This Billion Dollar Solar Plant was an EPIC Failure

One thing to point out, the video states something like "by the end of its time the plant was costing NV Energy $135/MWH," this makes it sound like costs ramped up to an unexpected level, but its important to note the reason the plant was costing NV Energy $135/MWH is because that was agreed upon purchase price well before the plant was even built (a purchase agreement for 25 years), not because operation costs ramped up to some unexpected level. NV Energy cancelled the contract because the power plant wasn't producing power at the levels that were promised, not because the price of power had run away from them (its possible NV Energy used low production as an excuse to get out the purchase agreement in light of cheaper agreements it was signing with new solar farms, but that'd just be speculation). Also worth noting, after bankruptcy, restructuring, and some improvements, the plant is up and running again.

Meanwhile back in my home town in Michigan there is a Nuclear plant that has been running flawlessly since 1976.

I got to work there as a contractor installing an evacuation alarm in 2017. The operators, PIC and Cobra were always in a pissing match. And we heard all about the maintenance issues. It’s no surprise it failed

On another note,the first CSP to use molten salt was located at the COOLWATER Generating station in Dagget,Ca. After years of testing and modifications, all funded by the DOE they sold the plant to SCE for $1.00. SCE closed the plant shortly thereafter because they realized it would never be profitable. EOL

As an engineer, I find this blunder fascinating. Very surprised they didn’t anticipate leaks from welding techniques, didn’t design for automatic lubrication and auto mirror cleaning.

I don’t “hate” green energy, I just hate how it’s sold by concealing the true cost of the technology, while ignoring the limitations. Putting ideologues in charge of an engineering/economic problem is never a good idea. Nuclear done right (i.e. not warmed over 1950s tech PWRs) obliterates all other competitors.

I recently drove past this plant (9/2022) and the mirrors were aiming sunlight onto the tower. The brilliance of the concentrated light was impressive, like some sort of sci-fi futuristic special effects scene. It was seriously awesome to see. I don't know if the plant was actually in operation but I would assume it was, otherwise why concentrate all that heat.

To be clear, Crescent Dune is not Ivanpah which many people do see on Interstate 15 to Las Vegas from LA. Isn't Ivanpah still in operation and if so why didn't it suffer the same fate?

You left out a couple of key points. 1. It incinerated hundreds to thousands of birds a day. Literally, charred debris from birds and litter being burnt into ash covered the solar reflectors causing daily issues. 2. Misalignments caused actual damage to the structure. Each solar reflector producers so much heat that minor alignment issues can serious damage, and in 2019 the main tower was taken out of commission because of solar panel alignment issues causing a fire. There were huge amounts of manpower required to keep the panels clean and aligned, and it wasn't ever going to be cost efficient. But Harry Reid's family made tons of money, so the actual purpose for which it was built was completed.

Once you mentioned those mirrors and the adjustability and intelligence behind them I instantly realized the maintenance costs were going to be insane.

This video needs a part two as many things were missed or neglected. A deeper dive into why the plant failed to reach its 40% yield is a super important leg. achieving only 25% at its height is indeed an epic failure, but what caused it?

If you wanna be successful, you most take responsibility for your emotions, not place the blame on others. In addition to make you feel more guilty about your faults, pointing the finger at others will only serve to increase your sense of personal accountability. There's always a risk in every investment, yet people still invest and succeed. You most look outward if you wanna be successful in life.

I remember this plant as an example of, the future of solar energy. It was on one of those science/technology shows on TLC or The Discovery Channel before it was completed. They never seemed to follow up on those stories/episodes like this and now I see why. It's kind of sad to see it was a failure.

An early issue with the mirrors was using a cheaper glue than recommended by the engineers. The mirrors started peeling off after a short while as it could not withstand the sun/heat/desert.

The Ashalim solar plant in the Negev desert, Israel seems to a very similar design using molten salts but appears to be functioning effectively. It would be interesting to know where the specific problems occurred in comparison with the operation and design of similar plants elsewhere and how those were overcome. Perhaps more international collaboration would help accelerate efficient solutions

This is just one of a continuing saga of green boondoggles that we will have to pay for before we end up with good old nuclear power plants... As far as PV being cost effective, if you look at the countries that are getting the highest percentage of their energy from this technology, you will find that these same countries have the most expensive electricity. This is not a coincidence...

It's clear from many of the comments that this video gave viewers the impression that this was a theoretical plant that jumped the prototype stage. In reality, this type of plant already existed in a couple places around the world. The science and process were well understood--they were not Inventing something new. The video should have done a better job of explaining this.

As a maintenance guy the only thing I think of when I hear about molten salt is how hard it is to fix things if it ever freezes inside the equipment Wonder how much of their missing capacity came from the power needed to keep the stuff hot.

I've wondered this for too long now. Thank you so much for all the effort you spent explaining it!

This is from wikipedia (attract attention to the last phrase): The first three months of 2019 (January, February and March) showed good progression, topping all previous monthly data, but in April the plant was shut down because the project's sole buyer, NV Energy, terminated the Power Purchase Agreement for failure to produce the contracted power production. The power generated also cost NV Energy about $135 per megawatt-hour, compared with less than $30 per MWh available from a new Nevada photovoltaic solar farm.[40][16] But to compare fairly, it must be taken into account that the Tonopah solar project power is dispatchable whilst photovoltaic power is intermittent. Truly levelized cost comparisons must include the capacity payments for generating capacity available to supply power during peak hours. By doing so, low-to-high hourly wholesale electricity prices have been shown to vary by up to four orders of magnitude.[41][42] In July 2021, the project restarted production.[21]