One would think, in a region with tremendous natural gas supply that the production of electricity has its most economical starting point. In Western Canada, we have a vast gas supply network that has been in development since the late 1950's. Added to and complimented by Hydro electrical grids. Why there isn't a gas pipeline supplying a Starbase contained power generation plant, is rather baffling.
This is a great video. I am the lead electrician in a steel foundry. Our main power supply is 1500 KW with an input voltage of 575 volts. So you were speaking to me. The main line coming into our switchgear (the part that distributes the HV to all of our onsite transformers) is 25.5KV. We have a power down every year where we shut the HV off to the plant and have a contractor come in and do oil samples of our transformers and goes through everything. Thank you for your videos.
I have a real hard time believing you're an amatuer content creator. This channel is way too good. Everyone should at least start sharing this to get more subscribers. I expect you should get millions.
As an electrician who has been digging trenches and laying conduit for weeks now, with most of the summer looking like it will be more of the same, I found this not only particularly interesting, but it also made my own "endless" conduit laying seem paltry in comparison to the years long effort at Starbase.
The way you are able to able to look through old and recent photos of starbase and piece together entire stories from them for these is incredible by itself, never mind having the knowledge/experience to understand what is going on.
I agree, and it would be great to see an episode on how you and the rest of the team gather this information and distill it to extract so much in depth knowledge. Keep up the fantastic work!
Wow that 40 mins flew by! I was completely engrossed. Learnt so much. This part of starbase isn't something I think many give much thought, but is obviously as crucial as everything else. Great video Zack. Thanks!
Honestly I think if you have a podcast with Tim Dot it will be the most watch podcast in the rocket community. This Chanel is so underrating. Much love 💪🏽✊🏽
Thanks for the latest episode Zack, one thing that occurred to me while watching, is that although (as you said at the end) this is not one of your typical (excellent) deep-dives, it is nonetheless important as in years to come it will be considered as a historical document. Looking back at your content 5-10 years from now, the evolution of Starbase will be uniquely documented by you, and an important resource for coming generations. So, on behalf of future Historians, thanks for all of your hard work, and may your subscriber count be always increasing.. Cheers.
No one does it better than you Zack. Every minute of your videos are packed with new, interesting details that come directly from your research. Other Starbase content creators repeat and reuse info to fill their episodes, you are unique and the best in how you present the progress at Starbase. Thank you!
After following spacex activities for several years, this is the first time I watched one of your videos. Thanks to Ellie In Space for introducing you to me. This is absolutely fantastic and the level of depth that I just totally enjoy. Time to subscribe.
I've noticed your channel a couple of times over the last year, but never watched, just thinking it was another space x channel that wouldn't give me much more. Oh how I was wrong. This vid was awesome! So much more info than I expected, and imteresting too! And great production. U earned a subscribe! Thanx bro. Will be trawling thru tho older vids 👌🏼
Yeah lol I was really hesitant to do this episode because I thought there wouldn’t be many people who were interested in hearing about this topic. Thank you!
Thnx Zack- how you get all this information together is a mystery. But you really belong with just 4 other Space tech reporters at the top of the pyramid...
95% of the world uses metric, including NASA and the scientific community. Even Cola bottles in the US are 2L. So hey man you have an amazing show. I love how you talk about things that nobody else is talking about. Genius 100%
Good video. I can guarantee you that anyone interested enough in Starbase to watch a 40+ minute deep dive video will be completely happy with just about any topic you care to cover so long as it's made with the kind of care you've been putting into these. I dare say you could do a deep dive into SpaceX/Starbase HR practices or accounting operations and still get a relatively enthusiastic response from this audience.
Absolutely amazing. Power distribution and infrastructure is such a critical but overlooked part of making this whole operation work. Thank you for all of your hard work in shining a light on this.
Elec engineer by trade here so enjoyed this one!! Nice work and good job keeping track of all those conduits, imagine it was a nightmare without an actual drawing showing the routes. Like you say be good to see where all these LV transformers get installed once the 11kV is all pulled in across the site, looking forward to see how this progresses.
Another great deep dive. One note to add, for motors using 3 phase means there are no wasted windings or switches needed to start the motors. Jeremy Fielding has a video on how the starter switch works. It seems odd to go all the way down to 11KV at the site when 32KV is the source (but that may have to do with burial as arcing and conduction through salt water soaked land may the the driving factor). Running wire at its rated ampacity is never done as NEC code requires at least 20% derating, and losses for this length would be huge. It seems a bit late in the game to finally address this. Thanks for the update.
Fantastic episode. I've often wondered where Starbase was getting its power from. I wonder why they didn't run a natgas line to the site and then generate their own power with their own turbine. I'm guessing the peak load is much greater than the average load and turbines aren't efficient at part load.
Running a generator is probably not worth it long term, the upkeep is gonna suck considering they're piston engines. Combined cycle is more efficient, but still the upkeep as a sole operator on the small scale probably not worth it. Just take the grid power and supplement with solar and megapacks as a buffer. What I'd have assumed would be more worth it is a nat gas line to purify and liquefy for use instead of trucks. But the environmental approval and upfront cost to install for a site that can only launch 6 times per year is probably just not worth it. Maybe the cape will do something better for propellant since it's probably going to be much higher use.
@@Jaker788lol!!!! Nonsense!!! Why didn't they use turbine gas generator!? Significantly way more powerful and also those things are actually reliable and can output gigantic amounts of energy 24/7
@@carholic-sz3qv Combined cycle or more commonly just simple jet turbines single cycle are still the most expensive power generation, they're used for peak demands by grid operators and not 24/7 because it's so expensive. Sure it's cheaper than diesel or possibly a natural gas based piston engine, but grid power is even cheaper by a lot. A simple jet turbine would've been the most likely feasible option for SpaceX, but that's a small upgrade over the piston engines in efficiency, so your fuel cost is still very high over grid power. Combined cycle brings the efficiency up to 60% or more but takes a significant extra footprint for the second cycle of a steam turbine that isn't feasible or worth the upfront cost after having all this grid power installed. Tesla megapacks are the exact thing that have been putting gas turbines into retirement because it's significantly cheaper to charge them off base load plants and use them for peak demands and load balancing. Adding solar and wind on top is just extra icing.
@@Jaker788 Tesla packs arent putting no turbines to retirement! Those are peaker power plants and also the grid is generally powered with all kinds of sources including those much bigger turbines at higher scales since it's cheaper! With a direct supply of gas and also heat and other récupérations systems it's also very efficient. The excess heat can also be reused or sent to be used for many other applications around the power plant.
Hi Zach. Nice work on this. I'm new to your work and am liking the content so far. I enjoy deep dives with academic depth. I agree with your guess that the extra methane and LOX pumps were added to increase loading speed because they were already operating with a full set of redundant spares. They would only be adding more to increase the mass flow rate during loading..... as far as other content....have you considered (or have you already done) a deep dive on a risk assessment for if StarBase were to take a direct hit from a hurricane? This building site location presents a substantial risk to mother nature...hurricane, loss of power long term, storm surge to the launch site affecting infrastructure, etc.
Thanks, that would be an interesting topic to cover. I can consider looking into that once they finish making all of their changes to the tank farm! The redesign will have an affect on that analysis.
There are two types of infrastructure at Starbase. There are the parts that can withstand hurricanes and rocket failures, and the infrastructure that can be replaced quickly. The permanent structures are intended to be very robust, I think designed for category 4 or higher storms. SpaceX moves fast and makes mistakes. It corrects them and moves on. The vertical tank farm is being replaced, as it wasn't strong enough.
Thanks for all early photos for the before and after scenarios, the use of other creators content was very helpful. The number of hours spent studying all the different aspects of Boca Chica was like preparing for a propellant loading test. The amount of information delivered without a bunch of random stock photos an video clips was greatly appreciated, I think you should do your own skillshare course do other creators could learn that. Would love to see in the future a time lapsed of the different areas using rgv, nsf etc. Also would be curious to know some of COST associated to building a large site like this, such as how much does SpaceX have to spend on electricity, cost to rent/buy heavy equipment, what does a spool of wire, stainless steel cost, cost of a huge tank, how much fuel does a generator need and comparison to cost of solar vs grid vs generator. Thanks again for the time you spend, it really shows in the quality of your work and all those that help you.
Thanks! I'm usually hesitant on assigning costs to things but when it's necessary I definitely do it! But yea there is definitely a lot of hours that goes into these episodes!
really appreciate the explanation for why the pumps were not installed. Also understanding why the Air Separation probably hasn't been used much is very helpful.
Zach (and all your agents) - This is another piece of amazing work! Thank you and well done to you all. So much information presented and done in such a clear, effective and professional manner (and the graphic overlays just finish it all off perfectly!) Lovin' all your vids on this channel and your work on RGV's too (though, you all need a subject/time wrangler over there, Lol!). Already impatiently waiting for more! :)
You have very quickly become the number one resource for this material. I particularly like that you have an engineering background, giving you the tools you need for a thorough objective analysis.
I was fully prepared to watch a boring presentation about power transmission, but WOW! I was wrong. What a fascinating look into this topic! Your level of research and detail is astounding. Very impressive production! It give me a huge appreciation for the level of effort at Starbase. It is hard to fathom that they have done all of this work simultaneously while going full bore with ship production and testing!
Great topic! The fewer diesel/gas generators the better. They run A LOT of welding machines and air conditioners. Bare burial of the power lines avoids the issue of buoyancy. Amazing episode!
There’s an absolutely amazing amount of invaluable detail in this video! As an IT professional who’s always been interested in power infrastructure, I found this deep dive especially fascinating. (Although, all your deep dives are fascinating.)
Another thing: Since Sanchez was a gas generation location, that means that it has a NatGas pipeline, you don't use trucks and tanks for gas. If they can get the pipeline repurposed to flow TO Sanchez, that would potentially supply bother the co-gen unit and the LNG compressors.
The level of detail you and this channel provides blows my mind. Incredible work investigating all this, enjoyed every second! The change management involved with SpaceX and Tesla during their facility construction is crazy, I don't know how they keep up with it all.
What a great and educational video about how SpaceX has solved its past and future power needs. Top notch video! One you started could not stop watching.
Great topic, unique point of view and well researched. I won't be surprised if other channels soon start to discuss power consumption at Starbase. Well done.
Excellent review of infrastructure logistics engineering. Being a retired engineering manager I understand the depth of investigation that you have had to go to to analyse the available data over the years. Well done.
Yeah it was a bit ridiculous honestly. I thought I could put this together in a week off of memory. But, then I realized I had to search through 3 years of images in order to find proof of everything and somehow turn it into a story. 😅
@@CSIStarbase hi, yes, understand completely, I've used spreadsheet to load St Pancreas Station in London to allow for diversity and timed usage to get an overall typical moment of electrical load for an 11KVA transformer and then use that to load the 11kv ring feeding all the transformer, but your dealing with higher loads, so why didn't they go direct to 11kv motors on the Mechazilla for lifting arms. And your version of UK 415V 3 phase supplies for pumps etc ... You could have an 11KV ring main serving local transformer power centres. Even if they were coming from 11kv generators....?
So this is the first episode I have watched. I watch several channels about space x but without doubt this was the most detailed video I have seen on a very specific subject. Really enjoyed this. Will check out your other videos.
Sadly it’s been proven over and over some don’t. I’m with you, I understand both metric and imperial. I always enjoy the response from metricists when I point out that a mile is imperial.
Wow from the time you did that collab with Tim Dodd the Everyday Astronaut to now, this is incredible. Shout out to you and your production team wow. Zach Golden, remember that name.
I’m an old Industrial Electrical Contractor in (sorry) California. Just finished an insurance project that had just one 150KW on site, running in prime power (24 x7).The generator ran for 67 days. With schedule PM on every other Sunday. This had refrigerated product on site. There was a backup generator (phased and ready). Just paid the bill on just the generator operation. Generator, fuel, hookup and maintenance average out to $2967.57 per day plus $2674.00 for 4 PM’s. Total Cost for just one 150KW Genset, Prime power was $209,4696.19 This will give you an comparison.
