Morocco Has Fired Up the World’s Largest Solar Power Plant!

Ourzazate, Morocco opened the largest solar power plant in the world?

So what?

Ourazazate is in the middle of the country next to a desert with a population of only 50,000 people.

If it takes the world's largest solar power plant to accomadate such a small population with far less electrical use per person than industrialized countries, solar power will have a long way to go before it becomes a practical alternative to fossil fuels.

Solar power currently provides well under 1 percent of the world's power and is expected to provide no more than 3 percent in the next 25 years. Better to spend money on R&D for the forseeable future rather than spend so much to achieve so little.

BTW: I assume they are still driving fossil-fueled cars there.

 

R&D for what purpose?

Solar power is growing rapidly and the cost per panel has dropped to the point where it is cost effective for even home installations. The cost will probably continue to drop with improved production efficiencies.

https://www.ecowatch.com/this-one-chart-says-it-all-for-the-future-of-solar-energy-1891149770.html



http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/08/us-s...in-first-quarter-of-2017-new-study-shows.html

That means that in the next 5 years solar energy will be enough to power 24+ million homes.

Given that there are an estimated 125 million homes in the USA that would be almost 20% powered by solar in the next 5 years.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/183635/number-of-households-in-the-us/

 

The plant will provide power for over a million houses. Try reading the thread before you jump in with your uninformed opinions.

 

I bought PVs for my home, and I love them. I have net-metering, and run a surplus every month. I get a check at the end of the year.

 

Nice!

Ultimately I can envision a completely distributed system where all homes and commercial buildings are linked into a 2 way system with the grid such as you are doing now. Just think about the Summer loading and the fact that a percentage of people are on vacation at any given time. The electricity not being used by those homes could be supplementing the grid for those who are at home. Those homes earn money for their owners while they are away. The utilities have the benefit of additional supply during the peak load season.

It just makes so much sense to go in this direction.

 

Yes, this NREL document analyzes solar's contribution and potential future contribution to peak load. The good news for all electrical consumers is that this holds their rates down, as new power plant construction is the major driver of increased KWHr costs.

http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy13osti/57582.pdf

Both PV systems (and CSP systems without storage) provide significant generation during the hours of peak demand (typically 4 to 6 p.m.) and provide capacity value to the system.

 

Interesting link. By themselves PV systems are reducing the peak load demand from midday and shifting to 7 pm when PV is no longer generating. And that is where the CSP systems come in to pick up the slack. It makes sense because CSP can either be direct generation via steam or storage generation via thermal salts.

 

Gina Rhinehart. Nuff said

Mind you Fupert Murdoch was born an Aussie and only became an aameicqn so he could buy more media

 

Even more sense with Tesla power banks distributing and storing. Micro grids are the future

 

Maaaaate reading a thread first is definitely an unrealistic expectation!

 

I listened to the tape, and Friedman's comments are no wiser than any other well-spoken individual on the subject of greed. It's obvious that capitalism does not solve problems of greed. However, I will agree with him, that other forms of government probably don't either. I believe in a free enterprise system, but I also believe that individuals should NOT be able to buy power and political influence. Many of our forefathers vehemently warned against this...

 

It's obvious that capitalism is responsible for moving more people out of poverty than any other economic system. Capitalism accomplishes this by rewarding individual initiative and success which results in wealth creation and increases in the rate of improvement of the standard of living which benefits low income people much more than high income people.

 

Prove it!

 

Tell that to third world countries whose top 10% have 90% of the wealth

Where you have overall prosperity is where there is wealth distribution. Yes the top can have a large proportion of wealth but the rest also have to have some - trickle down economics only works if there is a leak somewhere in the damn!

 

Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw have done so in the book "The Commanding Heights."

 

Third world countries best hope for increasing the standard of living is free market capitalism. Distribution statistics are not important. It is the median household income that is the best metric for standard of living improvement and capitalism is the best economic system for doing so.

 

Name dropping doesn't prove squat.

Onus is entirely on YOU to provide the relevant quotations to prove your allegation.

 

More baseless nonsense!

Paying a pittance for labor in 3rd world nations does SQUAT to improve living standards. It is just corporate exploitation of a human resources.

 

You have to read the book as I have. If you are not interested or have the initiative there is nothing I can do.

 

That is how third world countries grow. They have an abundance of low skilled labor. Wealth is generated which improves the standard of living. Econ 101.

 

Your abject failure to substantiate your bogus allegation is noted for the record.

 

Your lack of initiative and curiosity is apparent but typical. Sad actually.

 

More drivel!

What actually changed the living standards for low skilled labor?

Here is a HINT! It is called a LABOR UNION!

Critical thinking skills are essential to separating the wheat from the chaff!

 

And free market capitalism was the driving force behind high levels of economic growth. Labor unions had nothing to do with that.

 

Your own abysmal failure to substantiate your allegations on this topic has already disqualified you from any further meaningful participation with me on this topic.