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Creeping Lava Now Threatens Major Hawaiian Power Plant (gizmodo.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: Molten lava from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano has entered the grounds of Puna Geothermal Venture, a geothermal power plant that provides about 25 percent of the Big Island's power. The 38 Megawatt Puna Geothermal Venture (PGV) power plant, which is located in the east rift zone of the Kilauea volcano, was shut down soon after the eruptions began on May 3. Yesterday, lava from Fissure 22 came to within 820 feet (250 meters) of the plant's nearest well pad before stalling, as Reuters reports. Overnight, workers managed to cap the 11th and final well at the facility in anticipation of the lava eventually reaching the facility, and to prevent the uncontrollable release of toxic gases. Mercifully, the lava flow stopped at a ridge near the PGV plant, but as the events of the past two weeks have shown, Mount Kilauea is in an extremely volatile state. The HCCD said Fissure 22 is producing most of the lava feeding the flows, so the situation near the power plant remains precarious.
Geothermal power always has the liability that it sits on geologically active ground. Sure the lava will go some other direction most of the time, but the law of averages says it's always going to be a risk.
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
I'm just glad it's not a puppy preserve! Imagine cute little puppies running around yelping as they burn to death. Ugh. We really lucked out this time.
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Geothermal has a capacity factor of about 0.7. So the 38 MW the plant is rated for generates on average (38MW)*(0.7) = 26.6 MW.
Solar at Hawaii's location (96704 zip code) has a capacity factor of about 0.124 (this takes into account night, seasons, movement of the sun, weather, maintenance, etc). So generating 26.6 MW would require (26.6 MW)/(0.124) = 215 MW of installed nameplate capacity. That would make it the 18th largest PV solar plant in the U.S.
Assuming you're using commerical 180 W/m^2 panels, this would mean 1.195 million m^2 of solar panels, or 1.195 km^2 of panels alone. Or 67 Panamax-size container ships ( 66 meters x 49 meters) completely covered on PV panels to replace this single geothermal plant.
If you allow space to account for maintenance and tilt to the angle of the sun, the PV solar plants in this capacity range seem to cover about 5-10 km^2. So now you're talking about 280-560 Panamax-sized ships with solar panels on them to replace this single geothermal plant.
Or put another way, a single Panamax-sized ship with every upward-facing surface covered in solar panels would only generate (366 meters)*(49 meters)*(180 W/m^2)*(0.124) = 400287 Watts = 0.4 MW on average at this location. The average U.S. home uses 10,766 kWh per year, or an average of (10766 kWh) / (1 year) = 1481 Watts. So your one ship would be enough to power about 270 homes. There are already 10,000 people evacuated, which if you assume 4 per home is 2500 homes.
People *vastly* overestimate the power density of solar. Mobile solar is stupid unless you can drastically reduce your power consumption. Effective use of solar requires large areas of cheap land.
Um, Why hasn't a concerted effort been made to build a berm uphill from the power plant to divert the lava?
Soon after the eruption started, there was an article that discussed this and the answer is probably that it wouldn't do any good. Lava is more like a wall of rock coming at you than a wave of water. It will push through or over most anything in its way. The amount of work needed to build a berm that would have a suitable enough chance to divert the lava flow is probably not possible in the time given or worth the effort needed.
Much useful information in this article at Hawaii Civil Beat: http://www.civilbeat.org/2018/...
Short quote (there's a lot more at the link):
Solar at Hawaii's location (96704 zip code) has a capacity factor of about 0.124
Different areas of Hawaii have dramatically different capacity factors. Some of the cloudiest and wettest places on earth are just over a mountain range from some of the clearest and driest. Just on the Big Island, Hilo has rain almost every day, while just 20 miles away is the Pohakuloa Plateau, in the rain shadow of Mauna Kea, which is arid desert.
Solar at Hawaii's location [nrel.gov] (96704 zip code) has a capacity factor of about 0.124 (this takes into account night, seasons, movement of the sun, weather, maintenance, etc).
Of course, when you intentionally pick one of the worst places on the island, naturally you get such a mediocre result.
Ezekiel 23:20