Aim64C
Anbu Operative 🎭
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2012
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"And that brought the joke all the way around. I found that hilariously ironic. Because of alarmism based on computer model predictions of rising temperatures in 100 years, we’ve built a fossil-fuel fired solar plant which is already in trouble because of failed computer model predictions of the clouds over the next few years … don’t know about you, but that cracked me up.
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Gotta say, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry about things like the natural-gas powered Ivanpah solar power plant fiasco. On the whole I have to favor laughter … but dear heavens, the damage that environmentalists are doing in the name of the environment is appalling. Burning birds alive in the name of making energy prices skyrocket? Have we sunk this low? Really?"
The next time you hear someone going on and on about how we need to embrace 'green' and 'renewable' energy, just keep some of this stuff in mind regarding the solar power plant your tax dollars are funding:
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Edit: that is market watch dot com. Apparently, they have a fairly aggressive filter in place for a certain word.
"One big miscalculation was that the power plant requires far more steam to run smoothly and efficiently than originally thought, according to a document filed with the California Energy Commission. Instead of ramping up the plant each day before sunrise by burning one hour's worth of natural gas to generate steam, Ivanpah needs more than four times that much help from fossil fuels to get plant humming every morning. Another unexpected problem: not enough sun. Weather predictions for the area underestimated the amount of cloud cover that has blanketed Ivanpah since it went into service in 2013.
Ivanpah isn't the only new solar-thermal project is struggling to energize the grid. A large mirror-powered plant built in Arizona almost two years ago by Abengoa SA of Spain has also had its share of hiccups. Designed to deliver a million megawatt hours of power annually, the plant is putting out roughly half that, federal data show."
Yes.
They use natural gas (and NOT a gas turbine - just a gas boiler - the most inefficient method available) to operate a solar power plant. Worse, their weather predictions were optimistic for the viability of the plant and it can't meet its design capacity.
