Australia's Macquarie Group is becoming a world powerhouse of renewable power. Macquarie's GIG most recent investment is in the US.. Savion, the solar development and energy storage unit of Enel Green Power https://greeninvestmentgroup.com/
@Craig Swanson Ref: Ivanpah Solar Power Generating Station: I cannot speak out strongly enough AGAINST this type of solar power electric generation. Hundreds of thousands of overhead garage-door sized mirrors amplify and focus the sun's radiation on high towers. This so-called "solar-flux" generates temperatures around 1000 degrees F. The designers and implementers either failed to recognize up front (hardly possible) or simply did not care, about the environmental damage potential this scheme poses. During the first year of operation alone, several thousand birds were instantly roasted to death in flight, as they crossed through the flux. Killing thousands of birds needlessly in the name of "green energy" does not sit well with me. It fact, it highly aggravates me, knowing solar power can be generated safely using solar cells which convert solar energy directly into electric power, using no mirrors, minimal damage to the earth's surface, and none at all to wildlife. All ya gotta do is aim the solar cell arrays at the sun. Proponents of the mirror system of course point to the fact that economically, the mirror-heat-steam-generate system can be made, though at high added expense, to generate power during night time hours. Solar cell generated power simply cannot be "stored" A view from the air: Pilots have been reported to be temporarily blinded by unexpected reflection from these towers. The link below is a good overall view of Ivanpah: "The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is a concentrated solar thermal plant in the Mojave Desert. It is located at the base of Clark Mountain in California, across the state line from Primm, Nevada. The plant has a gross capacity of 392 megawatts(MW).[6] It deploys 173,500 heliostats, each with two mirrors focusing solar energy on boilers located on three centralized solar power towers.[6] The first unit of the system was connected to the electrical grid in September 2013 for an initial synchronisation test.[7]The facility formally opened on February 13, 2014.[2]In 2014, it was the world's largest solar thermal power station." "The facility, costing $2.2 billion was developed by BrightSource Energy and Bechtel." See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivanpah_Solar_Power_Facility#Environmental_impacts
Supporters of Ivanpah will be saying "you can not make an omelet without breaking some eggs". They have 2.2 billion reasons to continue with it unfortunately. I too hate to see those birds being roasted.
@Craig Swanson Turns out, the birds are only a small part of the environmental devastation. Per the article. Frank
@Frank Sanoica. Unbeknown to me Frank Australia has been dabbling in CST R&D since 2010. By none other than our world respected CSIRO. It has also sold Japan on its CST technology. Looks like this form of solar energy is here to stay. https://www.csiro.au/en/Research/EF/Areas/Solar/Solar-thermal/Solar-thermal-hub. https://www.csiro.au/en/Research/EF/Areas/Solar/Solar-thermal/Japan-solar
@Craig Swanson Of course it is, because public sentiment rarely carries adequate weight, especially during election years, and the fact that public knowledge is a very fleeting thing: the memory of the public is known to be very short. Doesn't change my disdain for bureaucracy at all! Frank