Jim Conca has written another fascinating piece over at Forbes.com looking at the Ivanpah solar facility in California – and its lackluster performance.
There is always the possibility the sun will begin cooperating down there in the California desert, but the larger point Conca makes is worth highlighting:
“At this level of operation, over 20 Ivanpahs (at a cost of $50 billion) would be needed to produce the 9 billion kWhs that a single nuclear reactor produced last year.”
He’s right.
According t
o the US EIA, Ivanpah produced 254,263 megawatt hours of electricity between January and August. Columbia Generating Station produced that much in nine and half days last month, with a much smaller carbon footprint.
Nuclear’s clean energy benefits and 90%+ capacity factor are essential to meeting ANY future carbon reduction goals.
Read Jim’s piece here:
(Post by John Dobken)
