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Google-Backed Solar Plant Catches on Fire (pv-tech.org)
An anonymous reader writes:"The world's largest solar plant just torched itself," read the headline at Gizmodo, reporting on a fire Thursday at the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System. Built on 4,000 acres of public land in the Mojave Desert, the $2.2 billion plant "has nearly 350,000 computer controlled mirrors -- each roughly the size of a garage door," according to the Associated Press, which reports that misaligned mirrors focused the sunlight on electrical cables, causing them to burst into flames, according to the local fire department. The facility was temporarily shut down, and the fire damaged one of the facility's three towers, according to the Associated Press, while another tower is closed for maintenance, "leaving the sprawling facility on the California-Nevada border operating at only a third of its capacity."
The New York Times reported that by 2011 Google had invested $168 in the facility.
The New York Times reported that by 2011 Google had invested $168 in the facility.
Gee, I wonder why... He submits any story about any accident at a nuclear plant, no matter how minor. But when there's a problem with a solar plant, he's nowhere to be found. Typical.
If we regulated it as heavily as nuclear it would be a 6 month shutdown and line by line review of the code.
No sir I dont like it.
Hits closer to home when the misalignment blinds pilots.
Nuclear plants, when running normally, do not kill 28,000 birds a year.
In fact most nuclear plants will never have an accident at all, much less one that harms the environment.
Meanwhile these solar reflection arrays BY DESIGN will kill tens of thousands of birds a year if they are operating "properly".
The tower setting itself on fire was, to anthropomorphize the situation, an act of suicide over the guilt build up. The tower just could not take it anymore. Strange that a tower should care more for the environment than you.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
For centuries unscrupulous businessmen and employees have used the cover of a "devastating fire" for to cover up failures of owners/managers and to mask theft by the employees.
The Ivanpah solar plant was backed not just by Google's ($168 million), but by Obama's Department of Energy ($1600 million — strangely omitted from the write-up) as well. And it proved to be a major failure long ago. Just two months ago it was reported on the very edge of closing down for not producing enough energy:
And what it did produce, cost $200 per megawatt hour — nearly six times the cost of electricity from natural gas-fired power plants. Worse! It actually used the evil natural gas to supplement the solar-cells' output... (Remember this the next time someone tells you, how we could "power the planet" with only a fraction of the land covered by solar cells — if only the evil oil/nuclear/whatever weren't sabotaging the efforts.)
This fire may really have been an accident. But a suspicion, that it was deliberate is certainly no less credible, than the FUD-spreading accusation, some German nuclear plant deliberately released nuclear waste in the air 30 years ago.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
I know the difference very well, thank you. At best, the US would've been left with nothing. At worst, we were $1.6bln short. And we never stood a chance at making profit.
BTW, this "worst" has happened long before this fire. In March the plant was already reported on the verge of closing — and asking for a federal grant (not even a loan!) of $539 million (that's three times Google's investment!) to help them pay off earlier debts.
Your gasping at straws is pathetic...
Maintaining capable military is a responsibility explicitly given to the federal government by the US Constitution. We may be (are!) spending too much, but there is nothing wrong with such spending in principle.
Another no-brainer. Because that would hurt the labor unions — part of the electorate solidly in bed with the party in power. Your attempts to switch subject are just as pathetic.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
1) This is a non-event, about on par with the non-events in nuclear power that mdsolar regularly submits (which for some baffling reason gets approved). The reflected sunlight set a few wire bundles on fire, and the fire damaged some piping. That's it. Ars Technica has about the only non-dramatized coverage of it I've read. I suppose you could view the hype as counterbalancing mdsolar's anti-nuclear hype, but I'd just rather not have hype of any kind on /.
2) The danger of solar comes mostly during installation and maintenance. Working on the roof (where most PV panels are installed) is the most dangerous construction job out there. And the always-generating nature of PV panels makes them an electrocution hazard. Not really an issue here since Ivanpah is a solar thermal plant.
3) After fuels that you burn and Banqiao, solar is the most dangerous energy source once you normalize for amount of electricity generated. About 10x deadlier than nuclear power,
Government is uniquely positioned to take longer term bets that the corporate world will not take. They can take the longer term view as the US will still be around in decades, while the average corporation will look at things quarter by quarter, and where the max horizon is 3 years out.
And yes, by taking a longer term view they will quite regularly waste money. But, if you think R&D is expensive, try ignorance. We now know much better how to (not) run a solar plant. Live and Learn. Directly harvesting solar energy is a long-term inevitability, and arguing that the big bad gubmint has no reason to involve itself in the development of the capability is quite short-sighted.
Sometimes someone writes something so moronic, you just have to point and laugh...HaHa...Points at rahvin112.
I hope you co-sign car loans for all you no-job having associates and drinking buddies. See how that works out for you.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
It's not AmiMoJo. If it was she'd by harping on about how this would never happen in Japan, or how it's a white man's fault.
FFS you people are absolutely dense. Like I try to give you patience but you free market losers clearly have never read "The Wealth of Nations". You've never actually done anything in the real world, and are mired in what you can't do. So the world's largest solar plant had a major malfunction and it's still 2/3 capable(maintenance aside) and there was no pollution, the area is still habitable(as much as it was beforehand) and there isn't an environmental disaster in the trillions of dollars to clean up. If this isn't a win, then you people really aren't focused on reality and your opinion is entirely without merit. As for the loan guarantee, this is freaking Google. You know what else has guarantees? Corporate pensions. That pesky private market you love to worship at the altar for. They broke contracts, and routinely do. They abuse market privilege, they lie without any penalty, and let's face it you usually can't go elsewhere to "punish them" with your dollars because there's nowhere else to go because you and your ilk have gutted any authority of oversight, but hey you kept all that intrusion into the home, and your guns. So...why don't you and Ya'll Queda go have your happy little Galtian fantasy in a place that doesn't damage the functioning of the adults in the room.