Article

2014-11-18 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

Huge solar energy plant not producing enough power: Sun not out as much as planned

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Posted by DarthVader 2014-11-18 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11128 views ] Top

#1 Operators initially expected to need steam from gas-powered boilers for an hour a day during startup. After operations began, they found they needed to keep boilers running more than four times longer - an average of 4 1/2 hours a day.

:) LOL

Posted by Shipman 2014-11-18 06:17|| 2014-11-18 06:17|| Front Page Top

#2 The problem here is the mistaken impression that the plant was supposed to produce electric power. It produces wealth for the guys that built it; beyond that, it's a sink.

Posted by ed in texas 2014-11-18 08:05|| 2014-11-18 08:05|| Front Page Top

#3 The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar
That tomorrow
There'll be sun!

Posted by Airandee 2014-11-18 08:19|| 2014-11-18 08:19|| Front Page Top

#4 Green power at its finest.

Posted by DarthVader 2014-11-18 08:44|| 2014-11-18 08:44|| Front Page Top

#5 Same with wind. Notice how the old sailing merchant ships disappeared from the sea other than some local skiffs plying small waters along coasts. It's unreliable. Period.

Posted by Procopius2k 2014-11-18 08:52|| 2014-11-18 08:52|| Front Page Top

#6 So, is "global cooling" in fashion again?

Posted by JohnQC 2014-11-18 10:33|| 2014-11-18 10:33|| Front Page Top

#7 Re the wind... note when you go by a windfarm usually 1/2 or more of the towers are idle. That a poor return on investment.

Posted by 3dc 2014-11-18 11:04|| 2014-11-18 11:04|| Front Page Top

#8 Most of the turbines that they're using in Mass. (mostly on Cape Cod and in Plymouth) are refurbed units from Europe, which means they'll probably fail sooner than expected.

Posted by Raj 2014-11-18 11:16|| 2014-11-18 11:16|| Front Page Top

#9 Left out of my first comment is that those 4.5 hours are powered by natural gas. Sorta like using the back blast of a jet engine to rotate a twirly during windless days.

Posted by Shipman 2014-11-18 11:33|| 2014-11-18 11:33|| Front Page Top

#10 Centralized solar power is stupid. Its an attempt to conform to the old way of doing things to ensure control.

If they are serious they will talk about solar on rooftops. Spread all around the sunny areas. Selling power back to the grid when there is an access and sucking off the grid at night as necessary.

Of course it is still inefficent, but even taking large numbers of houses off the grid is worthwhile. For power, and reduce targets that can inconveneince everyone.

Government could bootstrap the whole thing, not with tax breaks and other subsidies but by putting solar panels on schools. Use the education budget and elminate a monthly power payment for all the schools, in fact schools could sell power back all summer and possibly pay the cost back in a reasonable time.

Posted by rjschwarz 2014-11-18 14:36|| 2014-11-18 14:36|| Front Page Top

#11 At our place up north, I use solar power to keep batteries charged. Saves 80% running time on generator. For small systems this works great.

I (and 3dc) agree wholeheartedly with you, rjschwartz. Decentralizing power is the way to go. It is more resilient to hits.

Solar needs energy storage. This is a technology that is slowly maturing. When you have that, solar will go really big. Big Electricity, consisting of Big Generation, Big Transmission, and Big Distribution is a slowly dying dinosaur.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2014-11-18 14:51|| 2014-11-18 14:51|| Front Page Top

#12 REA won't go away, although they have finally done away with Willie Wired had due to his inability to hand a grounding prong.

Posted by Shipman 2014-11-18 17:20|| 2014-11-18 17:20|| Front Page Top

#13 Solar on rooftops is big where I live in Perth due to generous feed in prices.

I did a survey in my neighbourhood, where most streets run east/west and roofs are oriented north/south.

Almost everyone has their solar panels on the east side of their roof to catch the morning sun. But peak electricity demand is in the afternoon in summer when people turn on their airconditioners.

The reason is that there is a bit more sun in the morning and it's more profitable to maximize your feed in KWs and take grid power when you need it.

The other time for peak electricity demand is cloudy days in winter when you need heat. Solar is useless on these days. My solar panels produce only 5% of the electricity they produce on a sunny summers day.

The moral is, rooftop solar feed in needs to be aligned with peak demand, and priced accordingly.

Posted by phil_b 2014-11-18 17:41|| 2014-11-18 17:41|| Front Page Top

#14 Sacrify Greens or Democrats to the Mexican God Huizipilotchli untils there is enough Sun. If it doesn't work scale up the sacrifices;

Posted by JFM 2014-11-18 18:03|| 2014-11-18 18:03|| Front Page Top

#15 Sacrifice Greens or Democrats...

This!

Posted by Woodrow Stalin1308 2014-11-18 20:45|| 2014-11-18 20:45|| Front Page Top

#16 Of course, this soon to be followed by a "Green" cabal tying cloud development to Global [Whatever].

Posted by Slomose Jomosing6721 2014-11-18 21:06|| 2014-11-18 21:06|| Front Page Top

22:50 Pappy
22:12 Ebbomosh Hupemp2664
22:06 Ebbomosh Hupemp2664
21:26 Mullah Richard
21:08 Besoeker
21:06 Slomose Jomosing6721
21:00 USN, Ret.
20:59 USN, Ret.
20:56 Glenmore
20:55 Woodrow Stalin1308
20:53 Grunter
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20:44 Capsu78
20:41 Capsu78
19:55 junkiron
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19:25 James
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19:19 Alaska Paul
19:11 Alaska Paul
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18:58 Guillibaldo Sinatra3288
18:58 Angie Schultz