The latest example is the $2.2 billion Ivanpah solar thermal plant in California. (Note: Solar thermal plants do not use solar panels to directly convert sunshine to electricity; they use sunshine to boil water that then drives conventional turbines.)
Here’s the story so far. Ivanpah…
is owned by Google, NRG Energy, and Brightsource, who have a market cap in excess of $500 billion.
received $1.6 billion in loan guarantees from the Department of Energy.
is paid four to five times as much per megawatt-hour as natural gas-powered plants.
is paid two to three times as much per megawatt-hour as other solar power producers.
has burned thousands of birds to death.
has delayed loan repayments.
is seeking over $500 million in grants to help pay off the guaranteed loans.
burns natural gas for 4.5 hours each morning to get its mojo going.
Brightsource, which is privately held, is owned by a virtual who’s who of those who don’t need subsidies from taxpayers and ratepayers.
In spite of all this, Ivanpah has fallen woefully short of its production targets. The managers’ explanation for why production came up 32 percent below expected output is the weather. In addition to raising questions about planning for uncertainty, it is not all that clear how a nine-percent drop in sunshine causes a 32-percent drop in production.
More bizarrely, the natural gas used to get the plant all warmed up and ready each day would be enough to generate over one quarter of the power actually produced from the solar energy.
Sorry, let’s not be haters.
More here
5 comments:
Soooo, they could replace the mirrors with solar panels and generate more juice...and not kill birds as they fly (fry) by!
Solar costs 3.6 times more for only 25% of the energy of a gas fired plant (not to mention the large of swaths of land needed). It is ludicrous because with solar or wind, you have to have 100% backup for a product that produces 20% of the time. (Eastern shore averages sun 19% of the time and its wind resource is poor/marginal. Yet because of our liberal policies that favor renewables, Maryland has become ground zero for this JUNK!
Owned by Google. Obama's buddies.
Follow the $$$. I'm sure there are a lot of big revelations coming.
Taxpayers we screwed out of all that startup money given to Wind Turbine factories, like the one that was coming to Salisbury in the old Maxim Marine building.
Solar company Sun Edison just filed for bankruptcy citing 150mil in assets and 7.9 billion in debts and most your tax dollars.
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