Solar Power Plant Emits 46,000 Tons of CO2

Massive Solar Power Plant Emits 46,000 Tons of CO2

It turns out that Ivanpah isn't so squeaky clean after all.

According to the Press Enterprise in Riverside, Calif. , Ivanpah emits enough CO2 that it will "be required to participate in the state's cap-and-trade program to reduce carbon emissions."

In its first year, Ivanpah emitted 46,000 metric tons of CO2. That's about as much as a Frito Lay plant in Bakersfield emits.

Ivanpah also has a nasty habit of cooking birds that happen to fly too close to the towers — 3,500 of them in its first year, according to the Desert Sun.

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Ivanpah solar plant near Nevada burns a lot of natural gas, making it a greenhouse gas emitter under state law.

Ivanpah was built on 5.6 square miles of mostly undisturbed public land that was home to desert tortoises, a species threatened with extinction, and other species.

In 2010, the California Energy Commission required that gas use be limited. A condition of the plant’s license was that heat input from natural gas be no more than 5 percent of the heat the plant captured from the sun.

But in March 2014, after three months of commercial operation, plant operators found they needed to use more natural gas, and they asked the commission for a change in the rules. In August 2014, the commission voted to scrap the 5 percent rule and increased the plant’s annual gas volume limit by 38 percent.

He said the plant still meets a state requirement that no more than 5 percent of its electricity production come from burning fossil fuel. This rule, however, does not factor in the gas burned to heat water before enough steam is generated to produce electricity.

Orange County Register