TRIP REPORT - SOLANA GENERATING STATION - The Solar Meltdown
I was on a road trip recently and I came across the SOLANA GENERATING STATION located near Phoenix Arizona, in Gila Bend.
I was amazed, the Solana solar plant is the 3rd largest in the world covering over 3 square miles of land. Arizona is a suitable place to build a large solar plant because it is a sunny state. A wonderful feature of this particular plant is the Concentrated Solar Thermal. The use of CST is storing energy when it is dark.
The construction of this plant signified the beginning of the reign of solar power as it was expected to generate 32 megawatts and power over 8500 homes. Alas, the plant has been beset with troubles since it became operational in 2013.
Solana's solar field contains about 900,000 parabolic mirrors, using a technology much different from the photovoltaic panels seen on many rooftops in metro Phoenix. To generate electricity, Solana's mirrors collect sunlight and focus it on tubes that contain a molten material, which heats up to more than 530 degrees Fahrenheit. The hot liquid is then pumped to two steam turbines that can put out a combined maximum 280 megawatts. About 30 megawatts of the electricity generated is needed to run the plant.
Its troubles began in 2014 when a specific machine whose function was to ensure that the oxides of nitrogen were not released to the earth’s atmosphere got faulty. The management did not perform required checks to ensure that the equipment was working properly. The plant has also battled leaks from containers, fire outbreaks and issues concerning low wages to employees.
Another major issue was the air pollution problems, in 2014; the company was investigated to find out if they had failed to keep the air quality rules. They were a fined a whopping 1.5 million dollars for not maintaining air quality standards. Due to these issues, they have not been able to keep up to their promises.
Solana did generate more electricity in its second year but is still well below its advertised potential. The plant did worse the second quarter of 2016 than it did in the same period in 2015. And with a July 2016 “microburst", the plant's third-quarter results for 2016 were abysmal.
Shout out to @chiama, I saw her article on Solar Power and remembered I should post something about Solana!
https://steemit.com/technology/@chiama/solar-power-mtn-lumos-making-solar-energy-affordable
Cheers!
SY-
It’s amazing to find out that this company reason to be build is for clean energy, however they got in to trouble and fined for the opposite reason, they were actually polluting the environment. It’s almost hard to belive. I’m 100% pro clean energy, but they obviously have a long way to go. I was actually considering having installed solar panels on one side of our house’s roof, but the price for installation and material was just way too high, even with the governments tax deduction. It would take too long to get my investment back, if ever (considering maintenance and repairs). Of course, one day I can regret it not having sollar panels installed. If we ever have a blackout, as a matter of fact we not so long ago had in NY for three days, which was a nightmare, but f..k it, I will always find some alternatives. At least we will save on bill.lol
From what I can gather, this plant uses a technology that's really not viable!
Circulating molten metals in pipes among 1 MIL solar reflectors is just asking for upkeep nightmares.
They shoudl just shut it down or convert it but I do not believe this is a a viable tech, because it generates all kinds of negative chemical reactions that have to be compensated for artificially, and there is piping that goers all over (prone to leaks) and mechanical fixtures, SO MUCH TO GO WRONG. I don't believe it will ever really make a profit. It's a huge boondoggle from what I can see there... So seriously poor in design.
Fuck haha I saw tis post thinking COOL yeah Arizona with the SOLAR farm Nice and then I read the first comment and I was like aw man its broken? and its a solar farm that pollutes the environment LOL wtf
I want to just hope tha regulations are too strict but sounds like a piece of shit that some guys had built to make them rich Lol like they tried some new technology that probably would kinda work, but its like fuck why di we just build that shit LOL more problems than its worth! Fro what it sounds with the molten metal Lol wtf can't they use steem instead?
This place looks like big steel plates from the sky. Solar panels are great renewable source of energy. It is great source of energy in my country india because india is warm place like africa and summers lasted for 7 to 9 months a year. There is big shortage of electricity in my country so most of people use this solar panel at home to produce electricity. Thanks for sharing solana's trip experience with us.
I’m a huge fan of solar energy. Actualy anything that has to do with solar energy I’m up for it. Unfortunately it seems like they always take two steps back for every one step forward. Look at the solar stocks, it doesn’t help them much either. Now as you mentioned Solana is polluting atmosphere, which to me is so careless, they should be doing the exact opposite. They should know better. They have a lot to improve, just like crypto does. But at the end both solar energy and crypto are the bright future and we should take an advantage of these situations. Especially crypto, I hope we get one more dip, this famous panic selling dip. I’m not afraid of these kind of dips since I belive in crypto and it’s only matter of time when new bull market starts. Now it’s a great opportunity to add to portfolio.
Oh yeah, I always considered solar panels to be safe for the environment and I was amazed that it turns out that not all is clean, very interesting stuff! Thank you @surfyogi
Here in my country you need a plant so the electric service with motors in dams does not work every time it is more deficient since they do not do maintenance to propiado would be a nice and positive project to build a solar power station here
Most of these faults are due the managements negligence.
Same thing happened to the bhopal plant during the gas tragedy.
Had we humans did our work properly, things would have been much better.
Unfortunate that such a big solar plant is not put to its best use.
I had no idea about solana solar plant.Now this is highly needed for the entire world to collect their energy from a different source.Solar is going to be the biggest source of electricity all over the world.Thanks for the post.@upvoted and resteemed
In Morocco We have one of the biggest solar generators in Africa (the biggest project for our country so far)
@surfyogi perfect , but they have air pollution! how incredible! the opposite is what they have now. It shows technologies maybe it could be the future as crypto.
Always happy to know tech..I voted you.
i am a strong believer in solar and all natural resourcesi think thats what best to keep down pollution