To think that the Warmists wanted this to the first of many…
California regulators may force a massive solar thermal power plant in the Mojave Desert to shut down after years of under-producing electricity — not to mention the plant was blinding pilots flying over the area and incinerating birds.
The Ivanpah solar plant could be shut down if state regulators don’t give it more time to meet electricity production promises it made as part of its power purchase agreements with utilities, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Ivanpah, which got a $1.6 billion loan guarantee from the Obama administration, only produced a fraction of the power state regulators expected it would. The plant only generated 45 percent of expected power in 2014 and only 68 percent in 2015, according to government data.
And it does all this at a cost of $200 per megawatt hour — nearly six times the cost of electricity from natural gas-fired power plants. Interestingly enough, Ivanpah uses natural gas to supplement its solar production.
Do you know whats a disgusting sight? A protected bird, a falcon, flying over the plant and suddenly streaming a contrail of smoke. Like watching a WWI flying aces movie, “Curse you Red Baron!”. Sorry that’s Red Tailed hawk actually.
Moniz’s optimism aside, the project faced huge problems from the beginning. NRG Energy asked the federal government for a $539 million federal grant to help pay off the $1.6 billion loan it got from the Energy Department.
That much money would build natural gas fired power plants that would produce 6 times the energy at 1/6th the cost per watt. We currently have so much natural gas in this country that we can’t store it all and are burning it off at the well head.
Here in New England, where the costs of natural gas are artificially inflated by local politics; the cost of a kilowatt @13¢ or $130 a Megawatt. Double that by the time the surcharges are added to the bill, which is normal these days, so that $200 per Megawatt would be somewhere around $400 to the consumer. In New England we are losing the Pilgrim and Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plants which will increase costs noticeably. Then when the CapeWind offshore wind farm goes into production with it’s sky-high politically mandated rates (Wind not solar, but same old grift) the cost of a Megawatt here should be in line with California.
So go ahead and vote more Democrats, Socialists, Greenies and old fashioned thieves into political office; but know that your children will grow up in a third world nation where they must spend half their income on heating and lighting and transportation. Or do without. And no manufacturing jobs as the cost of energy will drive them all overseas; where they lock their manics up inside institutions.
If you want to educate yourself…
Energy Density is Key
Update, the headline says it all.
World’s Largest Solar Plant Sets Itself on Fire
Yeah, same plant.
On the North River 
I was looking at some of the old posts about this site, how fragile the ecology was and the many rare plants and animals (and lizards and snakes) that were destroyed.
I wonder how many centuries it will take for the land to recover. Might be interesting to go back a decade after the shutdown and take some photographs.
LikeLike