I'd be interested in a more dispassionate write up of the failure. 75% of rated power isn't nothing, Much is made of birdlife losses but with wind power, this has been seen to be both over-rated, and nothing compared to the billions which die from other man-made causes.
Did this die for being .. unfashionable? Not enough power for capex? Too unusual against other emerging modes of power gen?
Using gas a fill-in suggests the thermal mass was grossly inadequate. Maybe backfill of newer solar-thermal tech defeated them.
Do we have any significant solar thermal power generation systems in the world any more? Or just demonstrator and research facilities?
Also, whats the site restitution burden like? Do they dismantle, or try to find a private buyer (bitcoin...)
Since the 2006 passage of AB 32, which set ambitious greenhouse gas reduction goals, the state has experienced frequent power outages…
We've had frequent power outages since before then. It's really since the passage of CEQA, and the corresponding lack of construction of power generation that is the root of the problem. Further limitations on power generation aren't doing much when we weren't going to get it in the first place.
Couple that with Califormia's whether, where years with average heat and rainfall are uncommon, instead swapping back and forth between extremes every few years, and about every decade you get a summer so hot that we don't have enough power generation to run everyone's air conditioners.
I'd be interested in a more dispassionate write up of the failure. 75% of rated power isn't nothing, Much is made of birdlife losses but with wind power, this has been seen to be both over-rated, and nothing compared to the billions which die from other man-made causes.
Did this die for being .. unfashionable? Not enough power for capex? Too unusual against other emerging modes of power gen?
Using gas a fill-in suggests the thermal mass was grossly inadequate. Maybe backfill of newer solar-thermal tech defeated them.
Do we have any significant solar thermal power generation systems in the world any more? Or just demonstrator and research facilities?
Also, whats the site restitution burden like? Do they dismantle, or try to find a private buyer (bitcoin...)
Funder Google realised this was a dead end in 2011, two years before it was finished construction, here's a write up by them:
https://web.archive.org/web/20130629173557/http://www.google...
It was a good idea when they planned it but solar PV prices dropped dramatically and were predicted to fall further.
Batteries doing the same was the final nail in its coffin.
Great info. Looks like the improvements identified were just too expensive to retrofit.
Couple that with Califormia's whether, where years with average heat and rainfall are uncommon, instead swapping back and forth between extremes every few years, and about every decade you get a summer so hot that we don't have enough power generation to run everyone's air conditioners.