Apparently arivanov is referring to the "Centrale Solaire Thémis" near Targasonne near the Llívia enclave at the Spanish border in the central Pyrenées, app. 190 miles ( 300 km.) WSW of Marseille.... OK, I suppose you're American, so don't bother.
The plant you are referring to is west of Sevilla in Andalucía in Southern Spain, is situated on the Plataforma Solar de Sanlúcar la Mayor, it is a solar thermal (concentrating solar power, CSP) plant, sized 11,02 MW, and a SECOND one, 20 MW will be built on the same premises (as well as a range of different thermal solar power stations up to a total of 302 MW, in different locations). The Sevilla plant has been subsidized by the European Committee (5 million Euro's). Like ALL energy technologies are subsidized, either with state incentives for building power plants, or by putting incentives on the output (kWh fixed feed-in tariffs, the best way to make sustainable energy fly, like in Germany, which appears to be lying on another planet with its booming solar and wind energy businesses). OR by NOT including the huge environmental (and social) damages in the energy prices, such is being put into practice for decades for most of the fossil or nuclear options. I'm not considering the illegal, state-supported funding of nuclear power plants, such as Olkiluoto in Finland, off-course.
Electricity "at nearly normal costs" is relative. What is "normal"??? Electricity is being squandered massively, not only in the States, also in Europe. In my country, the Netherlands, consumer price is still an extremely "bearable" 21 eurocents/kWh. Solar electricity from photovoltaic sources by the best producers (e.g., vertically integrated concerns having the whole chain from silicium to solar parc building in one hand) is already being realized for 25 $ct/kWh, and your own Michael Rogol already has predicted, based on years of research and inside info from the top-notches in the solar industry, that in 2010 (that's in three years time, ladies and gentleman...), solar electricity can be PRODUCED (not sold!) for a very attractive 10 eurocents/kWh in Spain, 15 eurocents/kWh in Bavaria (south of Germany, where solar is booming like nowhere else), and 11 eurocents/kWh in south California...
It's not only a question of maths. It's moreover a question of political will, like Hermann Scheer, German politician and one of the central figures in the sustainable energy revolution in my neigbouring country, has repeatedly said. With political will in the highest gear, so many nice things can happen. 2,3 Gigawatts are already in place in Germany, only solar-PV, more than 300.000 systems, most of them in private hands and on civilian roofs. 45.000 jobs in solar energy alone (200.000 in the whole sustainable energy sector). It IS possible, in Germany it is REALITY.
Nope, not by far. Energy payback time has been established by several European research institutes to be in the order of 4 to 5 years, depending on what locality you are considering the solar power plant to be located (northern or southern Europe). There have been MASSIVE improvements in technology, and going on like nuts. Solar power is one of the most innovative industries nowadays, and it is moving faster than market analyists can comprehend. Germany alone has already 200.000 solar power plants, and those are not sissies with a few solar panels per system. Often on private roofs several kWp, industrial installations are frequently in the MWp range. The first thin-film installations have been commercially applied, and growth in Germany and Spain is 50% per year...
Well, I will admit that 1.6 MWp IS a considerable amount of nominal power, but it is not huge. It is "only" 1.600 times my own small installation of 1.02 kWp (10 solar panels). And in Germany the biggest sofar is Erlasee near Arnstein in northern Bavaria, 12 MWp, with beautiful Solon Mover tracker stations.
In Portugal the long-planned 62 MWp "Girassol" solar power plant near Moura is starting to become reality with strong financial backing.
Solar power for everyone, we are just at the very beginning of a lot of beautiful things...
Slashdot Mirror
Apparently arivanov is referring to the "Centrale Solaire Thémis" near Targasonne near the Llívia enclave at the Spanish border in the central Pyrenées, app. 190 miles ( 300 km.) WSW of Marseille.... OK, I suppose you're American, so don't bother.
The plant you are referring to is west of Sevilla in Andalucía in Southern Spain, is situated on the Plataforma Solar de Sanlúcar la Mayor, it is a solar thermal (concentrating solar power, CSP) plant, sized 11,02 MW, and a SECOND one, 20 MW will be built on the same premises (as well as a range of different thermal solar power stations up to a total of 302 MW, in different locations). The Sevilla plant has been subsidized by the European Committee (5 million Euro's). Like ALL energy technologies are subsidized, either with state incentives for building power plants, or by putting incentives on the output (kWh fixed feed-in tariffs, the best way to make sustainable energy fly, like in Germany, which appears to be lying on another planet with its booming solar and wind energy businesses). OR by NOT including the huge environmental (and social) damages in the energy prices, such is being put into practice for decades for most of the fossil or nuclear options. I'm not considering the illegal, state-supported funding of nuclear power plants, such as Olkiluoto in Finland, off-course.
Electricity "at nearly normal costs" is relative. What is "normal"??? Electricity is being squandered massively, not only in the States, also in Europe. In my country, the Netherlands, consumer price is still an extremely "bearable" 21 eurocents/kWh. Solar electricity from photovoltaic sources by the best producers (e.g., vertically integrated concerns having the whole chain from silicium to solar parc building in one hand) is already being realized for 25 $ct/kWh, and your own Michael Rogol already has predicted, based on years of research and inside info from the top-notches in the solar industry, that in 2010 (that's in three years time, ladies and gentleman...), solar electricity can be PRODUCED (not sold!) for a very attractive 10 eurocents/kWh in Spain, 15 eurocents/kWh in Bavaria (south of Germany, where solar is booming like nowhere else), and 11 eurocents/kWh in south California...
http://www.photon-consulting.com/studie_the_true_c ost_2007_executive_summary.htm (english)
http://www.photon.de/presse/mitteilungen/Hintergru nd_TrueCost.pdf (german, more extensive, with graphs)
It's not only a question of maths. It's moreover a question of political will, like Hermann Scheer, German politician and one of the central figures in the sustainable energy revolution in my neigbouring country, has repeatedly said. With political will in the highest gear, so many nice things can happen. 2,3 Gigawatts are already in place in Germany, only solar-PV, more than 300.000 systems, most of them in private hands and on civilian roofs. 45.000 jobs in solar energy alone (200.000 in the whole sustainable energy sector). It IS possible, in Germany it is REALITY.
Nope, not by far. Energy payback time has been established by several European research institutes to be in the order of 4 to 5 years, depending on what locality you are considering the solar power plant to be located (northern or southern Europe). There have been MASSIVE improvements in technology, and going on like nuts. Solar power is one of the most innovative industries nowadays, and it is moving faster than market analyists can comprehend. Germany alone has already 200.000 solar power plants, and those are not sissies with a few solar panels per system. Often on private roofs several kWp, industrial installations are frequently in the MWp range. The first thin-film installations have been commercially applied, and growth in Germany and Spain is 50% per year...
Well, I will admit that 1.6 MWp IS a considerable amount of nominal power, but it is not huge. It is "only" 1.600 times my own small installation of 1.02 kWp (10 solar panels). And in Germany the biggest sofar is Erlasee near Arnstein in northern Bavaria, 12 MWp, with beautiful Solon Mover tracker stations. In Portugal the long-planned 62 MWp "Girassol" solar power plant near Moura is starting to become reality with strong financial backing. Solar power for everyone, we are just at the very beginning of a lot of beautiful things...