4 ms·
I'd be interested in a more dispassionate write up of the failure. 75% of rated power isn't nothing, Much is made of birdlife losses but with wind power, this h
by ggm 1y ago
I'd be interested in a more dispassionate write up of the failure. 75% of rated power isn't nothing, Much is made of birdlife losses but with wind power, this has been seen to be both over-rated, and nothing compared to the billions which die from other man-made causes.
Did this die for being .. unfashionable? Not enough power for capex? Too unusual against other emerging modes of power gen?
Using gas a fill-in suggests the thermal mass was grossly inadequate. Maybe backfill of newer solar-thermal tech defeated them.
Do we have any significant solar thermal power generation systems in the world any more? Or just demonstrator and research facilities?
Also, whats the site restitution burden like? Do they dismantle, or try to find a private buyer (bitcoin...)
- ZeroGravitas 1y agoFunder Google realised this was a dead end in 2011, two years before it was finished construction, here's a write up by them: https://web.archive.org/web/20130629173557/http://www.google.org/rec.html https://web.archive.org/web/20130629173557/http://www.google... It was a good idea when they planned it but solar PV prices dropped dramatically and were predicted to fall further. Batteries doing the same was the final nail in its coffin.
- ggm 1y agoGreat info. Looks like the improvements identified were just too expensive to retrofit.