How Mirrors Could Solve our Energy Problem

They have a big plant like this out off the 15, called Ivanpah. They originally boasted how great and eco friendly it is. However it’s not as what they made it to be.

1. It’s not 100% green renewable. These things work by that concentrated light and there is a certain window in the day where it’s best to harness the most heat. However, if the tower cools at night, then you lose some of that peak window when it works to heat up. So technically these are hybrid plants, to keep the tower hot at night, they burn natural gas. So they still have a fairly big chunk of a carbon footprint.

2. They also had negative environmental impact on wild life. The air temp in that region directed at the tower can be over 5000 degrees. Wildlife flies through it and literally explodes birds to where workers refer to them as “steamers”

3. Not everyday can you count on the same exact amount of sunlight which can put reliability into question; or cause you to have to run the plant on natural gas even more.