Our Place of Worship
Do you live near an Amonix 7700 Power Plant? Got a decent Camera and know how to use it? You could win money by snapping a picture, The better time to arrive is in the early morning or afternoon with the sun is closer to the horizon. But remember anytime is OK. What we are interested in is how many trackers are NOT following the sun, and pictures that clearly demonstrate this are of interest. Dual Axis Trackers are a high maintenance item compared to fixed arrays, and to my knowledge; there has been no accounting of the tracker problems and associated costs. Simply no one I can find has an interest in reporting the real costs VS power production of the Amonix 7700 trackers.
Don’t Miss seeing this site below if you are going to the Hatch Chile Fest! Why would you miss it?
Hatch Next Era Power Plant (New Mexico)
The Hatch power plant is fairly easy to find, just find Hall street in Hatch, and follow it west, it turns into #26 and travels W. Not too far down the road, you’ll see the power plant on your right (north). according to google earth, just a little ways past the power plant, you might have a 20 foot elevation advantage that may help you take a picture of the trackers at a favorable angle. You might get a decent view of what is tracking and what’s not.
look at location W007 1530 and N32 3736 if you need more help with location.. Hatch has been operating for a year now, it’s windy here, and it would be nice to know if NextEra has repaired the trackers that were reported bad by passers by. Remember, your picture may pay for your dinner on the road!
Thanks to El Paso Electric, we have this power meter to look at for Hatch. You will need to spend some time with this meter to understand what you see. It’s best to consult the Weather Underground, look for wind gusts, and expect these trackers to stow when gusts are high enough to trip the effort to protect the trackers. In my opinion, this plan is flawed, and I challenge you to challenge my thinking on the topic. My simple and not so scientific study notes that the Hatch trackers will often ‘stow’ when gusts of 20mph are recorded at the nearest weather reporting center. when trackers are in stow, we expect to see zero power production during the hour(s). There are several possibilities here, one, wind gusts typically range higher here in Hatch than the areas south west of here, or that personnel at Hatch have lowered the previously shared 28MPH gust parameter that starts a stow in order to keep trackers from seeing more damage. We must guess, because this data is not openly shared.
If you are passing by Alamosa Colorado, you might be up for a little adventure into the irrigation circles North West of town. Teh location is about 37 35,52.55N and 105 56′ 48.03 W. It’s fairly easy to find, and you basically stick with the main road, but zig zag across the land space to get there on a West, North, West, North track..
Alamosa-Congentrix-30MW-power plant, under construction in this picture.
Leave Alamosa headed north on 1st St N. This turns into #17, head North, turn left on CR6S. Go west to N. River Rd, head North. Turn left on CR 4.5 S. go west, turn righ ton rd S 108, head N. turn left on CR3S. Go west. turn right on SCR 106, head North. Turn Left onto LN2N head West. You will arrive on the north end of the Congentrix power plant.
Depending on conditions, you can go back down N CR 106 and turn right onto Stanley, this might get you into the south end of the complex if you have trouble driving the fence line from the North.. Do respect private property, do attempt to make the trip in the early AM when the sun comes up, or be there in the after noon as the sun is falling to get the better pictures. Do make use of google earth, to become familiar with the area. If you take pictures use a high resolution, take more than your cell phone to get the best pictures, there’s some nice inexpensive cameras with 10X zoom lens, a camera like this might allow some good pictures.
Remember, the picture you take may pay for your meal out.
And for those in Tucson, we have a picture of trackers up in a previous post not doing so well, we’ve heard there were 11 trackers not following the sun on one day.. if you’re there, consider taking a picture of trackers not tracking.
Thanks in advance for your interest. I say any time the DOE hands out borrowed money to support the building of these power plants, and leaves us with the debt, it is our business how they perform. If they want complete privacy, fund it yourself.
A reminder once more. Do not trespass, do not touch stuff that’s not yours, don’t enter the complex without permission. With the number of tweaker metal thieves across the country do consider waving if you see someone in ear shot, and announce you are a tourist and there only to take photos.
There are other posts here at utterpower.com about commercial CPV
https://www.utterpower.com/predicting-epic-failures/
https://www.utterpower.com/martha-symko-davies-disruptive-technologies/
https://www.utterpower.com/nrels-amonix-pages/
Do remember… many of us love Solar Power Plants, I have invested in an off grid power plant, and I am glad I made the investment. unfortunately, about 80% of those who support Alternative Energy do so out of a religious like conviction that AE is the right thing no matter if it pays a dividend to humanity or not! I read this AM where a blogger in Florida is all upset that Scientific study had produced a report that cloud cover in parts of Florida made it difficult or impossible to get a decent return on investment there. He was angered by this finding; and was asking people to call their elected officials and get them to push for more solar investment regardless of some scientific nonsense! We really are seeing a return of the SUN Worshipers. And we are likely seeing places of worship go up. It’s never a problem long as the Worshipers build their own places of worship.
If you fund it all.. who cares what is built? If I help fund it through taxes or other assessments, I should have access to the results. 37MW of field tests, I think so… Who was it that couldn’t wait to see a year of power production out of Hatch… before more were built? That be the DOE for one.
Comments are welcome here.
references:
http://www.usairnet.com/weather/maps/current/new-mexico/wind-speed/
GB