Jed, it really depends upon what the weather is doing. That is a brand new solar trough plant at the link I sent you that shows the mirror washing truck with a robotic arm. You can have one high wind/dust storm in the desert that screws up all of your mirrors suddenly and you lose 40% flux. Deserts have a lot of dirt/dust, that is why they are called deserts. Solar troughs are nice and long and straight and easier to drive up/down, although being parabolic they look like a bitch to wash.
Brightsource mentioned a "robotic wash" vehicle with one operator. I think they mean a driver and some sort of robot arm just like the link I gave you. http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/green-tech/solar/how-do-you-clean-258048-solar-thermal-mirrors-trucks-with-robot-arms 375,000 mirrors is a lot of mirrors to wash. At 15 seconds per mirror that is.....65 days?? not including time for refills...That terrain around those heliostats is not nice and smooth like in front of the troughs, Google is not researching nor investing in any more solar thermal like brightsource NRG's CEO, the other invester of Ivanbpah said: "There's no doubt," said NRG Chief Executive Officer David Crane, "in terms of price competitiveness, solar photovoltaic is cheaper." It represents the future of solar energy, he suggested, not solar thermal generating systems, like Ivanpah http://calwatchdog.com/2014/02/16/ivanpah-solar-plant-bets-on-wrong-technology/ On Wed, Mar 5, 2014 at 10:56 AM, Jed Rothwell <[email protected]> wrote: > ChemE Stewart <[email protected]> wrote: > > Solar panels and mirrors need to be cleaned almost daily if efficiencies >> are to stay where they need to be. >> > That is not what the researchers at Google and others associated with this > installation say. I recall they said mirrors need to be washed every week > or so. Perhaps they are wrong and you are right, but they have been > operating these plants in the Mojave since the 1980s, so I suppose they > know what they are doing. > > - Jed > >
