Ivanpah was supposed to be the future. When it opened in the Mojave Desert in 2014, with its three towers glowing like beacons and almost 400 MW of capacity, it was the largest concentrated solar power plant in the world. It had the backing of Google, NRG Energy, BrightSource, and … [continued]
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke claims he’s not a fossil fuel puppet. “People ask me, ‘am I a fossil fuel guy?’ ” he says. “I’m like, ‘no, I’m all the above.’ ” But when it comes to solar energy — a critical component of ‘all of the above’ — and the best use of public lands, his logic is… for the birds.
Here’s how renewable energy contracts work to protect ratepayers, utilities, and renewable energy developers through the power purchase agreement (PPA):
Originally published on the ECOreport. Some think of Ivanpah as a renewable milestone. Mojave elder Reverend Ron Van Fleet finds it an obstacle to performing rituals at a sacred site within the solar plant’s enclosure. The residents of Boulevard were more successful fighting against encroaching industrial scale wind and solar plants. Environmentalists are concerned about the negative … [continued]
In 2015, PG&E customers received about 97% of Ivanpah’s contracted electrons, which is a massive improvement over its first year. But this raises a question: Source: SEC/EIA data Unit 1, Unit 3 What exactly were the engineering challenges at Ivanpah – and why did they take a year to solve? To find out, I spoke with engineering experts at NRG, … [continued]
A completely innovative technology that is one of the keys to slowing climate change was today allowed by the CPUC to fine-tune energy production. The decision results in no harm to ratepayers. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has approved PG&E’s December 18 request for a Forbearance Agreement for Ivanpah Units … [continued]
According to a filing with the California Energy Commission (CEC) this week, Abengoa has apparently given up on attempting to permit what would have been California’s second concentrated solar power (CSP) project after Ivanpah to use tower technology. In its latest iteration, this was to have been a 250 MW tower with storage. Instead, … [continued]
Far from the “28,000 fried birds!!” touted by desert solar opponents, the Ivanpah solar power tower project yielded only 695 actual avian detections in its first year of operations. An annual fatality estimate of 3,504 for the first year was arrived at as a result of the rigorous environmental reporting required by the state … [continued]
Sorry about the clickbaity title, but as it turns out, the solution to a serious problem discovered last year at Ivanpah — the first solar power tower in the US — actually has turned out to be “one weird trick.” Below is the exact problem, and how the problem was solved. America’s second solar power tower, … [continued]
Got a problem with the massive Ivanpah concentrating solar power plant in the Mohave Desert? Like it or not, BrightSource Energy has the answers.
