Sunny Thoughts?

Someone must think it will work:

127 MW Solar Power Plant Opened in Arizona | CleanTechnica

I would hate to be dependent on an energy source that a good hailstorm could take down.....or a cloudy day....or a gang of prepubescent hellions with BB guns....not to mention there's no warning sign for birds passing by....

Not to mention night time.

But in the desert, in summertime, AC units run all day.

Unlike by the beach where you live.

OK Lyn - I have to interject an opinion here. Everyone in the power industry knows when peak power is in arid places and in West Texas. For us here, peak is not at night. Like any other "renewable", you must back it up with spinning reserves/energy storage. No one as yet as a strong candidate for very large scale energy storage from wind/solar, although there are some front runners. In the meantime, spinning reserves are the answer. Some new turbine designs are out there (see RamGen for example) that could totally revolutionize dispatching of spinning reserves. I totally agree with all the other comments, that huge obstacles remain with respect to insuring losses of high capital cost solar projects, especially where severe weather is a known factor. The "all of the above" approach is not inherently bad, but it has to be balanced with highly reliable, dispatchable power that can pick up the "slack". Here, we are considering (1) solar PV (concentrated??), solar thermal, (2) re-powering existing generating cycles to minimize or eliminate water consumption (primarily from wet open cooling systems), (3) wind farms on publically owned lands nearby, and (4) waste burning generators, and (5) highly efficient new fleet of gas turbines natural gas fired with fast dispatch simple cycle in beginning phase of operation, with possible conversion to combined cycle later.

"not to mention there's no warning sign for birds passing by…"

Why? What will the birds do to you as they pass by? :-)

There have been at least 3 of these power plants in the past 35 years. If they were such a good idea, they would be common place. Heat exchanger failure from hot spots is a big problem, then getting the extreme compact energy collected to a heat engine (Stirling had been attempted a few years ago by Sandia National Labs).

I do recall a seminar back 35 years ago, where a speaker said they used moon light to calibrate the mirrors so they could even out the energy, as each mirror has a non linear reflection quality (concavity and convexity) as they are not super quality, nor can you overcome the gravity effects of their shape, and it changes as they track the sun.

Personally, too much clap trap for me. But it is "free" energy.

Personally I think the 2.3 billion dollars should have been spent on a desalination plant, as they are running out of water there in Calif....

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/15/us/politics/obama-to-announce-aid-for-drought-racked-california.html?_r=0

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140213-california-drought-record-agriculture-pdo-climate/

update;

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/parched-california-pours-mega-millions-desalination-tech-n28066

Yes, but........................the $1 billion facility will produce enough water to meet the daily needs of 300,000 area residents, which is about 7 percent of the county's water requirements.

From: Carlsbad Desalination Project

And the company in this link has already mastered the concept of "free" energy being used to desalinate water - I have spoken with the CEO and the Engineer of this company, and these guys know what they are doing, and are combining ideas and technologies in a unique way. They also mine the seawater and produce net energy.

http://www.gsetech.com/

I just cant wrap my mind around a "solution" that only works part of the time and then only under ideal conditions.

I think the money would have been better spent working on the nuclear waste storage/ elimination issue or as SE mention they are almost out of water and they want to tap the great lakes and pipe it to California? Seriously?

Just thought it was interesting that we are still moving these sorts of projects forward even though we alreasdy know they are of limited value. I just wonder how much of this sort of thing is done just because someone wants to prove they can.

Completely the wrong approach to a good idea.

Bad approach: Take a low-grade power source (sun) and try to concentrate it into a high-grade power source, then distribute that power over many miles of transmission line to the many energy consumers.

Better Approach: Push out low-grade power collection directly to the consumer and heat the domestic hot water on stunningly simple flat-plate collectors on the roof of the abode, circulator pump, and storage tank. In very cold areas, closed loop systems will be required to prevent freezing in the collectors adding a small amount of complexity (BOM cost). Obviously, some very northern areas or places receiving little sunshine (deep valleys or general weather conditions) will have to do something else.

Photovoltaic systems are much more expensive to install and can cause some unintended grid stability issues as the systems feed power back into the grid where net metering is allowed. Heating domestic hot water only serves to lessen the load on favorable days and does not introduce unpredictable fluctuations in power availability.

Why is it that people want to see huge, complex solutions to very simple problems? We really need to get away from the concept of using a bunch of energetic electrons to simply heat our bath water. We are better served by using those electrons for other uses. Del has several postings on his efforts in this regard.

http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/4969

Cheers !

BSR

P.S. I know the answer to my rhetorical question is in large part, because solar hot water panels are not 'sexy' enough, nor do they require huge taxpayer 'investment' and do not provide lots of work to a 'select few' who might have contributed huge sums to certain election campaigns.

I am just waiting for us to build a Dyson Sphere and be done with the whole energy problem.