Government funded Google solar power facility is floundering

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"It’s going to put about 1,000 people to work building a state-of-the-art facility. And when it’s complete, it will turn sunlight into the energy that will power up to 140,000 homes,” Obama said of Ivanpah in a weekly address in Oct. 2010 .

President Obama was too quick to tout the benefits of the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, and its expected electrical generating output. According to the Energy Information Administration, from January through August 2014, its three units generated 254,263 megawatt-hours of electricity, which is about one-quarter of the annual 1 million-plus megawatt-hours that had been anticipated for the plant, allegedly due to fewer sunny days than predicted. Its owners are now requesting a $539 million federal grant to help pay off part of a $1.6 billion federal loan it received to build the plant.

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The 392-megawatt Ivanpah plant started commercial operation at the end of December 2013, and for the first eight months of 2014, it generated just 254,263 megawatt-hours of electricity—about one-fourth of the anticipated level.

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The plant has been criticized for causing the death of between 1,000 and 28,000 birds per year .

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They’re asking for a government handout to cover the payment they must make on a government loan. Adding to the plant’s woes is a request to use 60 percent more natural gas in auxiliary boilers than was allowed under the plant’s certification that was restricted to 5 percent of the total annual heat input from the sun.

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