From: Michael Foster
Speaking of solar towers, does anyone know why Solar One,
which became Solar Two, was decommissioned? It was in Daggett,
CA, and was visible from I-15 on your way from Los Angeles to
Las Vegas. Steam-on-a-stick, as it was called, seemed to be
producing plenty of electricity, so why was it shut down?
Political? Economic? What?
There is a thread here:
http://tinyurl.com/cts5u
It seems three things were happening (to paraphrase):
1) Solar Two was inaugurated in June 1996 and was scheduled to
produce power only
through 1999. During this time, Solar Two underwent continuous
testing and evaluation. Several members of the Solar Two
Consortium, including Bechtel Corporation and Rocketdyne Division
of Boeing, are apparently still exploring commercial prospects
for power towers, now that natural gas has gone way up but neither
of these companies is very competetive in power generation, and
Bechtel has been tainted recently by allegations of payoffs
everywhere - neither were a good choice for partners in this -
they might as well have chosen Enron.
It was a demonstration project which ended as scheduled. These is
no apparent evidence it
was not done right...but...
2) It was high higher maintenance than expected. Two other solar
plants have had therminol explosions (up to 900,000 gallons
worth)... faily dangerous for the amount of power they produce.
Why they did not use molten salt is a mystery.
3) Also keep in mind that due to our genius bagman, i.e. former
Gov. Pete Wilson and his greed inspired fine deregulation policy
(not to mention incredible charisma) feeding right into the hands
of Enron and its PAC buddies (tell 'em how you really feel !) Con
Ed was required to sell many power plants and become more a
distributor than producer.
They probably could not find a buyer, or even donee ! for Solar
Two, after the project ended, as gas fired plants may be cheaper
than solar due to maintenance issues, even if they give the plant
away.
...or so it seems
Jones
