The Wall Street Journal has returned attention to the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, the $2.2 billion Department of Energy-backed concentrating solar power plant whose slow start became the subject of some controversy after a Breaking Energy story last fall. The Journal reported that “15 months after starting up, the California plant is producing just 40… Keep reading →
The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System had a good November, and by the end of the month the controversial “power tower” plant in the Mojave Desert had topped 400,000 megawatt-hours of electricity generation since beginning operation in January 2014. New data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows that the three ISEGS units pumped out… Keep reading →
BrightSource Energy says the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is doing just fine, and that all along the company expected the “power tower” concentrating solar plant in California to take four years to hit full stride. Meanwhile, the latest federal reports indicate that in the first three quarters of the year the plant produced a… Keep reading →
News broke late last week the world’s second and third largest oil field services providers Halliburton and Baker Hughes were in merger negotiations. The combined company would more effectively compete with Schlumberger, the world’s largest oilfield service company. The deal briefly went hostile when it was reported over the weekend that Halliburton would make a… Keep reading →
Whether scorched birds are a major issue at the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in California is a matter of dispute. But the “power tower” solar plant and its owners – NRG Energy, Google and BrightSource Energy – might have an even more fundamental problem on their hands: generating adequate electricity. The Mojave Desert plant,… Keep reading →
What the flux? Renewable energy and its advocates and detractors are having a moment, that’s what, a bout of hysteria after the Associated Press revealed that, OMG, renewables aren’t a magical force capable of keeping our air conditioners humming and big-screen TVs aglow without exacting some toll. As with wind, the toll here is in… Keep reading →
The 377 MW Ivanpah solar plant started up in California today amid controversy over wildlife apparently killed by the intense heat emitted from the solar receivers located on top of the facility’s “power towers.” 3,500 acres of specially-designed mirrors focus the sun’s radiation on the towers, which convert water to steam used to spins power-generating… Keep reading →
Silver Spring Networks topped Inc. Magazine’s rankings. The editors at Inc. magazine have released their rankings of the 5,000 fastest-growing companies in America. The list offers an interesting snapshot of where growth is taking place in the energy sector. The boom in America’s unconventional oil and gas development is clearly evident on the list. Out of the 110 energy… Keep reading →
In a remarkable document, the head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s division office in Palm Springs, Calif., is asking that regulators put off approval of proposed power tower solar projects in order to get data on the impact they could have on birds and bats.
The request to the California Energy Commission and other regulators – first reported by Chris Clarke on the ReWire blog – comes as BrightSource Energy, which is more than halfway done with the Ivanpah plant in the Mojave Desert, is pursuing permits to build the Rio Mesa and Hidden Hills power tower projects in the Southern California desert. This type of concentrating solar power technology uses heliostats – large mirrors – to direct light onto a receiving tower, where water or other fluids can be heated and then used to produce energy. Keep reading →
It is adjustment time for the solar sector, and that is putting it mildly.
The scale, and more important, speed of changes taking place within the energy sector are truly unprecedented. And the resulting surprises, making winner and losers out of the stakeholders in unexpected ways, are equally stunning. Keep reading →
