#Ivanpah

[supplyside]

Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, California

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[thorsenmark]

Dumont High Dune with a Mountain Backdrop by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: What drew me into this setting was the look across the Mojave Desert to the sand dunes and then more distant mountains with its ridges and peaks.

[anonymusbosch]

note: that's 10^8 lux (important distinction!)

note 2: I've seen 10^8 lux! I will attest that it's indeed uncomfortable and mildly dangerous to one's eye health to look at something illuminated that brightly (we wore heavy duty sunglasses). It's bright enough that you can see the illuminated object twice over in the internal reflections of a pane of glass!* I will also attest that this illumination level will cause many common materials to catch fire or melt without substantial cooling <3

*as in, you can see the object reflected off the back surface as well as the front. I'm not sure what the threshold is for seeing the reflection from the light bouncing three times inside the glass is but I've seen that as well

Wikipedia quote of the day: while at the bright end, it is possible to read large text at 108 lux, or about 1000 times that of direct sunlight, although this can be very uncomfortable and cause long-lasting afterimages.[citation needed]

[denkym]

SOLAR TOWER - Ivanpah, CA

[eriklolsen]

The Ivanpah Solar Project is an Engineering Solar Power Giant in the Mojave Desert

The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is one of the largest concentrated solar power (CSP) plants in the world. Since its completion in 2014, Ivanpah has been celebrated as a major milestone in renewable energy innovation. With caveats.

Ivanpah Solar Power Facility (Erik Olsen) In the heart of the Mojave Desert, a glittering sea of mirrors sprawls across 3,500 acres, harnessing the relentless desert sun to power homes and businesses across California. As you drive to or from Las Vegas to the West, the facility rises from the desert, resembling an alien spaceport in the distance. From the air, passengers on flights over the…

[chariotenergy]

The Efficiency and Effectiveness of Solar Energy

The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, situated in California’s Mojave Desert, is among the largest solar thermal power plants globally. This facility uses mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto receivers mounted on power towers. The concentrated heat generates steam that drives turbines to produce electricity. 

Ivanpah has a capacity of up to 392 megawatts (MW), sufficient to power 140,000 homes each year. This enormous solar plant demonstrates the potential of solar energy to address large-scale electricity needs while significantly cutting carbon emissions. It also illustrates how the process of solar energy can be implemented on a grand scale to support national energy requirements.

The Environmental Impact of Solar Energy

One of the most compelling reasons to invest in solar energy in the United States is its minimal environmental impact. Unlike fossil fuels, which release harmful pollutants and contribute to climate change, solar energy is clean and renewable. By comprehending the process of solar energy, we can appreciate how it significantly contributes to lowering the country’s carbon footprint.

Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Using solar energy greatly cuts down on greenhouse gas emissions. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the average residential solar panel system can offset approximately 3 to 4 tons of carbon dioxide annually, equivalent to planting over 100 trees each year.

For more info, visit our website at https://chariotenergy.com/

[moko1590m]

Ivanpah 太陽光発電システムは、モハーベ砂漠にある集中太陽熱発電所です。ネバダ州プリムから州境を越えたカリフォルニア州クラーク山の麓に位置します。この発電所の総容量は 392 メガワットです。

Ivanpah Solar Power Facility - Wikipedia

[kkonstan]

Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, Mojave Desert, California

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Ivanpah - Power controller- Sets of mirrors, called heliostats, are aligned with the tracking systems shown here. Software helps ensure that all of the mirrors move in a coordinated way through the day

[vanaprasthi]

Mojave NP

Canyon loop, south of Ivanpah CA

[thorsenmark]

I Will Not Stumble As I Go Forward by Mark Stevens

[jcmarchi]

Suspended Solar Panels See the Light - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/suspended-solar-panels-see-the-light-technology-org/

Suspended Solar Panels See the Light - Technology Org

NASA engineering validated the pleasing, practical design of suspended solar panels.

Imagine a bridge twisting and rolling as it’s battered by high winds before eventually collapsing into the river below. This happened in 1940, when the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington state shook itself apart on a windy November day. This collapse resulted in huge changes to engineers’ approach to suspension cable-based designs – not only in large projects like bridges but in smaller cases as well.

NASA developed a spreadsheet program that proved the Skysun suspended solar design would not be susceptible to destructive oscillations at any scale. A larger installation, the solar pergola (artist’s rendering pictured) further advances the design by suspending panels above a patio. Image credit: Skysun LLC

In 2012, Jim Clair was considering investing in renewable energy and came across concentrating solar power. Unlike photovoltaic panels, which make electricity with semiconductors, concentrators work by reflecting large amounts of sunlight onto a small receiver, heating it up immensely. This heat then generates electricity via a steam turbine.

To explore this technology, Clair founded Skysun LLC of Cleveland. Because the Sun changes position throughout the day, moving the mirrors to direct the most light at the receiver is vital. Clair thought a suspended solar panel cable design would make moving the mirrors easier, but he recalled the warping bridge.

“Every engineer wants to avoid a Tacoma Narrows,” Clair said. “Anytime an engineer or physicist sees a tensile-based suspension structure, the first thing they think is, ‘We need to make sure this is not going to set up a destructive oscillation.’”

The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is an example of a concentrated solar power plant, which works by having hundreds of reflective panels heating up a central tower. The problem of keeping sunlight directed at the receiver throughout the day brought Jim Clair to request NASA’s help in validating the suspended design now used in Skysun solar power systems. Image credit: Cliff Ho/U.S. Department of Energy

Because his primary education was in economics, not engineering, Clair needed help to determine whether his idea of suspended solar panels would be safe under high winds. This brought him to the Adopt-A-City program, a collaboration between NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, the government of Cuyahoga County, and MAGNET, a local business-development nonprofit.

Over several years, the program helped companies across Northeast Ohio improve their technologies with NASA expertise.

Paul Bartolotta, a project manager now retired from NASA, oversaw selecting the companies and matching their problems with NASA experts. After seeing how multidisciplinary Clair’s project was, he chose Skysun as part of the 2016 Adopt-A-City class.

Trevor Jones, a dynamicist at Glenn, went to Lorain Community College to work with a prototype of the system Clair had set up there. Jones induced vibrations in the cables with hammers and took measurements of the resulting oscillations and their potential effects on suspended solar panels.

The Skysun Solar Pollinator is designed to be suspended above plants that thrive in partial shade, and it can generate up to two kilowatts of power. The suspended solar panel design was validated by Glenn Research Center dynamicists under the Adopt-A-City program. Image credit: Skysun LLC

Based on all this data, Jones designed a spreadsheet that could accurately model the tensile strength of the design against wind-induced oscillations at any scale. With the dimensions plugged in, the spreadsheet program did the math and proved that Clair’s idea would work without shaking apart.

While the company is still pursuing concentration-based solar power, Skysun currently makes suspended solar panel installations that use standard photovoltaic panels that can be hung over an area as easily as a hammock. The initial product, Solar Pollinator, is designed to be suspended over plants that thrive in partial shade. Like a concentrator, the panels can track the Sun to maximize exposure.

Skysun has installed multiple Solar Pollinators around the Cleveland area and is preparing to set up its first, larger Solar Pergola system of suspended solar panels. The pergola generates up to three to five kilowatts of power in places where more permanent solar installations can’t be placed, such as rented homes or leased business space.

Clair credits NASA’s help as instrumental to the designs of both these products.

“We could’ve just given him the answer, but instead we gave him a spreadsheet program that works on all his installations,” Bartolotta said. “He kept plugging along, and I’m proud of him.”

Source: NASA

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[travelhomedesign]

Exactly How Can Solar Energy Reduce Garden Greenhouse Gases?

Most of us require electricity to fulfill our daily demands. Generally, this was accomplished along with fossil fuels which trigger damaging exhausts as well as support temperature modification.

Solar energy is emission-free and also produces no greenhouse gases in the course of its creation method. It likewise gets rid of the need to get rid of nonrenewable energies, which is actually a primary factor to air contamination in The United States.

Photovoltaics (PV)

The solar energy produced through PV cells generates power without burning, thereby staying clear of CO2 discharges as well as other greenhouse gases. There are actually some greenhouse gasoline exhausts connected with the exploration and production of PV doors as well as a small quantity of misuse created at the end of their daily life pattern.

Couple of power-generating modern technologies possess a reduced life-cycle carbon footprint than solar power. This makes photovoltaic a noticeable choice to reinforce a worldwide shift to low-carbon power.

Solar selection can easily lower hazardous air pollutants including nitrous oxides, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter, which have been connected to constant respiratory disease, asthma, heart attack, as well as shed days. It can additionally decrease smog-forming toxins, and lower dependence on price-volatile nonrenewable fuel sources that have helped in the current temperature problems.

ACCIONA's study activities include the adhering to locations:

Focusing renewable energy (CSP)

Given that the 1980s, focusing renewable energy (CSP) technologies have actually been used around the world to produce electric energy. 9 concentrating sunlight vegetations are actually presently working in California's Mojave Desert, consisting of the Ivanpah Solar energy Resource (392 MW without thermic electricity storage space) and Ouarzazate (510 MW utilizing consolidated trough/tower bodies).

Like PV solar powers, CSP produces electric power directly coming from direct sunlight; however, unlike PV innovation, CSP technologies make use of exemplifies and also tracking bodies to focus the sun's warmth on a power tower or a series of cylinders loaded with a warm fluid (like oil). This concentrated heat is then used to generate steam that drives turbines as well as power generators to produce electricity.

The heat energy from the concentrated sunshine is actually saved, normally in molten salts or thermally-efficient synthetic or mineral oils that possess low melting points as well as high boiling points to allow all of them to remain hot for hrs. These power storage services are what specified CSP other than various other replenishable innovations, allowing vegetations to create electricity during the course of the "shoulder" hours when the sun isn't sparkling as brightly.

Solar thermic power

Using solar power for power creation helps in reducing co2 emissions, which is one of the major sources of worldwide warming. It's likewise a renewable energy resource that doesn't need the constant origin of nonrenewable fuel sources. This means that it will be actually readily available for generations to follow.

Although there are actually some greenhouse gas discharges linked with production, setting up as well as maintaining a solar power device, it generates substantially less life-cycle GHGs than coal and also various other fossil fuels. Therefore, it is actually the cleanest, very most sustainable option for creating power in the USA.

Solar thermal units use solar collectors to absorb sun light as well as amplify its own magnitude to create warm, which may be made use of for warm water or even room heating system. This innovation is essentially satisfied for large-scale jobs that may be sited on farming land, grassland or in deserts. An acre of solar powers may be anticipated to produce 144-166 times a lot more carbon cost savings than an acre of woodland.

Wind power

Solar and wind power may aid make up for greenhouse gas discharges coming from nonrenewable energies by producing electrical energy that decreases the need for other forms of power production. Additionally, wind and also photovoltaic modern technologies may assist deal with the urban heat island effect, which induces urban areas to end up being hotter than their bordering locations as a result of asphalt, concrete and also tall buildings carrying and also absorbing on to squander solar energy.

Some critics of renewable energies dispute that the electricity utilized to build and function photo voltaic and also wind vegetations comes with higher covert green house fuel exhausts, counteracting their climate advantages. But a brand-new review locates that the symbolized exhausts of nuclear, wind and also solar power are actually considerably less than recently thought. Once you need to discover the latest information about solar energy, you've to look at https://www.solarboxlondon.org website.

A life-cycle analysis matched up the indirect and also direct exhausts related to creating a device of electrical power coming from various sources in 2050, in a 2C world. Solar, wind and also nuclear were actually revealed to become significantly less than fossil fuels. They likewise don't need fuel-delivery structure like gasoline pipelines, charcoal bursts and also railways.

[energiasdelfuturohoy]

Desierto de California: dilema ecológico por desarrollos de energía solar

Los desarrollos de energía solar en zonas desérticas deben ser realizados ,como todos los proyectos de este tipo de energía, luego de profundos y exhaustivos análisis ambientales para garantizar la debida protección a las especies de estos particulares hábitats

El gran desierto de California con su gran extensión y su abundante sol , pareciera contar con todos los ingredientes necesarios para el rápido desarrollo de la industria de la energía solar. Sin embargo esto no es así, y los proyectos de energía solar también suscitan resistencias y , entre estas, se encuentran algunos destacados ambientalistas. ¿Por qué? Veamos.

El escenario de la controversia es el paisaje del desierto del Mojave en California. Aquí , la extensión del territorio permitiría el desarrollo de números emprendimientos de parques solares . De hecho, este desierto ya posee otras instalaciones de energía solar, dos de las cuales son de dimensiones colosales. La de Ivanpah, está ubicada entre Los Ángeles y Las Vegas; y la de Desert Sunlight Solar Farm, se encuentra entre Los Ángeles y Phoenix.

Cada una de estas mega plantas solares, produce cientos de miles megavatios de energía y son parte del compromiso del gobierno de los Estados Unidos para la reducción de las emisiones de carbono. Pero, no todo es color de rosa.

Algunos costos ambientales que no deben pasar inadvertidos

Existen objetivos que, en principio, estos emprendimientos de energías renovables comparten los defensores del medio ambiente. Aunque no siempre, es así. “Hay varios problemas que hacen que en el desierto de California la instalación de desarrollos de energía solar sea un tema complicado”, explicó Richard Miller, analista de medio ambiente en Santa Mónica College, California.

“Ninguna fuente de energía es completamente “gratis” en cuanto a los costos medioambientales y son temas que deben ser analizados en cada caso. Por ejemplo, hoy podemos llevar adelante una discusión seria acerca de los costos de solarizar el desierto”, añadió el profesional.

“Algunos de estos costos para el medioambiente en primera instancia, no se piensan ni se tienen en cuenta. Por ejemplo, para la construcción de las instalaciones hay que pensar en el tráfico de camiones yendo y viniendo por el desierto para transportar el material, lo que implica una importante cuota de dióxido de carbono liberada en durante el proceso y la consiguiente contaminación sonora para las especies autóctonas”

Desarrollo y aplicación de un plan integral de evaluación

Desde luego, y más allá de las emisión de CO2 a la atmósfera está la preocupación por cómo todo el proceso puede afectar a las especies que viven en el desierto.

Para los activistas medioambientales las inquietudes sobre el impacto de los proyectos de energía solar en el hábitat silvestre del desierto, deben recibir un tratamiento integral. Es decir , que se debe asegurar que las decisiones para la aprobación de nuevos proyectos de energías renovables sean tomados teniendo en cuenta todos los factores necesarios para garantizar que su viabilidad no afecte de modo negativo a los ecosistemas desérticos.

Las organizaciones medioambientales sugieren sumar a las evaluaciones, una serie de encuentros y trabajo conjunto con las empresas de la industria de las energías renovables y los grupos nativos y locales, para poder identificar qué zonas deben ser protegidas y conservadas, cuáles deben ser dedicadas a la recreación, y cuáles a los desarrollos de energías renovables.

Buscar las mejores áreas para los desarrollos renovables

“Bajo esta mirada integral se intentará determinar las mejores áreas para el desarrollo de proyectos de energía solar, eólica y geotérmica en el desierto de California”, indicó Martha Maciel, portavoz de Greenpeace California.

El equipo de investigación que lidera el Dr Miller propuso tres criterios fundamentales para encontrar la zona ideal para los desarrollos de renovables:

* Identificar zonas en las que existe poco conflicto con el medio ambiente, la vida natural o silvestre y las comunidades indígenas

* Identificar aquellas zonas de fácil acceso para el traslado de la energía a los centros urbanos

* Identificar aquella zonas que presenten las mejores condiciones para el desarrollo de proyectos de energía solar

Foco en la conservación de especies

Desde el punto de vista de los ambientalistas, las grandes instalaciones solares en sí no son negativas, sólo hay que estudiar bien dónde deben ser ubicadas .

Para tranquilizar a los ambientalistas, el Dr Richard Miller indicó que el plan es profundo y tiene en cuenta a todas las variables importantes para tomar buenas decisiones .

“Una vez que es aprobado el plan”, indicó Miller , “si una empresa de energía solar presenta una solicitud para instalar una planta en una zona que se decidió que se debe conservar , se le denegará todo permiso, ya que el plan estará respaldado por un marco regulatorio legal muy exigente” finalizó el investigador para tranquilizar las aguas.

Originally published at https://energiasdelfuturohoy.com/ on July 7, 2023.