After already receiving a controversial $1.6 billion construction loan from U.S. taxpayers, the wealthy investors of a California solar power plant now want a $539 million federal grant to pay off their federal loan.
“This is an attempt by very large cash generating companies that have billions on their balance sheet to get a federal bailout, i.e. a bailout from us – the taxpayer for their pet project,” said Reason Foundation VP of Research Julian Morris. “It’s actually rather obscene.”
The Ivanpah solar electric generating plant is owned by Google and renewable energy giant NRG, which are responsible for paying off their federal loan. If approved by the U.S. Treasury, the two corporations will not use their own money, but taxpayer cash to pay off 30 percent of the cost of their plant, but taxpayers will receive none of the millions in revenues the plant will generate over the next 30 years. […]
In 2013, the Obama administration handed out $18.5 billion in renewable energy grants, with $4.4 billion going to solar projects.
Ivanpah is the largest concentrated solar power plant in the world. It was unveiled in February with great fanfare. Dr. Ernest Moniz, the U.S. Secretary of Energy, justified taxpayers’ investment at the time, saying, “We want to be technology leaders. It’s good for our economy and it’s also good for helping stimulate the global transition to low carbon.”
But since then the plant has not lived up to its clean energy promise. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the plant produced only about a quarter of the power it’s supposed to, a disappointing 254,263 megawatt-hours of electricity from January through August, not the million megawatt-hours it promised.
A NRG spokesman blamed the weather, saying the sun didn’t shine as often as years of studies predicted. However by the four-year mark, NRG has “every confidence that the plant will function as anticipated for the life of the facility,”according to the company.
Where’s Shylock when we need him?
All those news stories about the “streamers” (birds that were lit afire by the solar plant) didn’t help either.
>A NRG spokesman blamed the weather, saying the sun didn’t shine as often as years of studies predicted.<
dog vomit news
proverbs 26:11
“… only a thousand birds a year”. That’s a nice word, “only”. I suppose it could be considered “only” when you are deflecting a number like 28,000, or if you consider that wind turbines average more than half a million bird deaths each year.
By the way, how many birds are killed annually by the normal operation of oil/coal/natural gas-fired generation plants? Is it within one or two orders of magnitude of the “only a thousand” standard set by “earth-friendly” methods?
>only a thousand birds a year.<
omelet and broken eggs and death and destruction though "FOR THE PEOPLE GOD DAMN IT" !!11!!
ferguson news
link
Money would have been better spent on nuclear reactors.
– It’s really a damn shame. Nuclear is one of the most clean pollution free sources we have at the moment, and perfectly safe, until you turn it over to control by government regulators. Then it becomes an absolute crap shoot.
– Concerning the Solar scam racket, it’s safe to say however that by the four-year mark, NRG has “every confidence that the plant will be back for yet another bailout,”according to the company. – S
As Steven den Beste pointed out, fuel is all about energy density and when it comes to power plants it boils down to production capacity per acre.
Nuclear works out to roughly 1 MWh per acre (appx. 1000-1500 MWh on a plant covering 2 sq miles), 24/7/365, rain-or-shine. Solar is essentially cyclical, only available during daytime and entirely dependent upon weather, so estimates run between 5-20 acres per MWh, at best. Wind turbines cannot be spaced too closely, and are entirely weather-limited (clouds and rain severely limit energy production, as do dust/grime accumulation over the years), with the requirement that the wind speed be neither too low (no power generation at all during lulls) nor too high (risk of turbine damage), so the land requirement is roughly 60 acres per MWh.
And as far as energy density goes, there is only one fuel source that produces more power per gram than hydrocarbons, and that is nuclear. Period.
NRG spokesman quoted as saying “The sun’ll come out tomorrow. Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow there’ll be sun”
Ideology crashed upon the rocks of reality.
Hilarity ensues.
Greetings:
The energy is always greener on the other side of the future.
11B40, well said.
google should just dismantle its giant bird slaughtering machine and apologize for being so retarded
Sun, you’re such a faggot dude.