4 thoughts on “Ivanpah”

  1. But but but wait!. They’re replacing a reliable natural gas fired plant @night for unreliable PV solar that will also be affected by clouds and desert sands?

    Maybe they’d be netter off with the natural gas fired bird incinerator. Or better yet convert to 100% natural gas and ditch the mirrors! If you still need “streamers” might I suggest high powered infrared CO2 lasers? Put that horrible deadly gas to use!

  2. Back in the day I was flying into Vegas regularly for work, and those stupid heliostats could be seen 50+ miles away, if the sun was out. And in monsoon season, the Sun often wasn’t out, so they weren’t making much energy. Glad this boondoggle is going away.

  3. Another child of that loan guarantee program that produced Solyndra.

    But the question remains: Who’s going to pay for this transition? The same taxpayers who funded this failed experiment in the first place? That part hasn’t been answered, but if history is any guide, the bill will find its way to the public. Socal Edison is begging the Department of Energy to buy them out. The same DoE that wasted money funding this boondoggle in the first place.

    The loan is guaranteed by the federal government so taxpayers will be on the hook for what remains of the loan. Past that, I wouldn’t be surprised if this ends up on a future episode of Mysteries of the Abandoned. They can hire someone to go through and shatter the mirrors, but it’s no conernoff any of the parties involved if it’s a pile of broken glass in five years.

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