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California Shuts Down Its Solar Thermal Plant 13 Years Early (www.instituteforenergyresearch.org)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by silence7@slrpnk.net to c/energy@slrpnk.net

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I'll note that this is a very atypical solar facility:

It burns significant amounts of methane gas for morning pre-heating
It's far less cost-effective than modern photovoltaics
Funding was from a mix of public money and a venture firm advised by RFK Jr.

I don't expect to see much more solar thermal built to replace it; photovoltaic has gotten too good and too cheap.

Edit: sorry about the source; only coverage so far

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[–] porksnort@slrpnk.net 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

That part surprises me too. Molten salt has hella heat capacity and insulation is cheap as can be. I don’t understand all the engineering ins and outs, so I may be off base. I can see the need to pre-heat the conduits that are needed for heat transfer, but the bulk of the thermal mass could molten for a long time.

Edit: i did some digging and read the OC post more closely. We are talking about two facilities that use two different configurations. Ivanpah is molten salt, the other uses steam generators and provides no storage. A different energy transfer scheme entirely.

As far as grid level energy storage schemes go, I have lately become enamored of compressed/liquid air projects.