Medicine Hat pulls plug on money-losing, $13-million solar power project

The southern Alberta city of Medicine Hat is pulling the plug on a $13-million concentrated solar power facility after operating it for about five years.

The project’s goal was to test whether the technology was a feasible way to employ the sun’s heat to replace some of the natural gas used to make steam at the city-owned power plant, said Coun. Phil Turnbull, chairman of the city’s utility committee.

The answer, unfortunately, was no, as the project’s small and unreliable contribution to the community’s power needs didn’t justify the cost of maintaining its rows of mirrors and pipes through snowy winters and dusty summer days, he said.

“I think people sometimes look at what we did and say, ’What a waste of money.’ But it wouldn’t have been a waste if it had been successful in taking it to the next step,” Turnbull said Thursday.

“Sometimes you win on trying to develop new initiatives and sometimes you don’t.”

The project was to add about one megawatt of power to the 250-MW capacity main power plant, but it often didn’t even supply that much, he said.

Meanwhile, the price of natural gas — which the city can source from its utility’s gas wells — has fallen dramatically from when the project was contemplated and is now much more cost-competitive than solar, Turnbull said.

"PublicAnimalNo9" said
The irony is, Medicine Hat is located in the only region in Canada where commercial scale solar power would be even remotely feasible.

The project’s goal was to test whether the technology was a feasible way to employ the sun’s heat to replace some of the natural gas used to make steam at the city-owned power plant, said Coun. Phil Turnbull, chairman of the city’s utility committee.

Concentrated solar power (also called concentrating solar power, concentrated solar thermal, and CSP) systems generate solar power by using mirrors or lenses to concentrate a large area of sunlight onto a small area. Electricity is generated when the concentrated light is converted to heat (solar thermal energy), which drives a heat engine (usually a steam turbine) connected to an electrical power generator or powers a thermochemical reaction (experimental as of 2013).

CSP had a world's total installed capacity of 4,815 MW in 2016, up from 354 MW in 2005. As of 2017, Spain accounted for almost half of the world's capacity, at 2,300 MW, making this country the world leader in CSP. The United States follows with 1,740 MW. Interest is also notable in North Africa and the Middle East, as well as India and China. The global market has been dominated by parabolic-trough plants, which accounted for 90% of CSP plants at one point. The largest CSP projects in the world are the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility (392 MW) in the United States (which uses solar power tower technology) and the Mojave Solar Project (354 MW) in the United States (which uses parabolic troughs).

In most cases, CSP technologies currently cannot compete on price with photovoltaic solar panels, which have experienced huge growth in recent years due to falling prices and much smaller operating costs. CSP generally needs large amount of direct solar radiation, and its energy generation falls dramatically with cloud cover. This is in contrast with photovoltaics, which can produce electricity also from diffuse radiation.

"Prof_Chomsky" said
The irony is, Medicine Hat is located in the only region in Canada where commercial scale solar power would be even remotely feasible.

The project was to add about one megawatt of power to the 250-MW capacity main power plant, but it often didn’t even supply that much, he said.

Meanwhile, the price of natural gas — which the city can source from its utility’s gas wells — has fallen dramatically from when the project was contemplated and is now much more cost-competitive than solar, Turnbull said.

Electricity is generated when the concentrated light is converted to heat (solar thermal energy), which drives a heat engine (usually a steam turbine) connected to an electrical power generator or powers a thermochemical reaction (experimental as of 2013).

The project’s goal was to test whether the technology was a feasible way to employ the sun’s heat to replace some of the natural gas used to make steam at the city-owned power plant, said Coun. Phil Turnbull, chairman of the city’s utility committee.

The answer, unfortunately, was no, as the project’s small and unreliable contribution to the community’s power needs didn’t justify the cost of maintaining its rows of mirrors and pipes through snowy winters and dusty summer days, he said.

“I think people sometimes look at what we did and say, ’What a waste of money.’ But it wouldn’t have been a waste if it had been successful in taking it to the next step,” Turnbull said Thursday.

“Sometimes you win on trying to develop new initiatives and sometimes you don’t.”

And yes climate hysterics who think any energy alternative is an unquestionable gift from God whether it works or not this was a specific thing for a specific area, the effects of which do not necessarily apply to anywhere else.

Nobody is implying anything different.

"herbie" said
Read this part again

The answer, unfortunately, was no, as the project’s small and unreliable contribution to the community’s power

which drives a heat engine (usually a steam turbine) connected to an electrical power generator

And yes climate hysterics who think any energy alternative is an unquestionable gift from God whether it works or not this was a specific thing for a specific area, the effects of which do not necessarily apply to anywhere else.

Nobody is implying anything different.

"herbie" said
There are no "climate hysterics" saying that.

"Thanos" said
Stopping the project makes economic sense. And re-starting it, or devising another solar program later, will also make economic sense if one day natural gas prices rise to the point where adding solar as an auxiliary source of electricity will help reduce costs to the consumers.

See, it is actually possible to hold two distinct ideas in your head at the same time. And, even better, not subject either idea to the pointless corrosion of a personal ideology. Try doing it yourself, it's fun!