Re: 11 years after a celebrated opening, massive solar plant faces a bleak future in the Mojave Desert
Author: FUD
Date: 02-02-2025 - 13:51

The story quietly notes the real reason for the shutdown. It's not because the plant didn't work - it did work as designed when the sun shone enough (it was finished about the time of a lot of wildfires that filled the sky with smoke, so initial production was lower than expected). From a technical/engineering standpoint, it was a success - it produced power as designed, and unlike PVs without batteries it kept producing power for much of the night due to residual heat in the boilers. PV fields can do that only if they include a big bank of batteries, and at the time Ivanpah was built batteries were less capable than they are now, and much more expensive. Even now, the battery banks are usually designed to cover 3-4 hours after sunset, not all night.

The real reason for the shutdown is that solar steam plants (which these are) cost too much to operate, so solar panels (PV) ate their lunch especially after the Chinese took over the market. PG&E knew they cost too much at the very beginning, and resisted signing up, but the PUC hammered on them (and SCE) to do it because **RENEWABLE!**. The much above market price required to make a profit on the power from these things is what killed them.

IOW, nice experiment. Hope somebody learned something from them that can help if it's tried again in the future (which it probably won't be), that can reduce the cost of operation to make the power price competitive with other renewables (which are now much cheaper than power from gas or coal, even with batteries). Once the site is cleared, a standard PV setup will probably be installed producing as much power for less than half the price.



Subject Written By Date/Time (PST)
  11 years after a celebrated opening, massive solar plant faces a bleak future in the Mojave Desert Ivan Paw 02-01-2025 - 13:33
  Re: 11 years after a celebrated opening, massive solar plant faces a bleak future in the Mojave Desert Coal dust is a must 02-01-2025 - 15:06
  Re: 11 years after a celebrated opening, massive solar plant faces a bleak future in the Mojave Desert Oh My 02-02-2025 - 07:11
  Re: 11 years after a celebrated opening, massive solar plant faces a bleak future in the Mojave Desert Wonderer 02-02-2025 - 07:21
  6-10, no problem Times a changing 02-02-2025 - 08:44
  Re: 11 years after a celebrated opening, massive solar plant faces a bleak future in the Mojave Desert BOB2- energy expert 02-02-2025 - 02:47
  Re: 11 years after a celebrated opening, massive solar plant faces a bleak future in the Mojave Desert Navajo Joe 02-02-2025 - 05:06
  Re: 11 years after a celebrated opening, massive solar plant faces a bleak future in the Mojave Desert Jean Nipton 02-02-2025 - 10:30
  Re: 11 years after a celebrated opening, massive solar plant faces a bleak future in the Mojave Desert exhaustedbyED 02-02-2025 - 11:02
  Re: 11 years after a celebrated opening, massive solar plant faces a bleak future in the Mojave Desert FUD 02-02-2025 - 13:51
  Re: 11 years after a celebrated opening, massive solar plant faces a bleak future in the Mojave Desert Jean Nipton 02-02-2025 - 14:53
  Re: 11 years after a celebrated opening, massive solar plant faces a bleak future in the Mojave Desert Zappo 02-02-2025 - 16:00
  Re: 11 years after a celebrated opening, massive solar plant faces a bleak future in the Mojave Desert FUD 02-03-2025 - 08:29
  Re: Faster, better, cheaper.... And no, this will likely not bring back more coal trains... BOB2- 02-02-2025 - 17:06
  Yes, solar photovoltaic is now the Way to Go Commenter 02-02-2025 - 19:22
  Re: Yes, solar photovoltaic is now the Way to Go. Should going off of the grid be illegal? BOB2- 02-03-2025 - 09:11
  I hope that was the fake Bob2. Because it reads like Helen Keller trying to describe a mountaintop view Alamo 02-03-2025 - 21:33
  Re: I hope that was the fake Bob2? Meanwhile... Yeah, it's Texas and these attempts have mostly failed. BOB2 02-04-2025 - 09:30
  Re: I hope that was the fake Bob2? Meanwhile... Yeah, it's Texas and these attempts have mostly failed. FUD 02-04-2025 - 18:05
  Consumer electric cost: Lowest is UT 10.91 cents. TX is 29th 15.6 cents. Average is 17.01 cents. CA next to last 32.68 cents Alamo 02-04-2025 - 21:39
  Re: Consumer electric cost: Lowest is UT 10.91 cents. TX is 29th 15.6 cents. Average is 17.01 cents. CA next to last 32.68 cents? BOB2 02-05-2025 - 07:29


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