The Worlds Largest Solar Plant Started Creating Energy Today

Is cool, a solar plant, that in a way looks like a plant.

BUT

How come all of our power generating processes are this = heat water, turn turbine, that turns generator to make power...water power and wind of course leave out the heat the water part, but coal plants, liquid and gas fueld power plants, nuclear plants....all use this same end principle for getting energy...steam power!

So, I am happy to see a new clean way to do it...just disappointed that we don't have cooler (heh heh cause steaming water is hot) ways to make energy that is cost effective.

Rant over...cool Solar Plant

X

I am loving all these new threads on clean energy. I don't think there is a one size fits all answer some technology will work better in different areas than others. I recently started a thread on geothermal which is great for areas that are volcanically active. Solar is great for areas with lots of sun and so forth. The model country for renewable energy is Costa Rica which I believe gets 99% of its energy from wind, hydro, and geothermal. I am not sure if they have much with solar and I don't know if it would be a wise tech for their considering the rainy season. I know many private citizens have solar though especially in areas that are not as developed.

I was reading another thread that says a R&D on laser fusion has had a partial success just recently which if they work out containment will certainly be a world changer for energy production. These are some exciting times in the energy field.

reply to post by Xcouncil=wisdom


We use steam because in a nutshell all electricity is generated the same way, we cannot create electricity without a magnetic field, and this involves rotation, and lots of copper. So the most efficient way to make something move at this scale is to use steam, it's a type of hydraulic in a way, and it's just water! So it can be utilized and used over and over again, as long as there is water. We can all thank Mr. Tesla for such advances!

Whilst I really want to embrace it - its completely innefective and a will not save any hydrocarbons.

1. Have you any idea as to how many fossil fuels have been used in the creation of this plant?
2. What was the size of the field?? To create what one gas turbine can create by burning low carbon emitting gas.
3. What size? For the output of #2 it would probably be better having planted a forest.
4. You know that you cant rely on this for baseload electricity, a cloud passes and X thousand californian homes lose power immediately, then your fossil fuel generators have to step in rapidly burning fossil fuels much less efficiently than one in #2 running steady..
5. Back to the size, was it 5 acres for 140 thousand homes - can someone do the maths, we would have to cover most of the wilderness to power the country.

Nope, this isnt the answer on this scale.

I am not saying I have the answer, but this is an expensive and badly polluting experiment. Has anyone considered what happens when it is decommisioned? Are there are non-decomposoble potentially toxic materials used in the manufacture? I suspect its at least 5'000 m2 of america you will never get back without a few hundred dosers, cranes and landfill..

Sorry but this isnt the Technology of the future - not in this form.

Grimpachi
I am loving all these new threads on clean energy. I don't think there is a one size fits all answer some technology will work better in different areas than others. I recently started a thread on geothermal which is great for areas that are volcanically active. Solar is great for areas with lots of sun and so forth. The model country for renewable energy is Costa Rica which I believe gets 99% of its energy from wind, hydro, and geothermal. I am not sure if they have much with solar and I don't know if it would be a wise tech for their considering the rainy season. I know many private citizens have solar though especially in areas that are not as developed.

I was reading another thread that says a R&D on laser fusion has had a partial success just recently which if they work out containment will certainly be a world changer for energy production. These are some exciting times in the energy field.

The main problem with renewables is surity of supply - AFAIK outside of really evil batteries, the only way to store green energy is hydro and some experiments with compressed gasses.

In a modern country like US or UK - you cannot risk a power outage becuase you backed 99% renewables and it didnt rain or sunshine for 2 hours.

Now the tide will always flow - but not always at the peak electricity times.

Geothermal is fairly constant but its a very small part of the grid and concerns me...I know it sounds daft, but pumping cold water into our moulten core - what if we are cooling our planets core faster, could be more catastrophic than burning fossil fuels??

I agree in experimenting, we have too come up with something better.

reply to post by SirDrinksalot


If you look around ATS there have been a few threads started about new battery technology one which is a chemical that replicates how plants store energy. They are more than promising they are genius. As for geothermal we are not talking about molten lava except in one case where they drilled into it then capped it off. There is not much to worry about as far as cooling the core think about deep see volcanic vents. There is already heat exchange going on we are simply harnessing it.

We can also store energy through electrolysis breaking down H2O.

I know that it may cost a bunch, but in the long run it may pay off. I moved here to Baton Rouge in 1985 from littleton CO. my junior high school (Powell Jr. High School) opened in 1981 and was WAY ahead of its time. it had DIGITAL clocks in each class room, which at the time was really cool. lots and lots of windows, and most important of all it was buried into a hill. Half in/Half out. On the outside the buildings top which included the part under the hill that was exposed had Solar Panels. Now that I think about it, I think that I will call the school board there and see if the school saves money compared to other schools in the district when concerning electricity costs.
Over and out.

reply to post by opethPA


Now this deserves Global support, great

BendingTheTruth
This reminds me of the HELIOS One solar plant that generates and provides power to the New Vegas Strip in the game Fallout: New Vegas. Watch it, that thing vaporized everything in about a 10 mile radius when it was turned on

There's a building in London that generates death rays:

www.brightknowledge.org...

I've seen the same thing happen in Edinburgh. There was a large set of greenhouses that reflected sunlight back to the sky to the extent that it would actually create a diamond shape in the sky as the water vapour in the clouds was reheated. Sunlight reflected from water and glass actually becomes polarized, so it's a bit closer to becoming a laser (with coherent light that has every photon in phase).

Our fitness center had a similar effect. Being on the top deck of a bus, and we were blasted by a heat ray of reflected sunlight.

havok
reply to post by opethPA

 

Well that is great news for areas that receive more than an average of 4-5 hours of sunlight per day. But I would hate to be the person or group of people who clean all those mirrors. If that kind of technology could be used across the nation, we could remove not only coal fired plants, but nuclear plants as well. Both of which have their downfalls and setbacks.

But for now, we have to burn coal to keep everyone in the light. Which is still cleaner now than it has ever been and is our largest provider of electricity to date. It will be an immensely difficult thing to replace. Maybe somewhere in the distant future, humans will decide that they don't collectively need all the electricity they are using, and boil things down to what they need vs. what they want. Let's face facts here...there are things we can all live without...but choose not to.

Pictures are very impressive.

Areas that don't receive that much sun can receive electricity from this plant over power lines just like any other electrical generating plant. That's the whole idea behind putting them in the desert.

The problem I see is that it is privately owned and run. Public financing and management would have been a better way to go. Even better yet would be local (single building) solar as possible with these large plants as backup.

New materials films that can be applied to surfaces based on shark and whale skins help dirt from clinging to surfaces and would cut down on 'cleaning'. I don't know if they were used in this project but I would hope so.

Xcouncil=wisdom
Is cool, a solar plant, that in a way looks like a plant.

Rant over...cool Solar Plant

X

When I looked at the article and saw the 'plant'. It made be think of Larry Niven's Ringworld.

Grimpachi
reply to post by SirDrinksalot

 

If you look around ATS there have been a few threads started about new battery technology one which is a chemical that replicates how plants store energy. They are more than promising they are genius. As for geothermal we are not talking about molten lava except in one case where they drilled into it then capped it off. There is not much to worry about as far as cooling the core think about deep see volcanic vents. There is already heat exchange going on we are simply harnessing it.

We can also store energy through electrolysis breaking down H2O.

Free Fall Kitty dude,

I've been waiting for 'new battery' technology since the eighties. It's improved in one sense - smaller, longer life, rechargeable --- But there's a big catch - Rare Earth Metals. The Chinese control most of the world's very limited deposits of such. So - I nearly despair.

There is a company - Capstone - that has a backup generator that uses spinning magnets that shows promise. It does take traditional fuels to 'kick-over' and maintain service - but does produce much more energy then traditional backup generators.

Google, also is using at one of there offices another type of generator that is similar but not the same as above. I did see a short documentary on it years ago - six maybe.

As long as we rely (in the USA) on private industry to move into renewable and localized sources we are doomed. This must be a publically funded, publically owned and operated endeavor.

A big improvement over the first solar plant i worked on Solar One.
en.wikipedia.org...

Better plants are the SEGS parabolic trough, solar thermal technology plants that do not use a tower.
en.wikipedia.org...