*Someone* must think it's a good idea in the California desert.
In the last three to 4 years, there have been three huge projects in the
desert west of El Centro (an area we pass through often. The first is the
Tenaska (I think I have the name right) solar project, comprising something
like 2 million panels. The second was a huge wind project in an area where
the wind is pretty much blowing all the time (I've rarely, if ever driven
through the location and found it still). The third is a new project that
was mounting panels either side of Interstate 8 when last I drove through
in June. My understanding is the first two provide electricity mostly to
the San Diego area, and the last will be providing it to El Centro.
And, if Elon Musk wasn't totally blowing smoke in his introductory speech (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKORsrlN-2k), the primary products they
expect to ship from the battery megaplant in Nevada are a modular battery
system for homes, and a much larger one for industrial sized power
installations. Cars aren't the major end-use envisioned for the plant's
output, at least at present.
I, for one, am optimistic about his product. We'll see where things shake
out in practice.
On Sat, Oct 24, 2015 at 2:59 PM Chuck Norcutt <chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> Not a surprise to me. Wind is about 3X the cost of coal or gas and
> still requires the same number of conventional plants as backup when the
> wind doesn't blow. The distribution system is actually the most
> expensive part and you just increased its size.
>
> The fly in the ointment for all intermittent systems (wind, solar) is
> the lack of any sort of battery storage. There are no magic battery
> technologies on the horizon. The only workable solution is pumped hydro
> storage. But unless you've got a ready made natural reservoir at high
> elevation the cost of building one is prohibitive. So much for solar in
> the California desert.
>
> Wind is a bad economic decision. You'll just have to suck it up.
>
> Chuck Norcutt
>
>
> On 10/23/2015 10:51 AM, Ken Norton wrote:
> > Granted, our electricity rates are among the highest around (go
> > figure, because of all the wind energy), but our delta will be close
> > to $20 per month.
> --
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