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‘World’s largest’ solar plant in Calif closing – $1.6 billion Ivanpah casts a shadow on DOE loans – ‘Federal data concluded the plant killed roughly 6,000 birds a year’

Ivanpah solar plant casts a shadow on DOE loans By Christa Marshall, Jason Plautz The concentrating solar array in California is on the path to closure after being hailed as a breakthrough for renewable power. A giant solar plant touted as a symbol of federally financed efforts to fight climate change is on the path to being closed, renewing a debate about the track record of the Department of Energy’s loan program. In January, PG&E announced a deal with the owners of the Ivanpah solar plant — which covers five miles of federal land in the Mojave Desert near the California-Nevada border — to stop buying power from the facility. That means that two of the plant’s three units may no longer be operational next year, assuming that California regulators back the plan. Ivanpah originally was supposed to run until 2039. The move is a setback for concentrating solar thermal power, a technology that benefited significantly from DOE loans more than a decade ago and was viewed as a way to have a renewable option with storage that could potentially run around the clock. “PG&E determined that ending the agreements at this time will save customers money,” the utility said in its statement, adding that photovoltaic solar technology paired with batteries has “raced ahead” in affordability since Ivanpah opened in 2014. Ivanpah, which is operated by Texas-based NRG Energy, is a very different model from most utility-scale solar farms with rectangular panels. It uses thousands of devices called heliostats that utilize mirrors to reflect heat onto a water boiler on a giant tower to produce steam for electricity. It was the world’s largest concentrating solar plant when it opened after receiving $1.6 billion in loan guarantees from DOE. That money has not been fully repaid. The 386-megawatt plant lagged in producing promised electricity levels and faced criticism from environmental groups like the Sierra Club because of its associated bird deaths. While estimates vary, some federal data concluded that the plant killed roughly 6,000 birds a year flying into concentrated beams of sunlight. PG&E’s announcement sparked criticisms of DOE’s loan program, which conservatives have targeted since one of its early recipients — Solyndra — filed for bankruptcy in 2011 after receiving a loan. The program is under renewed scrutiny because of the size of its lending authority and its fate under President Donald Trump, who repeatedly tried to ax the program in his first term. The DOE loan program is “all cost, no benefit,” said Benjamin Zycher, a senior fellow at the free market think tank American Enterprise Institute, who wrote a post on Ivanpah after PG&E’s announcement. He said it’s an example of the government funding projects that can’t compete in the market and don’t help the climate. The Las Vegas Review-Journal similarly released an editorial saying Ivanpah would be just another “expensive symbol” of “state and federal central planning gone awry,” comparing it to Solyndra. But Dan Reicher, a former assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy during the Clinton administration, said the funding is very different from direct grants that are not repaid. “It is making money,” he said of the loan program. Like any portfolio of loans, there will be some projects that aren’t as successful, but the overall program is performing extremely well financially, he said. Ivanpah, even though it may eventually close, provided helpful information to utilities a decade ago that had not operated utility-scale solar projects at the time. Any comparison to Solyndra is unfair, as Ivanpah is not going bankrupt, said Reicher, who is now a senior scholar at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. A letter from Democratic lawmakers last summer similarly argued that DOE’s loan program has a better repayment rate than venture capital firms on clean energy. The program was signed into law in 2005 under President George W. Bush and has helped build major companies, including Elon Musk’s Tesla, that have gone on to pay large amounts of taxes, they wrote. Backers of DOE loans also say that there’s a long history of the federal government supporting the energy sector, including President Dwight Eisenhower’s support of the nuclear industry in the 1950s. In December, DOE’s watchdog called on the loan office to suspend loans out of concerns of conflicts of interest, prompting Biden administration officials at the time to say the inspector general report was filled with errors. The future of other concentrating solar plants, meanwhile, is uncertain. There remain several other large operating facilities in the U.S. and in the world, some of which were also financed with DOE loans. Unlike Ivanpah, some like the Abengoa Generating Station in Arizona store heat for later use. According to DOE, the cost of electricity from concentrating solar power has dropped more than 50 percent in 10 years. Supporters of the technology say it could play an important role in cutting emissions because of its ability to store heat for days and act more like baseload power, as well as replace some fossil-fuel-heavy industrial processes that rely on high heat. With predictions of surging electricity demand in years ahead, it’s important to continue developing new power options, they say. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado is among the entities researching ways to bring down costs of concentrating solar. But Jenny Chase, a solar analyst at BloombergNEF, said the prospect for solar thermal plants like Ivanpah is poor, since existing projects have historically underperformed. Ivanpah never generated more than 75 percent of its planned electricity output in a year, she said. That’s partly because the technology is unwieldy with a lot of moving parts, she said.

California’s Ivanpah Solar Power facility is one U.S.’s priciest green boondoggles & it may be going offline after sucking up subsidies & incinerating birds

https://dailycaller.com/2025/02/03/one-of-americas-offline-subsidies-incinerating-birds/ By Nick Pope One of the most expensive green energy projects ever undertaken in American history looks like it is now on borrowed time after eating up massive amounts of taxpayer dollars and killing thousands of birds. Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) — a major utility company — announced in January that it is terminating power purchase contracts with the owners of Southwestern California’s Ivanpah Solar Power facility, a massive and unique solar project that received hundreds of millions of subsidy dollars as it launched in 2014. Just over a decade after it started operations, the facility appears to be headed toward its demise after killing thousands of birds because it could not provide the utility sufficiently cheap energy.

Update: Amid backlash, solar company won’t build on Michigan state land & won’t clear 420 acres of state forest

BREAKING: After planning to obliterate 420 acres of state forest to build a solar farm in Michigan, the company has surrendered and won’t build on state land anymore. https://t.co/Sw89ZnG2fo https://t.co/poPBlWC1ji pic.twitter.com/MC9OCicorb — Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) January 8, 2025 https://www.michiganpublic.org/politics-government/2025-01-07/amid-backlash-solar-company-wont-build-on-state-land By Tyler Scott A company planning to build a sprawling 200 megawatt solar energy plant near Gaylord in Northern Michigan — after initially inquiring about leasing state land for part of the project — has instead decided to partner with private landowners. Word of the potential lease of state land to RWE Clean Energy inspired passionate pushback from several lawmakers and social media users concerned about deforestation and wildlife habitat destruction. Scott Whitcomb, director of Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources Office of Public Lands, said the agency shares those concerns, and that it had identified roughly 400 acres that is “not pristine habitat” in Otsego County which could be appropriate for redevelopment with the intent of using revenues from the project to purchase more acreage adjacent to existing state land in other locations. “Our goal is certainly not to deforest Michigan, or take high-value timber out of production,” Whitcomb said. “We want the right thing in the right place.” MLive first reported the DNR’s consideration of a lease to RWE and the agency’s plans to publish a public notice to request proposals for redevelopment this week. Whitcomb said the roughly 400 acres is near a high-voltage electricity transmission infrastructure corridor, making it a place suitable to add energy to the power grid. He said portions of the land had recently been clear cut, portions of it were salvaged for timber after a tornado, while other portions are open fields, and part of the acreage already contains oil and gas wells. “We think due to those land uses and close proximity (to the transmission corridor) that this might be a good place to use for energy and another place to could purchased for forest land.” Photos from the MLive report show portions of the land is still covered by trees. Whitcomb said the DNR frequently is approached by developers to use state land for mining, or extracting sand and gravel. He said the department evaluates those inquires to determine whether they’re “compatible” with the land a developer is asking about. He said the DNR plans to cap this type of land-use leases at 4,000 acres, because that’s roughly one-tenth of 1% of the total acreage owned by the state. Whitcomb said the state has denied proposals on land in areas where there are significant concerns about ecological impact or the destruction of habitat for protected wildlife. State Representative John Roth, who represents the 104th District near Traverse City, said he’s opposed to leasing state land where it could result in cutting down trees to make room for solar panel installations. He’s one of several lawmakers, including at least one Democrat, who strongly opposed leasing the Otsego County property. “I still don’t think it’s a wise project,” Roth said. “I don’t know that we need state land for it when it’s also attached to a thousand acres of private farmland that’s going to be solar panels next to that area.” If the DNR doesn’t receive what Whitcomb called a “viable proposal” for redeveloping the acreage into solar, the development of the Hayes Township acreage would end before it started. This may be the case, as a RWE Clean Energy spokesperson said the company no longer plans to lease state land for its solar plant. “Ultimately, we decided to move forward with leasing property from the two private landowners for this particular project,” said RWE Senior Manager of Media and Public Relations Patricia Kakridas. Kakridas said the 45th parallel solar project will deliver “substantial benefits” to Otsego County and Hayes Township during construction and throughout the project’s estimated 35-year lifespan, including more than $15 million in projected tax revenues, “and millions more in economic activity.”. Roth also voiced frustration about the relationship between DNR administrators and lawmakers, saying he first learned about the potential Otsego County lease by reading the Mlive report. He said he’s requested information from the DNR about its land-use strategy and been ignored. The Detroit News reported concerns voiced by other Republican lawmakers who issued a joint statement about the DNR’s plan to seek proposals for redeveloping the Otsego County land. “Mind-numbing decisions like this are absolute proof that the DNR is completely rotten to its core,” said state Rep. Ken Borton, who represents the Gaylord area. He was joined in the statement by Republican Rep. Mike Hoadley and State Senator Michele Hoitenga. One Democrat also disapproved of the possibility. On the social media platform X, Democratic Rep. Mike McFall called the proposal “extremely counterproductive,” and stated concerns the plan could result in a net-increase in greenhouse gas emissions if too many trees were removed to make room for solar panels. Whitcomb disagreed with that argument. “We think this is a climate benefit in this particular instance,” Whitcomb said. “Maybe if you were clear-cutting old growth forest or something like that, you may get into those arguments.” # Background on why Michigan is so f*cked by their ‘climate’ policies:  MI Healthy Climate Plan: Executive Directive 2020-10 charged the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE), through its Office of Climate and Energy, with developing the MI Healthy Climate Plan, the state’s action plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transition toward economy-wide carbon neutrality.The Plan was developed with input from hundreds of Michigan residents, including leaders and advocates in Environmental Justice, public transit, local food, climate action, business, labor, academia, government, and people of all political persuasions and walks of life and was released in April 2022. The objectives The MI Healthy Climate Plan lays out a pathway for Michigan to reach 100% carbon neutrality by 2050 to avert the worst impacts of the climate crisis, create good-paying jobs, and build a healthier and more prosperous, equitable, and sustainable Michigan for all Michiganders. It has seven objectives: Mitigate the worst impacts of climate change Spur economic development and create good-paying jobs Protect and improve the health of Michiganders Position Michigan as a leader in climate action Protect our natural resources and wildlife Make Michigan energy independent Address environmental injustices The implementation The Roadmap to 2030 included in the MI Healthy Climate Plan provides key recommendations to reach our 2030 goals of reducing GHG emissions by 52% from 2005 baselines by 2030 in an equitable manner. Below is a summary of these recommendations. | Marc Morano (@ClimateDepot) gave @JrzyJoePiscopo details on Michigan to bulldoze state forest to install a solar farm Full Interview: https://t.co/e27o67U54A pic.twitter.com/n2M0T6s8fU — The Joe Piscopo Show (@JoePiscopoShow) January 6, 2025

We’re Saved! Michigan clearing over 400 acres of a forest to create rows of Chinese-made solar panels – Despite study finding ‘loss of CO2 gobbling forests for solar installations results in a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions’

INSANITY: Michigan is clearing over 400 acres of a forest to create rows of Chinese-made solar panels that just occasionally generate electricity. And it’s not even going to help the environment. A recent study found “the loss of carbon-dioxide gobbling forests for solar… pic.twitter.com/UXhQTUoR8v — Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) January 3, 2025   https://www.mlive.com/environment/2025/01/michigan-plans-to-clear-400-acres-of-state-forest-near-gaylord-for-solar-farm.html By Sheri McWhirter | [email protected] GAYLORD, MI – A 420-acre swath of state forestland will be cleared for a solar farm near Gaylord under a lease agreement with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, confirmed a top state official. Officials with the DNR recently assessed 1,200 acres of public trust land in Otsego County near a major power transmission line to decide whether it was suitable for solar arrays. Agency leaders ultimately decided to lease 35% of that land to accompany other adjacent solar projects already in the works. This comes as the DNR faces dwindling revenues from hunting and fishing licenses, and Michigan falls behind building enough renewable energy fast enough to risk not meeting a key state climate goal – 100% clean energy by 2040. Leasing 4,000 acres of public land statewide is part of the DNR’s plan to help remedy both problems in coming years. Officials said that state solar initiative may begin just west of Gaylord. Forest for the trees A public notice advertising competitive bidding for solar proposals on 420 acres of state land in Otsego County’s Hayes Township is expected to be published in coming days in both the Gaylord newspaper and on the DNR website, confirmed Scott Whitcomb, DNR director of public lands office. He said the DNR will schedule a public hearing if requested by local governments and enough members of the public. MLive filed a Freedom of Information Act request for documents and digital files associated with the project on Oct. 21, 2024, which remains pending. State decision-makers know this choice will be criticized, Whitcomb said. “Not incredibly popular with everyone. I will be frank about that.” Deforesting land for renewable energy has become the focus of recent scientific study. Evidence from both Harvard University and Chinese researchers shows the loss of carbon-dioxide gobbling forests for solar installations results in a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions – the air pollution which fuels the accelerating climate crisis. … Update: Michigan lawmakers call for DNR firings over plans to cut forest for solar near Gaylord Update: Amid backlash, solar company won’t build on Michigan state land & won’t clear 420 acres of state forest Background on why Michigan is so f*cked by their ‘climate’ policies:  MI Healthy Climate Plan: Executive Directive 2020-10 charged the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE), through its Office of Climate and Energy, with developing the MI Healthy Climate Plan, the state’s action plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transition toward economy-wide carbon neutrality.The Plan was developed with input from hundreds of Michigan residents, including leaders and advocates in Environmental Justice, public transit, local food, climate action, business, labor, academia, government, and people of all political persuasions and walks of life and was released in April 2022. The objectives The MI Healthy Climate Plan lays out a pathway for Michigan to reach 100% carbon neutrality by 2050 to avert the worst impacts of the climate crisis, create good-paying jobs, and build a healthier and more prosperous, equitable, and sustainable Michigan for all Michiganders. It has seven objectives: Mitigate the worst impacts of climate change Spur economic development and create good-paying jobs Protect and improve the health of Michiganders Position Michigan as a leader in climate action Protect our natural resources and wildlife Make Michigan energy independent Address environmental injustices The implementation The Roadmap to 2030 included in the MI Healthy Climate Plan provides key recommendations to reach our 2030 goals of reducing GHG emissions by 52% from 2005 baselines by 2030 in an equitable manner. Below is a summary of these recommendations.

Even Europe Now Retreating From Green Energy – ‘Starting to throw in the towel on windmills & solar panels’

Even Europe Now Retreating From Green Energy We’ve often reported on the crippling effect of Europe’s high energy costs due to the continent’s climate change fanaticism. So we were delighted to see that finally, European energy companies are starting to throw in the towel on windmills and solar panels. Reuters reports that the European “Big Oil” companies are “slowing the roll out of green energy programs” that were all the rage a few years ago. BP, Shell, and even Norway’s state-owned Equinor are having second thoughts on the wisdom of green energy. If you want a chuckle, listen to Douglas McIntyre, Editor-in-Chief at global warming newsletter Climate Crisis, who somberly admits that the green dream may be dying in Europe. His predictable solution is more taxes on oil and gas.

Solar power is so good the govt needs emergency powers to switch your panels off in case they crash the national grid

Solar power is so good the govt needs emergency powers to switch your panels off in case they crash the national grid By Jo Nova Shh. The Renewable Crash Test Dummy Nation is at work. We’re still subsidizing new solar panels even as we figure out how to shut down the excess panels we already have. The body responsible for keeping the lights on in Australia’s biggest electricity grids wants emergency powers to switch off or throttle rooftop solar in every state to help cope with the daily flood of output from millions of systems. It turns out those negative prices for electricity at midday are there for a reason. A firehose of electricity at lunchtime isn’t always a good thing. Negative prices are not a bargain, they’re the penalty a seller has to pay to get someone to take the toxic waste away, and the price signal was saying “Don’t Add More Solar”. The amazing thing is that an institution with fifteen years of grid management didn’t see this coming fifteen years ago. Does night follow day? Is there any industry that runs better for only four hours a day rather than for 24? The AEMO surely knew that without a Sea-of-Galilee type miracle in battery storage, the whole nation could not run on lunchtime generators. The AEMO also surely knew that our 50Hz stability comes from 500 ton turbines that spin 3,000 times a minute, and not from flat glass panels that make the wrong kind of electricity (the DC kind, not the AC). Yet here we are, 60 quarterly reports later, swamped with excess solar power to the point where we suddenly need to add remote switches to four million already-installed solar panels, so the guys in the the control rooms can stop them doing the one thing they are supposed to do at the time of day when they are best at doing it. The disaster days are now Spring — when the sun is shining but people don’t need their air conditioners on, which begs the question of whether we just need to issue emergency announcements to turn on the dishwashers, pool pumps and ovens to save the grid. You know, “Pyrolytic Ovens save the day, people”. In any case, wasn’t climate change going to turn spring into summer? Won’t this problem solve itself as spring disappears and long hot summers take over the calendar? No one seems to be saying that now… Solar is pushing out the “other” forms of generation that are keeping the grid stable AEMO said the ever growing output from solar was posing an increasing threat to the safety and security of the grid because it was pushing out all other forms of generation that were needed to help keep the system stable. But isn’t the whole point of solar exactly that? Aren’t we supposed to drive out the other sorts of generation because they cause storms and floods and they start wars, kill koalas, and makes babies premature. Are all these things OK now? Did we say “desperate”? The AEMO admits what many suspect they are already doing, rather brutally sending voltage spikes down the line to trip out the solar panels: And it warned that unless it had the power to reduce — or curtail — the amount of rooftop solar times, more drastic and damaging measures would need to be taken. These could include increasing the voltage levels in parts of the poles-and-wires network to “deliberately” trip or curtail small-scale solar in some areas. They’re hinting these voltage spikes might damage some delicate equipment. Would you like a big blackout or a small capital loss? An even more dramatic step would be to “shed” or dump parts of the poles-and-wires network feeding big amounts of excess solar into the grid. “If sufficient backstop capability is not available … the NEM may be operating insecure for extended periods,” the agency wrote in the report. The Bureaucrats that wrote this hope you don’t understand it: “(It may) therefore be operating outside of the risk tolerances specified in the National Electricity Rules, where the loss of a single transmission or generation element may lead to reliance on emergency control schemes to prevent system collapse. But there it is. They’re talking about “system collapse”. As it is, new solar panels already have to have the remote control switch built in in WA, SA, Victoria and parts of Queensland. Yesterday was the day when the AEMO announced we needed to do this in every state, and “by next year”. Just four weeks away…

Biden’s Green Energy Subsidies Are Making China Great Again – Using Biden-Harris IRA law to ‘expand their solar dominance’

Biden’s Green Energy Subsidies Are Making China Great Again The left-wing site Politico was surprisingly honest with this headline: Biden is desperately trying to lure solar panel production from China to the United States with lavish subsidies. But the companies that are taking the cash and hanging a shingle are… Chinese: When Biden and congressional Democrats passed the IRA, they hoped it would unleash a “Made-in-America” clean energy revolution. The law lavishes subsidies on companies to build factories that make solar components, in an effort to revitalize the country’s manufacturing base and wrest control of clean energy supply chains away from China. Only now, Chinese companies are coming to America. Trina could net almost $1.8 billion in American tax subsidies over the next seven years if it gets the Texas factory fully running by the beginning of 2025, according to analysts at the consultancy BloombergNEF. It is hardly alone. Eight companies linked to China have spent more than $1.2 billion to build 23.6 gigawatts of module capacity since the IRA passed, according to interviews with manufacturers and a review of Energy Department figures by POLITICO’s E&E News. About 14.5 gigawatts is already online, accounting for nearly a third of U.S. panel-making capacity. A further 7 gigawatts is under construction. What in the world are we doing? Making China Great Again?

‘We paid billions’: Communist China solar CEO admits to buying US politicians & lobbyists

Communist China solar CEO admits to buying US politicians and lobbyists. Longi’s chairman, Zhong Baoshen: “We paid billions in tuition fees to learn how to navigate U.S. politics.”https://t.co/KoZ96WQJUF pic.twitter.com/4ao1bXkVQI — Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) November 5, 2024 https://www.wsj.com/world/china/why-chinas-solar-boom-is-a-bust-for-its-leading-players-a869ccab

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