I compared total annual energy outputs of both systems to do the comparison so nighttime is already factored in. Most comparisons in the media use maximul rated output so that would be like saying that I can get to a town 120 miles away in one hour because my car does 120 mph. Nice in theory but road conditions and speed limits would make that impossible.
Also, Ivanpah uses gas to get it started in the morning. Apparently, the system cools down overnight! Who knew? I have assumed that is genuine solar output so the results are actually worse than they appear in my comprison.
Storage is a whole nother issue. The (once) coal-fired power station can be ramped up and down to suit demand while the solar power plant produces energy when the sun shines - needed or not. I did once try to work out how many batteries would be required to make a wind farm solution acceptable for the US and I did not get an answer in batteries. The answer came out as multiples of Tesla GigaFactories!
According to my notes, about 4,000 GigaFactories of batteries would be required to save one day's worth of US energy consumption (not just electricity). The factory I used as the basis was the production after four years of construction. It all takes raw materials so are we just replacing one mining operation with another one that will also run out one day and pollute?
Another missing issue that the enthusiasts gloss over is maintenance. It is rather like painting a large metal road bridge. As soon as you have finished you need to start again at the other end, and that applies to turbines, solar panels, mirrors and batteries. Maybe thousands of items would need to be replaced every day, for ever, even with a 30 year lifetime per unit.
I compared total annual energy outputs of both systems to do the comparison so nighttime is already factored in. Most comparisons in the media use maximul rated output so that would be like saying that I can get to a town 120 miles away in one hour because my car does 120 mph. Nice in theory but road conditions and speed limits would make that impossible.
Also, Ivanpah uses gas to get it started in the morning. Apparently, the system cools down overnight! Who knew? I have assumed that is genuine solar output so the results are actually worse than they appear in my comprison.
Storage is a whole nother issue. The (once) coal-fired power station can be ramped up and down to suit demand while the solar power plant produces energy when the sun shines - needed or not. I did once try to work out how many batteries would be required to make a wind farm solution acceptable for the US and I did not get an answer in batteries. The answer came out as multiples of Tesla GigaFactories!
According to my notes, about 4,000 GigaFactories of batteries would be required to save one day's worth of US energy consumption (not just electricity). The factory I used as the basis was the production after four years of construction. It all takes raw materials so are we just replacing one mining operation with another one that will also run out one day and pollute?
Another missing issue that the enthusiasts gloss over is maintenance. It is rather like painting a large metal road bridge. As soon as you have finished you need to start again at the other end, and that applies to turbines, solar panels, mirrors and batteries. Maybe thousands of items would need to be replaced every day, for ever, even with a 30 year lifetime per unit.