Nation's Largest Urban Solar Power Plant Gets Council Approval

Chicago Public Radio:

A Chicago-based utility has moved closer to building the nation's largest urban solar power plant It would go on the city's South Side - but a big question mark remains.

Read the whole story: Chicago Public Radio

Comments

[DougDeWitt]

As best I can figure (using a lot of shooting from the hip) this might total as much as 8-10 MW of installed peak capacity, based on the way-north (out of the path of more direct, southerly rays) location, and the corresponding shorter period (less hours each day, too).
The piece details approval by the city council, and the fact that the company is begging the federal government for loan guarantees of $50M in order to make the system work. This because the project is not economically viable on its own merits, in spite of a 30% investment tax credit (ITC) available for solar infrastructure?
Obviously, (a) the panels are overpriced; (b) the solar resources in Chicago are below optimum; (c) the balance of system is overpriced; or perhaps, (d) all of the above.
Until panels are available in energy densities above 200kw/square-meter, at below $1 per watt (peak capacity) in bulk quantities, and balance of system can come in close to the same $1 per watt as well, solar is simply not cost effective.
We discovered this early on in our zeal to deploy solar infrastructure on a utility scale here in Austin. The good news is: a company in Los Alamos, NM, eQsolaris is in the process of bringing its micro-concentrator PV technology to market with the necessary specs to make PV finally viable.

[quidam56]

I wish NASA and capitolism would hook up and make simple roof top solar units. We need the jobs and American ingenuity can do it. Of course, fossil fuel corporations, big coal and natural gas will fight anything that simple that might help the enviornment. Wise County, Virginia has less coal jobs with the ingeniuous method of extracting said clean coal by blasting the Appalachian mountains to kingdom come and shoving the dirt and rock over into the valley's and waterways. http://www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=138 We can't stand anymore of the progress and prosperity of mountaintop removal mining. People's homes are being encroached and taken over by a mining operation but the politician's and profit machines are raking it in and that's all that matters.

[sc300nc]

The project will only work if they find enough government money and incentives by the utilities to make this economically feasible, because they sure can't justify it on it's own merits. Pay up Chicagoans.