A new solar plant in Nevada would generate as much electricity as the Hoover Dam, but would cost almost seveen times as much.
Nevada’s new solar plant would cost $5 billion. The Hoover Dam cost $49 million to build in the 1930s, which would be worth under $750 million today.
The solar plant would use a new technology that heats up salt, which would theoretically allow it to store solar energy after the sun goes down. Both the solar plant and the dam would generate enough electricity to power more than 640,000 U.S. homes, according to National Public Radio.
Even though the proposed solar project would be much more reliable than conventional solar, it could still face serious problems. On cloudy days, the proposed solar project wouldn’t be able to supply or store enough power, and on especially sunny days, it would run the risk of producing too much power, which can overload and fry the power grid. This is a fundamental problem with all green energy, and explains why electrical companies will occasionally pay consumers to take electricity.
America has less than 1 percent of the energy storage capacity necessary for wind and solar to power the country entirely off green energy by 2050, according to an analysis of federal data by The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Last year, wind and solar power only accounted for 4.7 and 0.6 percent of all electricity generated in America respectively, according to data from the federal Energy Information Administration.
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