Tag: solar power

Boiling Point: Farewell to Ivanpah, the world’s ugliest solar plant

Sometimes, government makes a bad bet.

Case in point: the Ivanpah solar project. Maybe you’ve seen the unsightly, blindingly bright towers while traveling from L.A. to Las Vegas, in the Mojave Desert near the California-Nevada state line. Maybe you’ve read about birds getting fried to death as they fly through the sunlight directed to the tops of the towers by fields of mirrors.

When state officials agreed to let Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison buy power from Ivanpah roughly 15 years ago, they saw this type of technology — known as “concentrated solar power” — as the future of renewable energy. It was expensive, but it would get cheaper over time — and therefore it made sense to let PG&E and Edison customers pay for it through their electric rates, state officials decided.

Federal officials made a similar bet, helping finance Ivanpah through $1.6 billion in loan guarantees.

They were all wrong. Ivanpah’s concentrated solar technology, which uses sunlight to heat a fluid and generate steam, never worked as well as expected. Meanwhile, solar photovoltaic panels that convert sunlight directly to electricity got super cheap. Ivanpah quickly became known as an expensive, bird-killing eyesore.

All of which led to PG&E’s surprise announcement this month that it had struck a deal with the plant’s owners to stop buying electricity from Ivanpah. Assuming that state officials sign off — which they most likely will, because the deal will lead to lower bills for PG&E customers — two of the three towers will shut down come 2026.

Ivanpah’s owners haven’t paid off the project’s $1.6-billion federal loan, and it’s unclear whether they’ll be able to do so. Houston-based NRG Energy, which operates Ivanpah and is a co-owner with Kelvin Energy and Google, said that federal officials took part in the negotiations to close PG&E’s towers and that the closure agreement will allow the federal government “to maximize the recovery of its loans.”

It’s possible Ivanpah’s third and final tower will close, too. An Edison spokesperson told me the utility is in “ongoing discussions” with the project’s owners and the federal government over ending the utility’s contract.

It might be tempting to conclude government should stop placing bets and just let the market decide.

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How Many More Ridiculous Green Energy Projects Will Fail?

The answer is all of them, in due time. Here are the latest spectacular failures.

Birds Fry Every Two Minutes

It took 10 years, and hundreds-of-thousands of dead birds, before the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in California would meet its fate.

The Wall Street Journal explains in ‘A Prolific Executioner of Wildlife’

An Obama-era monument to green delusions finally faces extinction.

Longtime readers may recall a 2014 Journal editorial about California’s “bird-fryer” solar plant, a taxpayer-backed venture that was hell on local animals. Turns out it was also hell on electricity ratepayers. But as with so many politically favored green ventures, waiting for official acknowledgment of failure can feel like an eternity.

Now finally here in 2025 it seems the reckoning has begun. The Las Vegas Review-Journal notes in an editorial that “a major California utility —  Pacific Gas & Electric — announced that it will no longer buy power from the Ivanpah solar plant off Interstate 15 near the Nevada-California border. As a result, two of the plant’s three towers will shut down next year — and the third will probably follow.”

The plant might have functioned merely as the world’s most expensive backyard bug zapper. But it was just too lethal. The Review-Journal’s Emerson Drewes reported last month:

Federal wildlife officials said Ivanpah might act as a “mega-trap” for wildlife, with the bright light of the plant attracting insects, which in turn attract insect-eating birds that fly to their deaths in the intensely focused light rays.

So many birds have been victims of the plant’s concentrated sun rays that workers referred to them as “streamers,” for the smoke plume that comes from birds that ignite in midair. When federal wildlife investigators visited the plant around 10 years ago, they reported an average of one “streamer” every two minutes.

Performance has proven so poor that PG&E has exercised its right to terminate the contract, about which negotiations have been completed; there is no doubt that towers 1 and 3 will cease operations within roughly a year. And it appears to be the case that Edison too wants out: “the utility is in ‘ongoing discussions’ with the project’s owners and the federal government over ending the utility’s contract.”

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China plans to build enormous solar array in space — and it could collect more energy in a year than ‘all the oil on Earth’

Chinese scientists have announced a plan to build an enormous, 0.6 mile (1 kilometer) wide solar power station in space that will beam continuous energy back to Earth via microwaves.

The project, which will see its components lofted to a geostationary orbit above Earth using super-heavy rockets, has been dubbed “another Three Gorges Dam project above the Earth.”

The Three Gorges Dam, located in the middle of the Yangtze river in central China, is the world’s largest hydropower project and generates 100 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year. According to one NASA scientist, the dam is so large that, if completely filled, the mass of the water contained within would lengthen Earth’s days by 0.06 microseconds.

The new project, according to lead scientist Long Lehao, the chief designer of China’s Long March rockets, would be “as significant as moving the Three Gorges Dam to a geostationary orbit 36,000km (22,370 miles) above the Earth.”

“This is an incredible project to look forward to,” Long added during a lecture in October hosted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), as reported by the South China Morning Post. “The energy collected in one year would be equivalent to the total amount of oil that can be extracted from the Earth.”

Despite recent advances in the cheapness and efficiency of solar power, the technology still faces some fundamental limitations — such as intermittent cloud cover and most of the atmosphere absorbing solar radiation before it hits the ground.

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The Real Costs of Solar and Wind Show How Insane the “Energy Transition” Is and Foretell the End of the Road for Net Zero

The Fraser Institute just reported some startling data regarding the real costs of electricity produced from solar and wind facilities, compared to other energy sources. Here are the money paragraphs (emphasis added):

Often, when proponents claim that wind and solar sources are cheaper than fossil fuels, they ignore [backup energy] costs. A recent study published in Energy, a peer-reviewed energy and engineering journal, found that—after accounting for backup, energy storage and associated indirect costs—solar power costs skyrocket from US$36 per megawatt hour (MWh) to as high as US$1,548 and wind generation costs increase from US$40 to up to US$504 per MWh.

Which is why when governments phase out fossil fuels to expand the role of renewable sources in the electricity grid, electricity become more expensive. In fact, a study by University of Chicago economists showed that between 1990 and 2015, U.S. states that mandated minimum renewable power sources experienced significant electricity price increases after accounting for backup infrastructure and other costs. Specifically, in those states electricity prices increased by an average of 11 per cent, costing consumers an additional $30 billion annually. The study also found that electricity prices grew more expensive over time, and by the twelfth year, electricity prices were 17 per cent higher (on average).

None of this is a surprise to anyone paying attention to the facts of what’s happened in Germany, for example, but the renewables industry and its promoters are fond of citing levelized costs analyses that don’t account for the myriad problems of intermittency when it comes to solar and wind. The two studies cited above do account for these costs and the results put an end to any suggestion green energy is affordable, let alone even close to competitive.

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Home Solar Systems Explode in Beirut, Lebanon Following Walkie-Talkie and Pager Blasts, Officials Say

Lebanon officials are now reporting that multiple home solar energy systems have reportedly exploded in various neighborhoods across Beirut.

This attack follows closely on the heels of Tuesday’s pager blasts, which claimed the lives of 12 and left nearly 4,000 wounded in what is rapidly becoming an unparalleled security nightmare for the terrorist organization.

On Wednesday, walkie-talkies exploded simultaneously at various Hezbollah-controlled locations across the country.

Now, reports emerged from Lebanon’s Official News Agency detailing how home solar systems—often touted as the solution to climate change—were also going up in flames.

Al Jazeera reported, “Several blasts took place simultaneously, Hashem said, similar to what happened on Tuesday. “But this time, it was mostly walkie-talkies or radios [that exploded],” he said, adding that reports suggested that solar devices and some batteries in cars also exploded. Lebanon’s official news agency reported that home solar energy systems exploded in several areas of Beirut.”

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PHOTON ENERGY SYSTEM THAT GENERATES 60 TIMES MORE POWER THAN SOLAR PANELS COULD POWER AN ELECTRIC CAR WITHOUT A BATTERY

New York-based tech company Wavja says the third generation of its proprietary Photon Energy System (PES), which employs tiny spheres to collect photonic energy, generates over 60 times the output of similarly sized traditional solar panels. According to a new video released by the company, the next generation of the PES could soon be powerful enough to run an electric car without a battery.

The company says its system can also capture light energy from artificial sources, including LED lighting, and convert it to usable electricity, offering both indoor and outdoor applications.

“Our system generates remarkable luminosity by utilizing multiple layers of cutting-edge materials and specialized spheres,” explains Shereen Chen, co-founder and executive director of Wavja USA, in the recently posted video. “This luminosity is then seamlessly converted to electricity using our proprietary technology.”

“It revolutionizes how we harvest sunlight,” Chen adds.

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Thousands of Beloved Joshua Trees to Be Chopped Down in Maniacal CA Solar Energy Push

The Joshua tree. The beloved gnarled California icon—revered by desert aficionados and nature conservationists and considered to be endangered—is nevertheless under assault in a weird twist: environmentalists battling environmentalists.

The tree is held in such high regard by people who love the natural world that supergroup U2 named perhaps their finest album after it, titling their 1987 multi-hit record simply “The Joshua Tree.”

The symbolism was not lost on their fans.

But woke is pitted against woke, as the ancient trees now face the chopping block as the crazed “green energy” crowd is poised to destroy the land and thousands of these ancestral growths:

A renewable energy company will soon begin clearing thousands of protected Joshua trees just outside this desert town, including many thought to be a century old, to make way for a sprawling solar project that will generate power for 180,000 homes in wealthier coastal neighborhoods.

The 2,300-acre project has angered residents of Boron and nearby Desert Lake, two small Kern County towns where the poverty rate is twice the California average. Residents say their concerns about construction dust, as well as the destruction of the mostly pristine land that is habitat for endangered desert tortoises, have been ignored by the county and state officials who approved it.

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Farmers are being booted off their land in a drive for more solar power, former union chief warns

The former head of Britain’s farming union yesterday spoke out against large-scale solar farms, declaring ‘there’s a huge amount not to like’.

But Minette Batters warned they will continue to be built while her members faced uncertainty about the future of dairy and arable farming – and while wealthy investors are free to buy up large chunks of the countryside.

Ms Batters, the ex-president of the National Farmers’ Union, also highlighted ‘horrific examples’ where tenant farmers are being booted off land for huge solar schemes so the landowner can make more money.

She said such changes of land use will continue while investors including overseas financiers and private equity firms are able to buy up huge chunks of the rural landscape unchecked, warning: ‘The country is up for sale’.

Ms Batters called for the next government to prioritise a new land strategy, so protections are given to traditional farming and its economic value is properly-acknowledged.

She added: ‘We are a country up for sale. We are selling off land to people who don’t pay their taxes here. It does have to change.’

Ms Batters was speaking during a debate at the Hay Literary Festival on Tuesday, in response to a question from an audience member horrified about the proliferation of giant solar farms covering several square miles of land.

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World’s Largest Floating Solar Farm Wrecked By A Storm Just Before Launch

Anyone who has ever owned a boat, particular a large boat which gets left in the water, knows what a harsh environment the sea can be. Some kind of failure was inevitable. If it hadn’t been a storm, there are plenty of other things which could have gone wrong.

Greens keep telling us we can expect more frequent and extreme superstorms – so what is the point of building vulnerable floating structures?

Plastics tend to disintegrate under tropical sunlight, especially when in contact with water or water spray. Ultraviolet from the sun drives exotic chemical reactions, which leads to chemical breakdown.

Metal sitting in water is difficult to manage, even stainless steel is not immune to corrosion. All metal structures in contact with water need to be protected with sacrificial anodes or comparable protective measures. Electricity and metal are an especially bad combination, any electrical fault which causes a current to run through metal in contact with water can cause corrosion to occur thousands of times faster than normal.

Let us hope developers and politicians take the hint, and stop throwing our money at inherently flawed ideas like floating solar arrays.

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NOVEL MATERIAL CAPABLE OF 190% QUANTUM EFFICIENCY COULD REVOLUTIONIZE SOLAR POWER SYSTEMS

A new material capable of greatly improving the efficiency of solar power systems reportedly raised the quantum efficiency of solar panels to an unprecedented 190% during recent tests.

A prototype was developed by researchers with Lehigh University with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, which features an active layer in a solar cell using the material that reportedly also achieved an average photovoltaic absorption of close to 80%.

Photovoltaic (PV) systems are electric systems that can provide usable solar power, usually involving solar panels that collect sunlight and convert it into electricity. Additional components include a solar inverter used to convert the power output into alternating current that can be used to power conventional devices.

Traditional solar cells possess a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 100%, which means they can generate and collect a single electron for each photon they absorb through sunlight collected. In recent years, advancements in materials used for such systems have shown promise for increased generation and collection of electrons from high-energy photons.

The efficiency displayed by the new prototype tested by the Lehigh University team far exceeds the current theoretical limits for conventional silicon-based materials used in such PV systems and could potentially revolutionize the field involving the quantum materials they rely on.

Chinedu Ekuma, a physics professor specializing in computational condensed matter physics, says experiments with the new material mark a significant leap toward the development of novel energy solutions that are both more sustainable and accessible.

Ekuma and the team behind the discovery attribute the new material’s remarkable capabilities to what the refer to as “intermediate band states,” which involve certain energy levels that are built into the material’s electronic structure, helping to optimize their ability to convert solar energy.

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