Feel The Burn: World’s Largest Solar Plant Sets Itself on Fire
h/t Ed S
15 Replies to “We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Mirrors”
Link to a frog drink?
They should have just let it burn.
So solar in the desert doesn’t work and they talk about using it in Canada. Have all engineers gone wacky or just the ones seeking government work?
“misaligned mirrors” ? Really ? I thought the mirrors were all computer controlled by the most advanced solar tracking software in the history of the universe ? And only science-hating fundie conservative oil drinkers would question the veracity of this highly advanced power plant !
Or … is the REALITY … that all 12,000 mirrors are hand-tilted by low-wage illegal laborers ? Or the mirrors got put askew when the cut-rate cleaning crew were too aggressive when washing the desert sands off the face of the mirrors ? Didn’t factor that little problem into your computer models ?
Starting a fire by concentrating sunlight? Who knew?
(millions and millions of ants unavailable for comment)
Shut it down!
It is not as efficient as promised.
It kills thousands of birds.
It can blind pilots.
They tried this 35 years ago and it didn’t work then either.
Starting a fire is more risky than seems at first glance. This plant at Ivanpah only works because it’s got three huge gas-fired preheaters on its three towers. There is some possibility that a fire could actually blow the place up.
And for a solar facility, its use of gas is so high that it’s on the California state list of major emitters.
More money poured down the drain over this Wild and solar energy poppycock and enviromental idiots and their rediculous ideologies
From the linked article: “The Ivanpah plant works by using its massive fields of mirrors to direct sunlight towards the top of the three 459-foot boiler towers, which then creates the steam to drive turbines that create the actual electricity.”
Uh, no, the turbines don’t create electricity. They drive alternators, which actually generate the electricity.
When I see a wind mill farm or a solar plant like Ivanpah all I can think of is what a huge environmental disaster they are.
With its bird cooking capacity I’m surprised KFC hasn’t set up a chain of these and claimed a tax deduction or subsidy for the energy used.
nah. this was a secret deliberate military experiment to research a death ray.
the experiment was a success.
the great US of A will never run out of funds for weapons research. if they do get low, all that is needed is to find a despotic regime that needs changing and voila, steal all their resources in the name of democrapcy. its been done before.
Funny thing … after reading some weeks ago about the unmitigated economic disaster of this environmental insult … my first thought when reading about this fire was: ARSON ! Typical of some over-leveraged office building torched by its bankrupt owners, I expected that someone “misaligned” a mirror under cover of darkness … aimed specifically to cause catastrophic damage. Your reminder of the preheating plant of this FRAUDULENT green contraption has endorsed my original thought.
I have been by this boondoggle a few times
It is an abomination on the landscape.
The sooner it goes, the better (for me to crow about as well).
This also goes for all those damned windmills on the way out to Palm Springs.
That reminds me that the old Solar One plant outside Barstow
suffered a major fire after a transformer explosion. When they
banned PCB transformer coolants, they replaced them with a
mineral oil, that unlike PCB’s is flammable.
Link to a frog drink?
They should have just let it burn.
So solar in the desert doesn’t work and they talk about using it in Canada. Have all engineers gone wacky or just the ones seeking government work?
“misaligned mirrors” ? Really ? I thought the mirrors were all computer controlled by the most advanced solar tracking software in the history of the universe ? And only science-hating fundie conservative oil drinkers would question the veracity of this highly advanced power plant !
Or … is the REALITY … that all 12,000 mirrors are hand-tilted by low-wage illegal laborers ? Or the mirrors got put askew when the cut-rate cleaning crew were too aggressive when washing the desert sands off the face of the mirrors ? Didn’t factor that little problem into your computer models ?
Starting a fire by concentrating sunlight? Who knew?
(millions and millions of ants unavailable for comment)
Shut it down!
It is not as efficient as promised.
It kills thousands of birds.
It can blind pilots.
They tried this 35 years ago and it didn’t work then either.
Starting a fire is more risky than seems at first glance. This plant at Ivanpah only works because it’s got three huge gas-fired preheaters on its three towers. There is some possibility that a fire could actually blow the place up.
And for a solar facility, its use of gas is so high that it’s on the California state list of major emitters.
More money poured down the drain over this Wild and solar energy poppycock and enviromental idiots and their rediculous ideologies
From the linked article: “The Ivanpah plant works by using its massive fields of mirrors to direct sunlight towards the top of the three 459-foot boiler towers, which then creates the steam to drive turbines that create the actual electricity.”
Uh, no, the turbines don’t create electricity. They drive alternators, which actually generate the electricity.
When I see a wind mill farm or a solar plant like Ivanpah all I can think of is what a huge environmental disaster they are.
With its bird cooking capacity I’m surprised KFC hasn’t set up a chain of these and claimed a tax deduction or subsidy for the energy used.
nah. this was a secret deliberate military experiment to research a death ray.
the experiment was a success.
the great US of A will never run out of funds for weapons research. if they do get low, all that is needed is to find a despotic regime that needs changing and voila, steal all their resources in the name of democrapcy. its been done before.
Funny thing … after reading some weeks ago about the unmitigated economic disaster of this environmental insult … my first thought when reading about this fire was: ARSON ! Typical of some over-leveraged office building torched by its bankrupt owners, I expected that someone “misaligned” a mirror under cover of darkness … aimed specifically to cause catastrophic damage. Your reminder of the preheating plant of this FRAUDULENT green contraption has endorsed my original thought.
I have been by this boondoggle a few times
It is an abomination on the landscape.
The sooner it goes, the better (for me to crow about as well).
This also goes for all those damned windmills on the way out to Palm Springs.
That reminds me that the old Solar One plant outside Barstow
suffered a major fire after a transformer explosion. When they
banned PCB transformer coolants, they replaced them with a
mineral oil, that unlike PCB’s is flammable.