Bechtel Building Solar Thermal Plant
Bechtel was one of my favorite clients, back in the day when I was a marketing consultant for the large tech companies. That’s why I’m happy to see their participation in solar thermal; as discussed here, they’re building a $2.2 billion, 392 MW solar thermal (aka “concentrated solar power” or CSP) plant in the Mojave Desert.
True to form, almost half of the commenters on this post look at the $5.60 cost per Watt (based on the nameplate capacity) and write it off as a “renewable energy boondoggle.” I don’t see the relevance of the idea that, in its infancy, a certain clean energy technology costs more per Watt than fossil fuels. In fact, I can’t recall an historical example of an innovation in any industry beating the cost of the incumbent technology in its first few implementations. Was the first computer cost-competitive with the information technology of the day? Did the first car cost less than a horse?
These people’s argument really isn’t any better than this, and I think they know that; even the most simple-minded understand this intellectually. But that doesn’t seem to keep the fossil fuel boys from riling up the crowd.
Remember what they said it would cost for a machine to make cd’s
Cost per Watt is pretty meaningless measure except when comparing two installations of the same technology which will be operated in the same way.
But if we’re talking $/W, then Nuclear is $6/W. Of course, Nuclear *is* a boondoggle. The difference between Nuclear and CSP is that CSP prices will come down as Nuclear prices go up, CSP produces no waste and requires no fuel, and if a CSP plant fails, you have broken pipes and mirrors, not a environmental disaster.
This is EXACTLY correct. Beautifully said. Here’s another post on the cost of nuclear: http://2greenenergy.com/nuclear-power/2580/.
Hi Craig
Like in any industry, as more companies enter and supply goes up and meets the demand these companies start compete and the price goes down.
Is it correct that the amount of solar energy that reaches the earth each day is enough to sustain our requirements for eight years? In saying this not all of that is technologically available to use because we can’t have solar panels everywhere , but if had more CSP plants around our get planet. Surely we could supply more than we demand. I know that here in Australia we have plenty off places for CSP plants. With the use of super conductors could then transfer the energy over greater distances? Without losing any energy in the process?
Well, you’re right in that the challenge to this planet is harvesting 1/6000th of the power we receive from the sun.