lee wrote on Apr 3^rd, 2018 at 2:28pm:

No one said you can't have coal or nuclear!

lee wrote on Apr 3^rd, 2018 at 3:49pm:

Your point being?

TheFunPolice wrote on Apr 3^rd, 2018 at 3:53pm:


The Solar salt concept doesn't seem to be delivering on its promises.

Of course if you have a different view; you could expand on your concept.

"SolarReserve’s flagship project is Crescent Dunes, a US$1 billion, 110MW first-of-its-kind project located, perhaps appropriately, near Las Vegas. Ground was broken in 2011 on the project.

The project has 10 hours molten salt storage but the relevant statistic is its design capacity factor of 51 per cent.
Not enough evidence that Crescent Dunes works

Production from the facility was first reported in October, 2015, and out of 26 months since then the facility has been completely offline for 9 months. On only 3 months has it met the annualized design goal.

Figure 1 Crescent Dunes operating history. Source EIA, Wikipedia

SolarReserve management stated that the reason the facility was closed down for 8 consecutive months in 2016/2017 was a leak in the molten salt tank.

Leaving aside any questions of how that could happen, or why it should take 8 months to repair, we note that having started up again in July 2017 the facility did not reach design goal and as of November 2017, on the last data available, it appears to have virtually shut again.

It did not meet its design goal in any month after being restarted.

Leaving aside any questions of project economics we would simply say there is not enough positive evidence to suggest the technology works to the extent advertised."

http://reneweconomy.com.au/solarreserve-still-falling-short-at-flagship-solar-to...

lee wrote on Apr 3^rd, 2018 at 5:04pm:

RenewEconomy is an independent website founded and owned by Giles Parkinson, a journalist of 30 years experience, a former Business Editor and Deputy Editor of the Australian Financial Review, a former columnist for The Bulletin magazine and The Australian, and the founder and former editor of Climate Spectator.

Giles is joined by Deputy Editor Sophie Vorrath and other contributors. These include David Leitch, an independent energy analyst with decades of experience in the energy markets with a high profile investment bank.

<<

Doesn't even mention the effects of government intervention!

What kind of independant analyst does he think he is!!

DonDeeHippy wrote on Apr 8^th, 2018 at 8:16am:



Nuclear? No the greenies don't like it.

Hydro? No the greenies don't like the drowned earth for the dams.

DonDeeHippy wrote on Apr 8^th, 2018 at 8:16am:



Why? Do you think the CO2 will kill you?

BigOl64 wrote on Apr 8^th, 2018 at 12:26pm:


Well if because I think we need to address pollution makes me a extreme socialist greeny, I guess I'm guilty

Instead of personal attacks and talking about the cost of completely changing a system, maybe u could suggest positive actions we could take to stop polluting our country.

reneweconomy.com.au/tesla-big-battery-is-already-bringing-australias-gas-cartel-
to-heel-39541/

The big gas generators – even though they have 10 times more capacity than is required – have systematically rorted the situation, sometimes charging up to $7 million a day for a service that normally comes at one-tenth of the price.
(You can read our reports on how they do it here, here and here, and for a more detailed explanation at the bottom of this story).
The difference in January was that there is a new player in the market: the Tesla big battery, officially known as the Hornsdale Power Reserve, which bid into the market to ensure that prices stayed reasonable, as we predicted last year.
Rather than jumping up to prices of around $11,500 and $14,000/MW, the bidding of the Tesla big battery – and, in a major new development, the adjoining Hornsdale wind farm – helped (after an initial spike) to keep them at around $270/MW.
This saved several million dollars in FCAS charges (which are paid by other generators and big energy users) in a single day.
And that’s not the only impact. According to state government’s advisor, Frontier Economics, the average price of FCAS fell by around 75 per cent in December from the same month the previous year. Market players are delighted, and consumers should be too, because they will ultimately benefit.

ouch the old 30000 ppl for 1 hour seams silly when that's not how it works, 7million saved in one day for a 110 million investment seams pretty good to me.
When it works as a peaker plant its so fast at keeping power stable that the monitors r not able to register when its working because a gas fired one still takes minutes instead of micro seconds to respond.
I see your frustrations and I sympathise.

DonDeeHippy wrote on Apr 8^th, 2018 at 2:18pm:



What about when the power is NOT available for more than 1 hour? Do you think the punter will feel dudded?