3 ms·

$2.2B solar plant in California turned off after years of wasted money

3 points by Ozarkian 1y ago

toomuchtodo 1y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivanpah_Solar_Power_Facility https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivanpah_Solar_Power_Facility https://www.gem.wiki/Ivanpah_Solar_Electric_Generating_System https://www.gem.wiki/Ivanpah_Solar_Electric_Generating_Syste... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=ivanpah&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... (solar PV prices declined far faster than expected; combined with concentrated solar thermal operational challenges, it led to the plant being uneconomical; could potentially be re-powered as solar PV)
anigbrowl 1y ago
Surely you can find a better source than the tabloid rag NY Post
- toomuchtodo 1y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45364796 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45364796
- throwmeaway222 1y ago
  It's merely conservative - the tabloid side of it has moved to pagesix.
sema4hacker 1y ago
The Wikipedia article says: "The plant burns natural gas each morning to commence operation... In 2014, the plant burned 868×109 British thermal units (254 GWh) of natural gas emitting 46,084 metric tons of carbon dioxide...". I never knew until today that solar plants require fossil fuels.
- toomuchtodo 1y ago
  Only solar thermal plants, solar PV plants do not require fossil generation for keeping an energy transfer medium hot, boilers, etc.
throwmeaway222 1y ago
This and high speed rail should have been money towards nuclear. We're going to be fucked in 2035 when the EV mandate goes into effect. They can't even keep the power on right now.
ZeroGravitas 1y ago
Concentrated solar is still coming down in price and being built in China and its ability to store the energy until dusk made it a good choice anywhere that had bright sunshine even after PV got cheap. At least until batteries got cheap too. Now it's super niche. Also, some quick calculations based on the average yearly generation and estimated PPA suggests that it generated electricity worth roughly the same amount as the big scary number in the headline. Presumably the PPA was set up pay for the construction plus profit over some timescale. Paying it off after 10 years isn't great but it's not bad either.

3 points by Ozarkian 1y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivanpah_Solar_Power_Facility https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivanpah_Solar_Power_Facility https://www.gem.wiki/Ivanpah_Solar_Electric_Generating_System https://www.gem.wiki/Ivanpah_Solar_Electric_Generating_Syste... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=ivanpah&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... (solar PV prices declined far faster than expected; combined with concentrated solar thermal operational challenges, it led to the plant being uneconomical; could potentially be re-powered as solar PV)

anigbrowl 1y ago

Surely you can find a better source than the tabloid rag NY Post

toomuchtodo 1y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45364796 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45364796
throwmeaway222 1y ago
It's merely conservative - the tabloid side of it has moved to pagesix.

sema4hacker 1y ago

The Wikipedia article says: "The plant burns natural gas each morning to commence operation... In 2014, the plant burned 868×109 British thermal units (254 GWh) of natural gas emitting 46,084 metric tons of carbon dioxide...". I never knew until today that solar plants require fossil fuels.

toomuchtodo 1y ago
Only solar thermal plants, solar PV plants do not require fossil generation for keeping an energy transfer medium hot, boilers, etc.

throwmeaway222 1y ago

This and high speed rail should have been money towards nuclear. We're going to be fucked in 2035 when the EV mandate goes into effect. They can't even keep the power on right now.

ZeroGravitas 1y ago

Concentrated solar is still coming down in price and being built in China and its ability to store the energy until dusk made it a good choice anywhere that had bright sunshine even after PV got cheap. At least until batteries got cheap too. Now it's super niche. Also, some quick calculations based on the average yearly generation and estimated PPA suggests that it generated electricity worth roughly the same amount as the big scary number in the headline. Presumably the PPA was set up pay for the construction plus profit over some timescale. Paying it off after 10 years isn't great but it's not bad either.