Three Gorges Seeks EPC Bids for 200 MW of CSP Under 5 Cents/KWh | Hacker News Reader

Three Gorges Seeks EPC Bids for 200 MW of CSP Under 5 Cents/KWh

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1 pointcinquemb4 comments

I think I tend to fall into a bucket of "dam owners do hydro WTF" when in fact the dam operator/owner is an energy company and they do energy.

There is a western analogue to this 3 Gorges move: Snowy Hydro which is trumpeting a pumped hydro model (its rapidly going cost +++ and is looking increasingly like being late, and possibly irrelevant against battery tech, but we'll see) also invests in wind and solar. Because.. power companies do power.

I kind-of wonder where the CSP land comes from: the dam reduced land availability significantly, flooding the plain behind the dam wall. So presumably this is a strictly commercial (ok, its a planned economy: within the limits of state enterprise commercial) land acquisition, to build the CSP on, and their existing transmission infrastructure is part of the mix. Given that CSP has thermal mass, I also wonder if they are looking to park power somehow, which seems odd given they own a .. giant dam.

The question I have is why are "they" continuing build power plants in northwest china which already is generating more energy than is used locally…

Well at least with CSP, there is at least the potential to transport molten salt to turbines elsewhere (which I have no idea if they are going to do that, but i've been saying this is what needs to be done in general with CSP build out globally, but there are alot of competing interests and hidden motives at work).

Nobody moves thermal mass if they can avoid it. Transmission losses in electricity would still be lower.

Yeah, if one can afford the upfront costs of the infrastructure for that to where it needs to be used, and the line can be protected end to end 24/7.

Australia is gonna run a line to Singapore, but I'm holding my breath on that build out for once thats completed and the total costs…

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