Guest skewering by David Middleton
From Inside Climate News…
24-Hour Solar Energy: Molten Salt Makes It Possible, and Prices Are Falling Fast
Molten salt storage in concentrated solar power plants could meet the electricity-on-demand role of coal and gas, allowing more old, fossil fuel plants to retire.
JAN 16, 2018
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The first thing you see of the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Facility, and you can be miles away, is a light so bright you can’t look directly at it. This sits atop a 640-foot cement tower, rising from the flat, empty Nevada desert around the halfway point on the highway from Reno to Las Vegas. The tower’s surrounded by a nearly two-mile-wide field of mirrors that send shimmering beams of light into the sky.
[…]
What people are actually seeing is a 110-megawatt concentrated solar power (CSP) plant, built and operated by SolarReserve of Santa Monica, California. It’s not from outer space, but there’s not yet anything quite like it of this size anywhere else on the planet.
SolarReserve is trying to prove that the technology that drives Crescent Dunes can make solar power an affordable, carbon-free, day-and-night energy source, dispatched on the electric grid like any fossil fuel plant. Here, concentrated sunlight heats molten salt to 1,050 degrees Fahrenheit in that shimmering tower; then the salt gets stored in a giant insulated tank and can be tapped to make steam to run a turbine.
[…]
If this plant and several similar facilities under construction, or soon to be, prove reliable, the technology is poised to take off. Solar photovoltaic (PV) panels can displace fossil fuels during the day, and wind turbines can do the same as long as it’s windy. But molten salt towers may be able to meet the challenge of electricity on demand, and push more older, dirtier fossil-fuel plants into retirement.
[…]
17 December 1970, ABC Monday Night Football. Howard Cosell: “If Los Angeles wins, it’s a big one, but San Francisco is still very much in it.” Don Meredith: “If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we’d all have a merry Christmas.” Howard: “I didn’t think you’d remember that old canard.” Don: “Is that what it was?” Source: Barry Popik.com
If molten salt was making 24-hour solar energy possible… It would be making it happen at least once-in-a-while. If the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Facility is supposed to be an example of 24-hour molten salt solar power, it’s not a very good one.
The best month in Crescent Dunes short history was September 2016, when it averaged 9.2 hours of electricity per day.
| Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration | |||
| Series ID: ELEC.PLANT.GEN.57275-SUN-ALL.M megawatthours | |||
| Month | MWh | Capacity Factor | Hrs of Electricity |
| Oct-15 | 1,703 | 2% | 0.5 |
| Nov-15 | 1,831 | 2% | 0.6 |
| Dec-15 | – | 0% | 0.0 |
| Jan-16 | 1,508 | 2% | 0.4 |
| Feb-16 | 9,121 | 12% | 2.9 |
| Mar-16 | 7,099 | 9% | 2.1 |
| Apr-16 | 2,158 | 3% | 0.7 |
| May-16 | 11,485 | 14% | 3.4 |
| Jun-16 | 6,216 | 8% | 1.9 |
| Jul-16 | 25,560 | 31% | 7.5 |
| Aug-16 | 28,267 | 35% | 8.3 |
| Sep-16 | 30,514 | 39% | 9.2 |
| Oct-16 | 5,410 | 7% | 1.6 |
| Nov-16 | – | 0% | 0.0 |
| Dec-16 | – | 0% | 0.0 |
| Jan-17 | – | 0% | 0.0 |
| Feb-17 | – | 0% | 0.0 |
| Mar-17 | – | 0% | 0.0 |
| Apr-17 | – | 0% | 0.0 |
| May-17 | – | 0% | 0.0 |
| Jun-17 | – | 0% | 0.0 |
| Jul-17 | 9,420 | 12% | 2.8 |
| Aug-17 | 9,192 | 11% | 2.7 |
| Sep-17 | 13,666 | 17% | 4.1 |
| Oct-17 | 9,263 | 11% | 2.7 |
Dandy Don Meredith had “canard” for this as well…
“In September 2011, the Department of Energy issued a $737 million loan guarantee to finance Crescent Dunes, a 110-MW concentrating solar power (CSP) plant near Tonopah, Nevada. It uses power tower technology that concentrates solar energy to heat molten salt, converting that heat into electricity. Upon completion, Crescent Dunes became the largest molten salt power tower in the world.” Thanks Obama! US DOE
From October 2015 through October 2017, Crescent Dunes generated 172,413 MWh of electricity. $737,000,000 divided by 172,413 MWh equals $4,274 per MWh… $4.27/kWh.
“Crescent Dunes is expected to generate 482,000 megawatt-hours of clean energy per year“… 100% output of 110 MW is 966,240 MWh/yr. They only expected a 50% capacity factor with the fracking molten salt storage.
Inside Climate News needs to edit their headline…
24-Hour 12-Hour Solar Energy: Molten Salt Makes It Possible
via Watts Up With That?
January 24, 2018 at 08:12AM
Iowa Climate Science Education 