Actually if you look at the map. Ivanpah is actually very close to las vegas. Now las vegas has the hoover dam, so we will assume the vegas doesn't need that solar power. So one must assume like the hover dam, a good portion of the power is going to SoCal, which is roughly 200 miles to market. You can expect a solid 10% transmission loss over that distance.
If the 2.2 billion dollars was spent giving away money for people to buy their own solar power system then at least there would be no transmission losses.
I just pulled this from wiki:
In November 2014, Associated Press reported that the plant was producing only "about half of its expected annual output." The California Energy Commission issued a statement blaming this on "clouds, jet contrails and weather."
So its a 2.2 billion dollar project that only powers 70,000 homes. So its double the huge waste of money I originally thought it was.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ecomodded
Thorium need not kill other technologies , it would fill in the spaces rather well , for instance I could see it being useful to power a complete city that currently has to bring its power in.
Some areas without sufficient energy resources to draw from would be a prime candidate for thorium nuclear power.
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I don't think thorium should power everything.
The only thing I am not a fan of is transmission losses.
That is why I cant stand the idea of power plants, alternative or not being located so far away form the market they are going to see 10% or higher transmission losses.