California’s Ivanpah, the world’s biggest power-tower project with a cost of $2.2 billion, has 377 megawatts of capacity. The ISEGS is spread over 3,471 acres of public land managed by the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM). There’s been no shortage of problems at the monstrous Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System since the plant went online in early 2014. Based on the above 120 MW output, the efficiency is then almost 27 percent. (1,134kg), floated on magnetic fields and rotated as fast as 16,000 times a minute. Selling the annual 3.8 EJ at the projected 0.028 $/MJ yields $106 million. I agree that renewable advocates usually take advantage and/or abuse the public’s mis-understanding of the two concepts, but we should focus on the disastrous less than 5% capacity value for wind and acknowledge the better-than-many capacity correlation of CSP and let the economics reveal themselves. In the above paragraph, the former value is in “W” but the latter in “Wh.” The author wishes that such reporting use the same unit (W, as with the 392 MW and 46 MW above) or it states, as an example, “…. The 2 power stations are both in the United States, the 377 MW Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System and the 110 MW Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project. 2 in Connecticut, operating at 880 MW since 1975, cost 0.5 $/W, making Ivanpah 36 times more expensive (inflation excluded).”. The beams of focused sunlight have also been known to fry birds midflight. “The 2200 million dollars per 120 million watts represents an 18 dollars per watt ($/W) investment. Ivanpah, which accounts for nearly 30 percent of all solar thermal energy currently operational in the US, is the largest solar project of its kind in the world. It was a popular idea a decade ago as oil prices were well above $100 a barrel, but it became a tougher sell when oil got cheaper. In 2011 the $1 billion project was to be the biggest solar plant of its kind, and it looked like the future of renewable power. All the kinetic energy could be converted into electricity and transferred to the grid as needed. Larger models were provided for commercial rooftops, remote mobile phone towers, and public sites, and the company landed well-publicized deals to help power the Eiffel Tower and Lincoln Financial Field, home to the Philadelphia Eagles football team. The Failure of Solar Tower Thermal Energy Storage. The gas in your car’s tank doesn’t need to come from crude oil—you can grow it on a farm. One burned up in 1986 and was rebuilt, enlarged, DOE arguing that the plants have to be big to take advantage of economy of scale. The Ivanpah project proved to be a major battleground between the Sierra Club’s national office and its local chapter. Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. Alex Epstein For example, developers of the Ivanpah solar farm in California’s Mojave desert had to hire biologists to extract threatened desert tortoises from their burrows, put them on … What about rooftop wind power? and provide profit. Biofuels remained stubbornly expensive. By way of comparison, another nonpolluting source of electricity, nuclear power plant, the Millstone reactor No. David Bergeron Most solar cells contain polysilicon, which was still very expensive a decade ago. California’s Ivanpah, the world’s biggest power-tower project with a cost of $2.2 billion, has 377 megawatts of capacity. The Ivanpah solar plant, in the Mojave Desert, was among the California power plants listed as operating below capacity last week. For remote solar plants like the Ivanpah project, built hundreds of miles from cities, the cost of upgrading and building new powerlines needs to be factored in. New Solar + Battery Price Crushes Fossil Fuels, Buries Nuclear Jeff McMahon Senior Contributor Jul 1, 2019, 12:03am. The Ivanpah solar project argues against the former—the top-down, politically driven system of preferential tax credits, subsidies, and mandates. Will DOE take the Crescent Dunes solar project into bankruptcy? The newest and largest solar power plant in Mojave Desert has completed its second year of operation. It comprises three separate solar units, one of 126MW and two units of 133MW each. Blokart North American Championships 2019, Ivanpah Dry Lake in Mojave Desert, CA. Donn Dears Here’s a marketing slogan for dealing with the bird supply problem: “tastes like chicken.”. the plant has been producing 12 % of its name-plate power.”]. Mirrors stand at the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in the Mojave Desert near Primm, Nevada. ... a stunning failure … Rather than focusing on the poor performance of the Ivanpah, the following text and numbers show how the planned-for performance, capital and operational expenses and earnings compare with another power plant. U.K. Clears Pfizer Covid Vaccine for First Shots Next Week, U.S. Covid Cases Found as Early as December 2019, Says Study, While OPEC+ Fights, Mexico Wins Over $2 Billion With Oil Hedge, Bitcoin’s Rally Spurs Wall Street to Question Future of Gold, Moderna Seeks Clearance for Covid Shot After Strong Results. I need a better reason. But Beacon was ahead of its time: Existing regulations didn’t make it possible for the company to charge different rates to provide a speedier alternative. Published on May 3, 2018. In addition, the majority of the project’s supply chain was sourced in the United States, with components and services coming from at least 18 states. Dissecting the Failure. 2 in Connecticut, operating at 880 MW since 1975, cost 0.5 $/W, making Ivanpah is thus, With about 1000 employees receiving salary and benefits, the annual outlay for that, For comparison again, the Millstone nuclear plant complex employs also about 1000, and its two reactors have been producing 1870 MW actual electrical output. Costs peaked at about $475 a kilogram in 2008, prompting the search for alternative designs. Several were built over the decades and none performed adequately. The local San Bernardino chapter changed its name and went on opposing the project. The company teamed up with Lockheed Martin Corp. in 2012 to build a large-scale wave energy project in Australia that would have used rows and rows of the buoys. These considerations should be included in the performance data for the net electricity delivered and CO, Concerning the DOE covering the invested billions, it was not just tax- and rate-payers who paid. That would be cheaper and easier to source than food crops. Many became rich and famous in the process. The predicted Capacity Factor of 31 percent indicates a 120 MW expected actual average output. The costs of single-circuit alternating current transmission lines for 1989: for a 230 kilovolt line - $150,000 to 375,000 per mile, for a 500 kV line - $400,000 to 800,000 per mile. Even BrightSource, which developed the 377-megawatt Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System complex in the Mojave Desert, is keeping a low profile in … With about 1000 employees receiving salary and benefits, the annual outlay for that alone is roughly $100 million. ... the 377 MW Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System and the 110 MW Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project. The goal was to make a “drop-in compatible” fuel–one that could be used in a vehicle without modifying the engine. I do not get it aside from the fact that how it is usually done. That is the number worked with below. Learn more about our goals. Meanwhile, burgeoning demand for clean energy led to a boom in polysilicon production, and prices plunged. Ivanpah failed thus requested to burn natural gas for 7 hours a day. Howdy, These figures are usually not public. California’s Ivanpah, the world’s biggest power-tower project with a cost of $2.2 billion, has 377 megawatts of capacity. Potential Output - Master Resource, Energy–renewable sources and thermodynamics. Including renewable assets owned through our affiliate company, Clearway Energy, Inc., Clearway’s operating footprint of renewable energy projects totals 4.7 GW, including 3.2 GW of utility-scale wind, 1.2 GW of utility-scale solar, and over 300 MW of community and distributed solar. Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, Nipton: See 15 reviews, articles, and 14 photos of Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, ranked No.3 on Tripadvisor among 3 attractions in Nipton. They also occupy a fraction of the ground area CPS necessitates for equal output because the mirrors must be surrounded by open area on all sides to avoid shade when tilting to follow the sun. For more detailed information, download the Ivanpah Fact Sheet. By way of comparison, another nonpolluting source of electricity, nuclear power plant, the Millstone reactor No. [Note: It is typical for renewable energy projects to show different units for input, rated output and actual output. Still, the idea of harnessing the kinetic energy of waves, tides, or currents to generate power has fueled several startups. In contrast, ground based nuclear plants produce some 2000 W/m2 thus utilizing the land area some 200 times more effectively. Unlike the standard ethanol made from sugar in corn or sugar cane, this next generation would be produced from cellulose—the tough, stringy, indigestible fiber in plants or trees. October 7, 2019 Christian Roselund That was the promise of a wave of companies that tried to develop cheap, renewable alternatives to petroleum-based fuels. Six innovations that seemed brilliant but didn’t catch on. These projects are all about power; but when the federal government, foreign corporations, and google all partner up and use your dollars to continue to build these, knowing that the cost-benefit doesn’t add up, the primary power goes to relieve us of our incomes and eventually our freedoms. The generator machinery is identical to that common in the fossil-fuel and nuclear plants, except that it has provisions for the every-day shut-down at dusk and restart with the rising sun. The project is owned by Google and NRG Energy, and is heavily subsidized by taxpayers. The project is currently the largest solar thermal power plant in the world. We must be either very rich or very ignorant to be building power sources of the type that produce power we cannot afford. Ivanpah is a $2.2 billion dollar failure covering 5 square miles of earth. Assuming the same salaries, benefits, and the electricity selling price, the operating expense is 15, Note that the above two outlays are 35 and 15, As for the occupied land comparison, those 120 MW spread over 13 km, relatively small amount of electricity. The 2200 million dollars per 120 million watts represents an 18 dollars per watt ($/W) investment. That just can’t compete with photovoltaic solar. The footprint of Ivanpah may bb 6,000 acres, but the footprint of the electrical distribution infrastructure left over ten thousand acres devoid of life. The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, the largest solar power plant of its kind in the world, covers 5 square miles in the Mojave Desert near the California-Nevada border. Two hundred carbon-fiber cylinders, each weighing 2,500 lb. With the annual average of 180 W/m2 in the sun-rays’ heat in that location spread over the 2.5 km2 area of just the heliostat mirrors, the input power is 450 MW. And then there are the folks who were … less successful. Wind turbines convert kinetic energy—the motion of the blades—into electricity. 2 in Connecticut, operating at 880 MW since 1975, cost 0.5 $/W, making Ivanpah, Following that logic, this latest 392 MW (name-plate) giant was built on 13 km, The 2200 million dollars per 120 million watts represents an 18 dollars per watt ($/W) investment. Have a confidential tip for our reporters? In comparison, a similar capacity nuclear power plant had an inflation-adjusted construction cost that worked out to $0.50 per watt of capacity, making Ivanpah 36 times more expensive.” Ivanpah is not producing enough revenue from sale of electricity to pay its operating costs. Smaller blades produce less power. The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, the largest solar power plant of its kind in the world, covers 5 square miles in the Mojave Desert near the California-Nevada border. That’s one reason the towers have the potential to provide electricity in remote areas, where it’s expensive. Google, among others, invested millions from its “green” fund, the same Google that, Renewable Energy Sources: Does Their Output Matter? The 2200 million dollars … Perhaps they will be available someday. In the end, they were simply the wrong thing at the wrong time. Ivanpah Solar Plant May Be Forced to Shut Down Federally backed project asks California regulators for more time to sort out its problems The Ivanpah plant uses more than … The already “bad” ratios are actually three times worse than those calculated here. The poster child was Solyndra LLC, which received $535 million in U.S. loan guarantees to develop glass tubes with CIGS films. Not a blade of grass was left during construction, and the continues use of herbicides makes the obliteration of life permanent. Some used a thin film of copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) on glass or plastic. Ivanpah in California is the world’s largest solar project. Stan, Tom: Tom Tanton, A project of the institute for energy research, “The 2200 million dollars per 120 million watts represents an 18 dollars per watt ($/W) investment. Following that logic, this latest 392 MW (name-plate) giant was built on 13 km2 of land in Mojave Desert at a cost of 2.2 billion dollars. I think the traditional term-of-art is load factor; or at least that’s the term I was taught and my preference for explaining things like this. They struggled to move from the lab to the factory. Today, the growing use of intermittent wind and solar power, which can fluctuate rapidly, has boosted demand for this type of service. These considerations should be included in the performance data for the net electricity delivered and CO2 saved. By way of comparison, another nonpolluting source of electricity, nuclear power plant, the Millstone reactor No. Kior Inc., a once-promising startup backed by the venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, made fuel from wood chips. Los Angeles Power and Water officials have struck a deal on the largest and cheapest solar + battery-storage project in the world, at prices that leave fossil fuels in the dust and may relegate nuclear power to the dustbin. Federal and state data show that the plant is increasing its use of natural gas as a supplemental fuel. Google, among others, invested millions from its “green” fund, the same Google that abandoned its own PV solar facility and related R&D last year (2014). The sea is a harsh environment for mechanical systems. It was not apparent from the description whether the electric output was measured at the outlet from the generators (or transformers) or whether it was that output minus the electrical demand on the grid for electricity consumed from dusk to dawn in the plant, such as for lighting, air-conditioning, washing mirrors, water pumping, restarting machinery, etc. The construction, operating, maintaining and eventually dismantling this plant will at best match the amount of CO2 claimed to be saved in non-burning fossil-fuels for that relatively small amount of electricity. Construction on a project in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile was resumed last year, two years after former co-owner Abengoa SA put it on hold because of financial issues. That just can’t compete with photovoltaic solar. The best you can get is normally an estimation of these values, the real ones are protected. The renamed Beacon Power LLC opened a second facility in 2014. Other companies are having more success with grid-scale marine power. Tom: You cant be the world's largest In 2018 the two sites were acquired by a clean-energy developer. [1]. Tom: It could also absorb excess energy from the grid. But the concept faced challenges. Building tortoise fences along roadways to keep them from the dangers of vehicles only serves to concentrate them along these areas to make them easy prey for coyotes and ravens that devastate younger tortoises. Ivanpah uses power tower solar thermal technology to generate power by creating high-temperature steam to drive a conventional steam turbine. 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