Building The World's Largest Thermal Solar Plant

[Kingfish]

Getting Reflective: Miles of Mirrors Power Thousands of Homes

link to full image

The bright lights seen above are hundreds of thousands of computer controlled mirrors focusing Mojave Desert sunlight onto boilers on top of three 459-foot towers. The focused solar energy heats up water to produce steam that powers turbines providing power to California homes.

The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, sprawling across roughly 5 square miles near the Nevada-California border, formally opened last week after years of regulatory and legal tangles.

The $2.2 billion complex of three generating units, owned by NRG Energy Inc., Google Inc. and BrightSource Energy, can produce nearly 400 megawatts, enough power for 140,000 homes.

Let's hope for success, KF

 

[Kingfish]

Emerging solar plants scorch birds in mid-air

IVANPAH DRY LAKE, Calif. —
Workers at a state-of-the-art solar plant in the Mojave Desert have a name for birds that fly through the plant's concentrated sun rays -- "streamers," for the smoke plume that comes from birds that ignite in midair.

Federal wildlife investigators who visited the BrightSource Energy plant last year and watched as birds burned and fell, reporting an average of one "streamer" every two minutes, are urging California officials to halt the operator's application to build a still-bigger version.

The investigators want the halt until the full extent of the deaths can be assessed. Estimates per year now range from a low of about a thousand by BrightSource to 28,000 by an expert for the Center for Biological Diversity environmental group.

The deaths are "alarming. It's hard to say whether that's the location or the technology," said Garry George, renewable-energy director for the California chapter of the Audubon Society. "There needs to be some caution."

The bird kills mark the latest instance in which the quest for clean energy sometimes has inadvertent environmental harm. Solar farms have been criticized for their impacts on desert tortoises, and wind farms have killed birds, including numerous raptors.

"We take this issue very seriously," said Jeff Holland, a spokesman for NRG Solar of Carlsbad, California, the second of the three companies behind the plant. The third, Google, deferred comment to its partners.

The $2.2 billion plant, which launched in February, is at Ivanpah Dry Lake near the California-Nevada border. The operator says it is the world's biggest plant to employ so-called power towers.

More than 300,000 mirrors, each the size of a garage door, reflect solar rays onto three boiler towers each looming up to 40 stories high. The water inside is heated to produce steam, which turns turbines that generate enough electricity for 140,000 homes.

Sun rays sent up by the field of mirrors are bright enough to dazzle pilots flying in and out of Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

Federal wildlife officials said Ivanpah might act as a "mega-trap" for wildlife, with the bright light of the plant attracting insects, which in turn attract insect-eating birds that fly to their death in the intensely focused light rays.

Federal and state biologists call the number of deaths significant, based on sightings of birds getting singed and falling, and on retrieval of carcasses with feathers charred too severely for flight.

Ivanpah officials dispute the source of the so-called streamers, saying at least some of the puffs of smoke mark insects and bits of airborne trash being ignited by the solar rays.

Wildlife officials who witnessed the phenomena say many of the clouds of smoke were too big to come from anything but a bird, and they add that they saw "birds entering the solar flux and igniting, consequently become a streamer."

U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials say they want a death toll for a full year of operation.

Given the apparent scale of bird deaths at Ivanpah, authorities should thoroughly track bird kills there for a year, including during annual migratory seasons, before granting any more permits for that kind of solar technology, said George, of the Audubon Society.

The toll on birds has been surprising, said Robert Weisenmiller, chairman of the California Energy Commission. "We didn't see a lot of impact" on birds at the first, smaller power towers in the U.S. and Europe, Weisenmiller said.

The commission is now considering the application from Oakland-based BrightSource to build a mirror field and a 75-story power tower that would reach above the sand dunes and creek washes between Joshua Tree National Park and the California-Arizona border.

The proposed plant is on a flight path for birds between the Colorado River and California's largest lake, the Salton Sea -- an area, experts say, is richer in avian life than the Ivanpah plant, with protected golden eagles and peregrine falcons and more than 100 other species of birds recorded there.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials warned California this month that the power-tower style of solar technology holds "the highest lethality potential" of the many solar projects burgeoning in the deserts of California.

The commission's staff estimates the proposed new tower would be almost four times as dangerous to birds as the Ivanpah plant. The agency is expected to decide this autumn on the proposal.

While biologists say there is no known feasible way to curb the number of birds killed, the companies behind the projects say they are hoping to find one -- studying whether lights, sounds or some other technology would scare them away, said Joseph Desmond, senior vice president at BrightSource Energy.

BrightSource also is offering $1.8 million in compensation for anticipated bird deaths at Palen, Desmond said.

The company is proposing the money for programs such as those to spay and neuter domestic cats, which a government study found kill over 1.4 billion birds a year. Opponents say that would do nothing to help the desert birds at the proposed site.

Power-tower proponents are fighting to keep the deaths from forcing a pause in the building of new plants when they see the technology on the verge of becoming more affordable and accessible, said Thomas Conroy, a renewable-energy expert.

When it comes to powering the country's grids, "diversity of technology ... is critical," Conroy said. "Nobody should be arguing let's be all coal, all solar," all wind, or all nuclear. "And every one of those technologies has a long list of pros and cons."

Unfortunately there are no easy solutions. You'd think they could put the new proposed plant in a better spot.
Steamed, KF

 

[Punx0r]

That's an unexpected side-effect.

I think the birds will learn eventually...

 

[Dauntless]

What exactly is burning them? Is this the reflected glare? They don't feel the heat until it's too late to turn off?

 

[mattrb]

That's an unexpected side-effect.

I think the birds will learn eventually...

Genetic mutations that know what a solar plant is? Doubt it.

 

[MitchJi]

Hi,

When it comes to powering the country's grids, "diversity of technology ... is critical," Conroy said. "Nobody should be arguing let's be all coal, all solar," all wind, or all nuclear. "And every one of those technologies has a long list of pros and cons."

Coal and Nuclear do not have long lists of "pros"!

Environmentalists are NOT the problem here.

I would like to get the contract for tortoise removal. I could do it for $50k per tortoise and save taxpayers a substantial amount of money !

 

[Punx0r]

What exactly is burning them? Is this the reflected glare? They don't feel the heat until it's too late to turn off?

Those 300,000 mirrors are focused on the tops of the towers. Anything entering the path between said mirrors and towers is in for an unexpected amount of sunshine.

I think the birds will learn eventually...

Genetic mutations that know what a solar plant is? Doubt it.

Birds are surprisingly intelligent and I think it won't take too long before enough of them have witnessed their comrades being vaporised for going near the big shiny thing "over there". Once enough stay away the herd/flock mentality should keep them all away.

When it comes to powering the country's grids, "diversity of technology ... is critical," Conroy said. "Nobody should be arguing let's be all coal, all solar," all wind, or all nuclear. "And every one of those technologies has a long list of pros and cons."

Coal and Nuclear do not have long lists of "pros"!

Environmentalists are NOT the problem here.

Well, coal and nuclear certainly do have their advantages. Nuclear in particular has some great environmental advantages when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions. Anyway, the chap is right, you do need diversity: solar plants aren't particularly effective at night.

 

[zombiess]

It's sad we don't see more research into Thorium reactors, they already made one that worked in the 60's.

I like solar, but people really need to stop being so afraid of the N word.

 

[e-beach]

http://www.csmonitor.com/Environmen...a-solar-power-plant-scorches-birds-in-mid-air



Snip.....

'Streamers': California solar power plant scorches birds in mid-air.

Ivanpah Dry Lake, Calif. — Workers at a state-of-the-art solar plant in the Mojave Desert have a name for birds that fly through the plant's concentrated sun rays — "streamers," for the smoke plume that comes from birds that ignite in midair

Federal wildlife investigators who visited the BrightSource Energy plant last year and watched as birds burned and fell, reporting an average of one "streamer" every two minutes, are urging California officials to halt the operator's application to build a still-bigger version.

The investigators want the halt until the full extent of the deaths can be assessed. Estimates per year now range from a low of about a thousand by BrightSource to 28,000 by an expert for the Center for Biological Diversity environmental group.

....snip

 

[MitchJi]

Hi,

http://cleantechnica.com/2014/08/22/bird-deaths-solar-plant-exaggerated-media-sources/

Bird Deaths From Solar Plant Exaggerated By Some Media Sources

August 22nd, 2014 by Jake Richardson

There seems to be some hysteria online about bird deaths associated with the Ivanpah solar project in California. For example, this news article calls the solar power plant a “death ray“ as if it is a weapon. The same article says that hundreds of thousands of birds might be dying, or 28,000 or 1,000. That is a very wide range, and at least suggests that no one may have precise numbers. So is the total 100,000 or 1,000? Brightsource says the number is much lower than 1,000.


What do these numbers mean compared to other sources of bird deaths? Power lines alone might kill up to 175 million birds a year, according to a US Fish and Wildlife Service document. Up to 3.7 billion are killed by cats.

Also, the authors of the sensational articles don’t provide information on the hazards of fossil fuels to wildlife to balance their content. More than one million birds died due to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, according to the Audubon Society. The oil industry contributes far more to bird deaths each year than this one solar power plant, so why did the authors not mention this fact? “Every year an estimated 500,000 to 1 million birds are killed in oilfield production skim pits, reserve pits, and in oilfield wastewater disposal facilities,” explained a document from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Up to 402,000 birds have died due to oil development in Canada’s tar sands.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority has said that coal and other fossil fuels are a greater risk to wildlife:

Based on the comparative amounts of SO2, NOx, CO2, and mercury emissions generated from coal, oil, natural gas, and hydro and the associated effects of acidic deposition, climate change, and mercury bioaccumulation, coal as an electricity generation source is by far the largest contributor to risks to wildlife found in the NY/NE region.

14,000 chickens are slaughtered each minute in the US, according to the Organic Consumers Association. Are we supposed to be believe that the authors of the articles about ‘incinerated’ birds from the solar plant are animal rights activists and perhaps vegans that care about all birds, including chickens and turkey?

In the article first mentioned above, somehow, the so called ‘death ray’ then morphs into many CSP towers that could cause catastrophes, “With enough towers, a ‘mega-trap’ that decimates ecosystems might be created.” What exactly is a “mega-trap?” How many CSP towers would have to be built for such a thing to ever happen? Is it even possible? It sounds more like science fiction than fact.

Also, just how many CSP towers are there in the US? It sounds as if there may only be about several, and other forms of CSP are hardly booming. In fact, Greentechmedia reported in 2012, that no CSP projects were completed in the US. So, no mass CSP power towers getting out of control, and no ecosystem decimation seems likely.

Also, are the Ivanpah birds rare or endangered, or are they more common and in great supply?

No one wants any birds at Ivanpah to die, but at this point, it does seem to be a fairly minor issue. Are we supposed to believe that some of the authors of these articles are great bird lovers defending wildlife based on sound evidence and effective reasoning? Or is their motive simply creating clickbait articles to get pageviews or bashing solar power?

First it was criticizing wind power for bird deaths, which was and is a legitimate concern. However, some critics were clearly exaggerating the impact to smear that form of clean energy. Seems like its happening again, but with solar this time.

 

[e-beach]

......No one wants any birds at Ivanpah to die, but at this point, it does seem to be a fairly minor issue. ......

Well....unless you are the bird.

 

[swbluto]

Hi,

http://cleantechnica.com/2014/08/22/bird-deaths-solar-plant-exaggerated-media-sources/

Bird Deaths From Solar Plant Exaggerated By Some Media Sources

August 22nd, 2014 by Jake Richardson

There seems to be some hysteria online about bird deaths associated with the Ivanpah solar project in California. For example, this news article calls the solar power plant a “death ray“ as if it is a weapon. The same article says that hundreds of thousands of birds might be dying, or 28,000 or 1,000. That is a very wide range, and at least suggests that no one may have precise numbers. So is the total 100,000 or 1,000? Brightsource says the number is much lower than 1,000.


What do these numbers mean compared to other sources of bird deaths? Power lines alone might kill up to 175 million birds a year, according to a US Fish and Wildlife Service document. Up to 3.7 billion are killed by cats.

Also, the authors of the sensational articles don’t provide information on the hazards of fossil fuels to wildlife to balance their content. More than one million birds died due to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, according to the Audubon Society. The oil industry contributes far more to bird deaths each year than this one solar power plant, so why did the authors not mention this fact? “Every year an estimated 500,000 to 1 million birds are killed in oilfield production skim pits, reserve pits, and in oilfield wastewater disposal facilities,” explained a document from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Up to 402,000 birds have died due to oil development in Canada’s tar sands.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority has said that coal and other fossil fuels are a greater risk to wildlife:

Based on the comparative amounts of SO2, NOx, CO2, and mercury emissions generated from coal, oil, natural gas, and hydro and the associated effects of acidic deposition, climate change, and mercury bioaccumulation, coal as an electricity generation source is by far the largest contributor to risks to wildlife found in the NY/NE region.

14,000 chickens are slaughtered each minute in the US, according to the Organic Consumers Association. Are we supposed to be believe that the authors of the articles about ‘incinerated’ birds from the solar plant are animal rights activists and perhaps vegans that care about all birds, including chickens and turkey?

In the article first mentioned above, somehow, the so called ‘death ray’ then morphs into many CSP towers that could cause catastrophes, “With enough towers, a ‘mega-trap’ that decimates ecosystems might be created.” What exactly is a “mega-trap?” How many CSP towers would have to be built for such a thing to ever happen? Is it even possible? It sounds more like science fiction than fact.

Also, just how many CSP towers are there in the US? It sounds as if there may only be about several, and other forms of CSP are hardly booming. In fact, Greentechmedia reported in 2012, that no CSP projects were completed in the US. So, no mass CSP power towers getting out of control, and no ecosystem decimation seems likely.

Also, are the Ivanpah birds rare or endangered, or are they more common and in great supply?

No one wants any birds at Ivanpah to die, but at this point, it does seem to be a fairly minor issue. Are we supposed to believe that some of the authors of these articles are great bird lovers defending wildlife based on sound evidence and effective reasoning? Or is their motive simply creating clickbait articles to get pageviews or bashing solar power?

First it was criticizing wind power for bird deaths, which was and is a legitimate concern. However, some critics were clearly exaggerating the impact to smear that form of clean energy. Seems like its happening again, but with solar this time.

And, if we consider all the millions of human deaths caused by the coal plants in the world with the environmental pollution that comes with it, I think a few dead desert birds is a fair trade off. (Coal plants release methylmercury into the atmosphere, which poisons the oceans with mercury, and that's why there's mercury poisoning risks with eating fish, risks that didn't exist 200 years ago. And all the other chemicals it releases increases cardiovascular, lung-related and cancer related deaths in industrialiazed nations that use coal.)

 

[Arlo1]

I was riding my Zero electric motorcycle home and wondering how much cancer we would have if we did not burn fuel for power and transportation. I mean the Carcinogens from the tail pipe alone must be a big contributor in todays cancerous society.

 

[swbluto]

I was riding my Zero electric motorcycle home and wondering how much cancer we would have if we did not burn fuel for power and transportation. I mean the Carcinogens from the tail pipe alone must be a big contributor in todays cancerous society.

Probably is. It seems like tribal societies have cancer rates like 4 out of 100,000 per annum while America and other industrialized nations have something like 130 out of 100,000 per annum. I'm guessing tail pipe emissions are probably a large part of it with the nitrous oxides, sulfites and the such. I'd imagine that agriculture and diet probably has much to do with it, too.

 

[Punx0r]

Comparisons like that require compensation for normal life-expectancy. Cancer is a disease largely associated with old age - you don't get many people die of if most of your tribe dies from influenza or being eaten by a lion at 40.

 

[MitchJi]

Hi,

Comparisons like that require compensation for normal life-expectancy. Cancer is a disease largely associated with old age...

It is more largely associated with toxicity, and EMF exposure.

 

[swbluto]

Comparisons like that require compensation for normal life-expectancy. Cancer is a disease largely associated with old age - you don't get many people die of if most of your tribe dies from influenza or being eaten by a lion at 40.

The tribes of panama live well into their 80s and they're not getting eaten by lions. In fact, the Kuna have an average life expectancy well past America's life expectancy and they have cardiovascular and cancer rates far lower than the American average. (Heart disease rate is nearly 10x lower and the cancer rate over 20x lower.) Take the most common killers of the American population away (Cancer and cardiovascular diseases), and people live longer.

 

[Dauntless]

Coal and Nuclear do not have long lists of "pros"!

Oh, be fair, they DO have the long list of pros. It's just that their lists of cons are all about mass destruction. The list of pros for other energy sources are mostly about not being coal or nuclear power. The cons for everything else is what keeps coal and nukes popular.

Environmentalists are NOT the problem here.

Yeah, it's the BIRD HUGGERS that are the problem.

Birds will learn nothing from seeing others get it, they don't understand WHY. A dog learns nothing from you pushing it's nose in the mess it made on the carpet, it doesn't understand why you're doing it. An individual bird might get to noticing it's gettin' kinda hot over there and stay away completely, but collectively each bird will remain vulnerable until such time as they get scared.

I don't think we'll ever hear reliable numbers of what's going on there.

 

[Punx0r]

Hi,

Comparisons like that require compensation for normal life-expectancy. Cancer is a disease largely associated with old age...

It is more largely associated with toxicity, and EMF exposure.

A causal link between EMF and cancer has been proven?

The tribes of panama live well into their 80s and they're not getting eaten by lions. In fact, the Kuna have an average life expectancy well past America's life expectancy and they have cardiovascular and cancer rates far lower than the American average. (Heart disease rate is nearly 10x lower and the cancer rate over 20x lower.) Take the most common killers of the American population away (Cancer and cardiovascular diseases), and people live longer.

Completely agree, but there are many, many variables involved in a comparison between a Panamanian tribesman and a U.S. citizen. I think the high-calorie diet and sedentary lifestyle of most of us Westerners is largely responsible. Neither of us has any proof, though

I do welcome the reduction of local sources of air pollution. In the UK we have a miserable state of affairs where approximately 50% of vehicles on the roads are diesel-powered. They are responsible for the majority of NOx emissions and spew visible clouds of carbon micro-particulates, that blackens the buildings.

 

[Kingfish]

California basking in record amount of electricity from solar

OAKLAND, Calif. — The modern era of solar electricity got under way in 1954 as Bell Laboratory scientists unveiled a “solar battery” made from silicon that was used to power a toy Ferris wheel and a radio. But solar, for much of the past 60 years, has languished in the shadows of energy technology as the silicon cells could never produce energy cheaply enough to compete with fossil fuels.

In recent years, solar has boomed as costs have declined and government policies have favored a renewable energy source that can help combat climate change. Some of the strongest government support is in California, which is now the epicenter of the nation’s solar industry. The state backs solar through financial incentives and a law that requires utilities derive 33 percent of their energy from renewable energy sources by 2020. The state also has created a system that caps carbon emissions and allows business to trade in a carbon market.

California’s solar energy generation hit a record earlier this year, accounting for 6 percent of energy from the California Independent System Operator, which manages the bulk of the state’s flow of electricity. Last year’s growth in solar capacity was greater than all earlier years combined. This power flows strongest in the middle of the day, when demand is far from the peak in late afternoon to early evening. That makes the grid increasingly difficult to keep in balance, and California now is making a whole new round of investments in battery and other storage systems that can capture some of that midday power for later use.

By 2020, the California Public Utilities Commission is calling for the development of 1.3 gigawatts of storage — enough to power more than 1 million homes. Most of the solar power now produced in California comes from large centralized solar installations built in the desert. The biggest is the $2.2 billion Ivanpah project built last year, which generates enough power to serve 140,000 homes. This system involves a vast network of 34,000 mirrors that concentrate the sun’s energy, with the heat generating steam to power turbines. The project has come under criticism for killing birds that fly through the site.

But about a third of the state’s total solar capacity comes from small-scale, rooftop photovoltaic installations that utilities must acquire, according to the California Solar Energy Industries Association. On one block of modest stucco homes in the foothills of Oakland, three families now have solar panels on their rooftops. Brian Wong, a 63-year old-retiree, said he used to pay about $90 a month for electricity. But after installing solar panels earlier this year, he found his the utility owed him $5.86 for surplus power he fed back onto the grid during the month of April. “Why not invest in my future power? It makes sense,” Wong said. “It’s kind of like buying my own gas station.” Wong says the $15,000 system will be paid off in seven years.

Some analysts predict solar will cause a major disruption of current utility business models as fewer traditional customers receive all their power from the grid. That battle has raged most fiercely in California, Arizona and 13 other states where a private company has vastly expanded the numbers of rooftop installations by leasing out solar systems. The California Public Utilities Commission is under orders from the legislature to come up with a new set of rules for utility purchase of rooftop solar energy. Without changes, some analysts predict that the utilities are headed for financial troubles.

This spring, Barclay’s downgraded the bond ratings of the entire U.S. utility sector, forecasting that the combination of declining costs for both solar and storage would increasingly prompt power consumers to move away from grid power. Other analysts say such concerns may be overblown. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researchers developed models for two different utilities that each got 10 percent of their power from small-scale solar installations. They predicted that utility rates over a 20-year period would increase by no more than 4 percent to cover the solar costs.

“That doesn’t sound too catastrophic to me,” said Galen Barbose, a co-author of the study.

Interesting. KF

 

[MitchJi]

Hi,

http://cleantechnica.com/2014/10/03...on-morocco-largest-solar-thermal-power-plant/

Morocco will receive $519 million in new funding to enhance the capacity of a concentrated solar thermal power plant currently being constructed as the country’s first utility-scale power complex. The first phase of the Noor-Ouarzazate Concentrated Solar Power Project was also financed by the World Bank.

The project, approved by the World Bank in 2011, will have an installed capacity of 160 MW set up during the first phase, while the new phase will see 350 MW capacity added to the project. The project will use parabolic trough reflectors, the most trusted and tested concentrated solar thermal power technology.

When fully constructed, the project will have an installed capacity of 510 MW or about 8% of Morocco’s current installed power generation capacity. The country had an installed capacity of 6,677 MW in 2012 with coal and hydro power contributing about a quarter of the capacity each.

While Morocco is the largest importer of energy in the MENA region, it also has significant renewable energy potential. The wind energy potential in the country is estimated at 25,000 MW and the Ministry of Energy expects 2,000 MW wind energy capacity installed by 2020.

The country’s Solar Plan targets 2,000 MW solar power capacity installed by 2020. The capacity will be spread across five sites with an aggregate coverage of 10,000 hectares. These projects include the Noor-Ouarzazate Concentrated Solar Power Project, other solar thermal power projects and solar photovoltaic power projects.

 

[Kingfish]

Saharan solar power opens energy corridor to Europe

The TuNur project aims to generate clean energy from a giant solar plant in the Tunisian Sahara from where it will be connected to the European electricity grid via a dedicated undersea cable. TuNur say their initiative will produce roughly twice as much energy as any current nuclear power plant and can even produce energy when the sun is down. Matthew Stock reports.

Molden Salt tech. Title links to the video.

~KF