,just assumed they opened the throttle .

 

packman

(16,296 posts)
7. The fossil folk have orgasms over this type of thing
Fri May 27, 2016, 12:39 PM
May 2016

Wonder how many oil/coal/gas plants went to shit in the early days (and still do) of start up? Only an idiot would not expect some foul-ups on a relatively new energy source.

MisterP

(23,730 posts)
8. megaprojects are doomed not so much because of their scale, but because of how many
Fri May 27, 2016, 01:21 PM
May 2016

resources they soak up and because they're locked in to the technology levels of when they were completed

this'd hold true for giant PV farms as well

hunter

(38,264 posts)
9. This project needs to die.
Fri May 27, 2016, 04:06 PM
May 2016

These big desert plants are loathsome.

We're not going to save the world by destroying even more of it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1127101763

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