In Laughlin, NV, a large coal-fired Power Plant was built 20 or 30 years ago, chiefly to supply Southern California with power....(which ones weren't?). It burned coal shipped to the plant through a buried pipeline from Kayenta, AZ, where the Peabody Coal Mine was located, 253 miles of buried pipeline, the coal powdered and mixed with water, then pushed through the pipe all the way to Laughlin! As if this weren't ridiculous enough, it actually worked! In 2010, the plant decommissioned, it's huge brick chimney was explosively reduced to rubble. After that, all the generating equipment and buildings were removed and/or razed. The gigantic titans of the surface world, the high-tension towers with their overhead wires (cables) suspended above, were left intact. Recent proposals are to install a ground-mounted solar power installation using the same site confines, and to ship the power generated out using those already-existing towers. I am all for it, 100%. Detractors, of course, are many. Eyesore. Environmental hazard. Unacceptable "desert-use" configuration. Desert plant life disruption. (Nothing of any kind grows out of the ground in the entire abandoned plant area thanks to diligent efforts at defoliation). "Degradation of natural beauty". This area gets 100% sunshine coverage 300 days a year on average. This makes it far more appropriate for a solar power installation than most non-desert areas in the U.S. The ugly, intrusive power lines are already there. Huge capital investment. The land area is denuded of all natural plant growth. IMO it would be foolish not to go ahead. Even if all the power produced goes to L.A.! It has to come from somewhere! What are your thoughts? Frank
As you mentioned it is a desert with constant sunshine, I guess solar power installation is perfect for that. We always go for the so called alternative energy or clean fuel particularly solar. In fact, we did a personal survey on solar panel and the solar energy system that we can use instead of a generator during calamities. However, we are not sold out on the claims of the said system. As per our research, the success of solar power is in the battery where the energy is stored and if the storing is not efficient the it is not cost effective.
Test sites of 392-Megawatts and above have been built in California and Nevada and do work. Seems that funding is drying up for continued testing. Solar Power Tower system appears to be the path most are taking. Solar array focused on a tower mounted heat exchanger to produce electricity. Since the transmission lines are still in place, makes sense to at least try.
Wind generators always interested me. Then, when I read about all the bird's being killed by the whirling blades, I wondered why don't they replace propeller blades with screw type 'blades'.
Fresno also gets 300 days of sunshine a year and I have many homes in my neighborhood with solar panels on their roofs. I've also gotten many calls from solar companies but I'm not changing anything at this point. If I was to change anything it would be landscaping that didn't require water, and I see many already doing that too.
I believe the design you mention is that which is frying many birds in flight. The installation I read about uses many mirrors to focus the sunlight on a heat-gathering exchanger which generates steam to drive electric power generators. Just like burning coal, but nothing burned (excerpt the birds), the power generated by pretty conventional means. It does eliminate a number of drawbacks to photovoltaic electric production, in which the sun's radiant energy is converted directly into electric power, using no mechanically operating parts, excepting movement of the cells to keep in "track" with the sun's position. The plant I referred to is estimated to be killing tens of thousands of birds a year. When I heard of it, I was astounded, hardly able to believe the designers of it did not think of such results ahead of time. Thus, it was greed-driven, IMO, to build such an affair. I can't quote any numbers comparing efficiency of hot-water vs. photovoltaic operation, but suspect the two might be pretty close to one-another, in a large-scale operation. Frank
Guess I thought the array of mirrors had a focal point of the heat exchanger. Birds flying thru in front of the mirrors would not have time for this point to change. I'll have to do some more reading, I am probably wrong in my thinking. Hope they can find a way; energy need not going to go away.
@Tim Burr It's the Ivanpah Plant, I spoke of, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivanpah_Solar_Power_Facility#Birds "The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is a concentrated solar thermal plant in the California Mojave Desert, 64 km (40 miles) southwest of Las Vegas, with a gross capacity of 392 megawatts (MW).[5] It deploys 173,500 heliostats, each with two mirrors, focusing solar energy on boilers located on three centralized solar power towers.[5] Unit 1 of the project was connected to the grid in September 2013 in an initial sync testing.[6] The facility formally opened on February 13, 2014,[1] and it is currently the world's largest solar thermal power station." "The LPT 550 solar system produces electricity the same way as traditional power plants – by creating high temperature steam to turn a turbine. BrightSource uses thousands of mirrors called heliostats to reflect sunlight onto a receiver being developed by Riley Power Inc. filled with water that sits atop a tower. When the sunlight hits the receiver, the water inside is heated and creates high temperature steam. The steam is then piped to a conventional turbine, which generates electricity." "In April 2015, "biologists working for the state estimated that 3,500 birds died at Ivanpah in the span of a year, many of them burned alive while flying through a part of the solar installment where air temperatures can reach 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit [540 °C]" We drive by Ivanpah as it lies off of U.S. 95 between Las Vegas and our home in Laughlin. Vegas is the closest airport for us. At first, at a distance, I thought the mirrors were parked, mothballed airliners, as the appearance was quite similar to the sight of parked DC-10s in Goodyear, AZ years ago. Now, I kick myself for being such a dummy! Frank
Thanks for the info. On a side note, how does one put a member's name in a reply ( that @ thing ) ? Couldn't find it in the help sections.
@Tim Burr It lights up a notice up at the right of your username if someone has "tagged" you thusly. Start a new post, depress shift, hold, then "@" and type the first 3 letters of the user you wish to give notice to. Choices will appear below, click on the desired one. Only one I've had trouble with is K E Gordon, that one needs the spaces and caps, it seems! Frank
The same could be said for so many things Tim Burr! So many things are simpler in theory than actually doing it, I could name about half a dozen off the top of my head!
Here's another scheme being touted for Solar Power, in which great amounts of heat are stored in a huge quantity of molten salt, the heat then released during the night after sunset, to continue driving steam turbines creating electric power. Their claim of "it works also at night" is somewhat misleading, in that the system obviously cannot gather solar heat at night. Interestingly, they acknowledge the killing of birds, but seem to think that is a minor consequence. I disagree. Frank "A different kind of solar power is being generated in the middle of the Nevada desert — and it works even when it's dark outside" http://www.businessinsider.com/solar-power-towers-in-nevada-desert-2016-8
Solar is still expencive and you have to save the power for the times there is no sun. Thorium reactors are cheaper and give power 24/7 for years and they are not dangerous like nuclear
The land around wind generators can still be used. It's not covered up with panels. And, with the right kind of blades, it's not harmful to wildlife. And more, the sun don't shine at night, but the wind blows at any time..