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 →
Crescent Dunes will be generating electricity before the end of March, and SolarReserve’s south-central Nevada solar project won’t stumble out of the gate the way power-tower forerunner Ivanpah did, CEO Kevin Smith said in an interview with Breaking Energy. It would be an understatement to say there’s a lot riding on him being right. Crescent Dunes,… 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 →
A new study conducted by the University of Texas at Austin in conjunction with the Environmental Defense Fund and 10 oil companies pinpointed methane emissions sources at natural gas production operations. “Researchers found 19% of pneumatic devices accounted for 95% of the emissions from those devices. Meanwhile, 20% of the wells that vent emissions to… Keep reading →
Supercritical CO2 power cycles are gaining increasing attention in the engineering world. sCO2 is an ideal working fluid for use in power generating turbines because it offers high efficiency in a compact footprint and can be matched to many different heat sources. sCO2 power turbines could potentially replace steam cycles in a wide variety of… 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 →
It’s easy to dismiss solar as a bit energy player. Look at the most recent Energy Information Administration data and you’ll see that utility-scale solar provided around 9.3 terawatt-hours of U.S. electricity in 2013, a mere 0.23 percent of total generation. But here’s the thing: Those numbers and other current data on solar are fast-fading… Keep reading →
State and U.S. officials on Tuesday heralded completion of a draft plan for renewable energy development in the deserts of Southern California, one they hope will ease conflicts that have grown in number and intensity since work began on the plan five years ago. As an answer to climate change, conservationists have overwhelmingly supported President… Keep reading →
