The sun will not save us. Solar power plant to close
This was to be a breakthrough project among renewable energy sources. $ 2 billion was spent on the use of the sun for energy production to see that none of it would be.
The Ivanpah Solar Power Facility Solar Power Plant built in the Mojave desert in the USA is to be closed in 2026. It turned out to be unprofitable, unprofitable and in addition harmful to the environment.
The thermal and solar energy complex covers an area of 12 km2. The construction of the power plant began in 2010, and started operating four years later. At the time of launch, it was the world’s largest Solar Power Plant.
Surprisingly low efficiency of a solar power plant
In 2011, the Energy Department – under the leadership of Ernest Moniz, in the administration of President Barack Obama, granted the creators of the project three federal credit guarantees with a total value of $ 1.6 billion. The head of the Ministry of Energy then called the undertaking “an example of how America becomes a world leader in the field of solar energy.”
Unfortunately, in the first year of its work, the power plant reached only 40 percent. assumed energy production. Over time, technical and unsatisfactory efficiency only deepened. Other problems also arose.
According to the American Association of Veterinary Birds (Association of Avian Veterinarians), the object “probably is responsible for at least 6,000 bird deaths a year.” The birds die flying through the area where the reflected sunlight directed to the tower is focused.
The sun did not produce sufficient heat. There are better solutions
The power plant consists of over 170,000 Heliostats (mirrors), which focus sunlight on three high towers, in which a steam of turbines is produced. “The idea was to use the sun to create a heat source. The mirrors reflect the sun’s rays towards the receiver placed at the top of the tower. This, in turn, warms water, creating a steam that drives a steam turbine” – explained the principle of the solar project of the project Edward Smeloff, an expert in the field of renewable energy in the field of Sky News.
In Ivanpah, the mirrors heated water to a temperature of about 550 degrees Celsius, but as the expert explains, this technology quickly aged. She was ahead of her … solar. Semiconductors for directly converting sunlight into electricity turned out to be a much cheaper and more effective solution, especially when the energy generated was learned to store immediately.
