A $1 Billion Solar Plant Was Obsolete Before It Ever Went Online

[thackney]

A $1 Billion Solar Plant Was Obsolete Before It Ever Went Online
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-06/a-1-billion-solar-plant-was-obsolete-before-it-ever-went-online
January 6, 2020

The Crescent Dunes solar plant looks like ­something out of a sci-fi movie. Ten thousand mirrors form a spiral almost 2 miles wide that winds around a skyscraper rising above the desert between Las Vegas and Reno. The operation soaks up enough heat from the sun’s rays to spin steam turbines and store energy in the form of molten salt.

In 2011 the $1 billion project was to be the biggest solar plant of its kind, and it looked like the future of renewable power. Citigroup Inc. and other financiers invested $140 million with its developer, SolarReserve Inc. Steven Chu, the U.S. Department of Energy secretary at the time, offered the company government loan guarantees, and Harry Reid, then the Senate majority leader and senior senator from Nevada, cleared the way for the company to build on public land. At a Washington celebration of SolarReserve’s public funding, Chief Executive Officer Kevin Smith told the assembled politicians, “We’re proud to be doing our part to win the future.”

SolarReserve may have done its part, but today the company doesn’t rank among the winners. Instead, it’s mired in litigation and accusations of mismanagement at Crescent Dunes, where taxpayers remain on the hook for $737 million in loan guarantees. Late last year, Crescent Dunes lost its only customer, NV Energy Inc., which cited the plant’s lack of reliability. It’s a victim, ironically, of the solar industry’s success over the past decade. The steam generators at Crescent Dunes require custom parts and a staff of dozens to keep things humming and to conduct regular maintenance. By the time the plant opened in 2015, the increased efficiency of cheap solar panels had already surpassed its technology, and today it’s obsolete—the latest panels can pump out power at a fraction of the cost for decades with just an occasional hosing-down....

[IsailedawayfromFR]

$135 per megawatt hour it charged.  No wonder it is obsolete.

I pay only 5 cents per kwhr at my home.

Why would anyone pay that exorbitant charge?

And now us taxpayers are on the hook for it.

Bet Harry Reid and his pals made a lot of money though.

[Smokin Joe]

$135 per megawatt hour it charged.  No wonder it is obsolete.

I pay only 5 cents per kwhr at my home.

Why would anyone pay that exorbitant charge?

And now us taxpayers are on the hook for it.

Bet Harry Reid and his pals made a lot of money though.

Makes you wonder how much of that Billion got 'Solyndra-ed' into the DNC coffers and private pockets.

[catfish1957]

Makes you wonder how much of that Billion got 'Solyndra-ed' into the DNC coffers and private pockets.

It will be shocking when mankind finally figures out how many Trillions of Dollars were wasted on this Clmate Change scam.

[Smokin Joe]

It will be shocking when mankind finally figures out how many Trillions of Dollars were wasted on this Clmate Change scam.

I'm sure they weren't all "wasted" so much as siphoned off. "Saving the Planet" is just another excuse for larceny writ large.

[mountaineer]

Wow, far out, man.

Harry Reid, then the Senate majority leader and senior senator from Nevada, cleared the way for the company to build on public land.

Of course he did. One of the crookedest senators ever.

[Smokin Joe]

Wow, far out, man.

Of course he did. One of the crookedest senators ever.

Were these the guys who were going to expand and that may have led to part of the Bundy Ranch incident? Or was that just some pay for play with the Chinese?

How long until the dune field in the foreground covers it up?

[IsailedawayfromFR]

How long until the dune field in the foreground covers it up?

that is a very good point but might be part of the lib plan to make it go away quietly.

Never underestimate them.

[Elderberry]

Solyndra 2: Boondoggle Boogaloo

Lawrence Person's BattleSwarm Blog 1/7/2020

https://www.battleswarmblog.com/?p=43105

Remember Solyndra, the solar energy company with Democratic Party connections that sucked up some half a billion dollars worth of green energy loans before going belly up?

If you liked Solyndra, you’re gonna love the Crescent Dunes solar plant near Tonopah, Nevada. Thanks to the efforts of Obama energy secretary Steven Chu and then-majority leader Harry Reid, it sucked up $737 million in federal loan guarantees.

Tiny problem: It was obsolete before it ever came online:

    Ten thousand mirrors form a spiral almost 2 miles wide that winds around a skyscraper rising above the desert between Las Vegas and Reno. The operation soaks up enough heat from the sun’s rays to spin steam turbines and store energy in the form of molten salt.

    In 2011 the $1 billion project was to be the biggest solar plant of its kind, and it looked like the future of renewable power. Citigroup Inc. and other financiers invested $140 million with its developer, SolarReserve Inc. Steven Chu, the U.S. Department of Energy secretary at the time, offered the company government loan guarantees, and Harry Reid, then the Senate majority leader and senior senator from Nevada, cleared the way for the company to build on public land. At a Washington celebration of SolarReserve’s public funding, Chief Executive Officer Kevin Smith told the assembled politicians, “We’re proud to be doing our part to win the future.”

    SolarReserve may have done its part, but today the company doesn’t rank among the winners. Instead, it’s mired in litigation and accusations of mismanagement at Crescent Dunes, where taxpayers remain on the hook for $737 million in loan guarantees. Late last year, Crescent Dunes lost its only customer, NV Energy Inc., which cited the plant’s lack of reliability. It’s a victim, ironically, of the solar industry’s success over the past decade. The steam generators at Crescent Dunes require custom parts and a staff of dozens to keep things humming and to conduct regular maintenance. By the time the plant opened in 2015, the increased efficiency of cheap solar panels had already surpassed its technology, and today it’s obsolete—the latest panels can pump out power at a fraction of the cost for decades with just an occasional hosing-down.

More at link.

[mountaineer]

 

[Smokin Joe]

I have a question. How many birds went down in flames?

[IsailedawayfromFR]

I have a question. How many birds went down in flames?

Who knows?  That may be their proudest achievement.  If the plant rarely operated, they can claim few birds were killed.

That's the way the libs think.