Slashdot Mirror
India To Build World's Largest Solar Plant
ananyo writes "India has pledged to build the world's most powerful solar plant. With a nominal capacity of 4,000 megawatts, comparable to that of four full-size nuclear reactors, the 'ultra mega' project will be more than ten times larger than any other solar project built so far, and it will spread over 77 square kilometres of land — greater than the island of Manhattan. Six state-owned companies have formed a joint venture to execute the project, which they say can be completed in seven years at a projected cost of US$4.4 billion. The proposed location is near Sambhar Salt Lake in the northern state of Rajasthan."
and the sun is blazing in your land
Compared to nuclear, there's no radioactive waste to dispose of, there's no nuclear proliferation worries and there's no lengthy and costly decommissioning process.
There's also no risk of Fukushima/Chernobyl/Long Island/etc
Projected Nuclear Power Plant Construction Costs Are Soaring
The construction cost estimates for new nuclear power plants are very uncertain and have increased significantly in recent years. Companies that are planning new nuclear units are currently indicating that the total costs (including escalation and financing costs) will be in the range of $5,500/kW to $8,100/kW or between $6 billion and $9 billion for each 1,100MW plant.
http://www.synapse-energy.com/...
First of all: It will generate less energy than that. Averaged over the year about 800MW. The amount of energy it will generate between 6pm and 6am is roughly zilch. During the short time around noon, when it will generate on the order of 3+GW (depending on weather, season, condition of the solar cells etc.), there will be no industry capable of actually using it, because 2-4 hours of electricity a day is simply not worth the investment. (Before and after this time, the power drops off quickly.) Even 8 hours would be too short, because you'll need 2 or 3 factories working in parallel for 8 hours a day to produce as much as a single factory can in 16 or 24 hours.
Finally wrap your head around the fact that quality of service cannot be compared by using peak power generation.
P.S.: Yes, noon is just the right time to get your air conditioning started, but unfortunately, when it comes to India the question is mostly: What air-conditioning are you talking about?
Aravali hills have Rajasthan on on Levard side, not even much rain there even during monsoons
spider web that got caught in a hurricane.
No kidding.
Have gnu, will travel.
Rajastan is the Arizona of India with its Thar desert
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Plenty of sunshine. Not cloudy at all. Not enough power infrastructure. Cheap, non-arable land.
Solar is a no-brainer for Rajastan.
This generation can be used to offset the additional load of air conditioners - it is not going to be the only power source. Considering that air conditioners use the most power when it is sunny, it actually works out all right.
Pakistan and India had equal opportunities to develop after partition. They both took different directions.
Now one has its flag on the moon and the other has a moon on its flag.