The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is a solar thermal plant visible from US Interstate 15 near the California-Nevada border. From the road it appears like three candles flickering in a large pool of water—a technological mirage.
The facility can also be seen from the Mojave National Preserve, the Mesquite Wilderness and the Stateline Wilderness, as well as the resort town of Primm. The plant generates more than 390 megawatts of electricity per year by using mirrors to reflect the sun’s rays onto three boilers that sit 460 feet off the ground. Water is heated to over 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit and used to operate steam turbine generators. When the facility opened in 2014 it was the largest solar thermal power station in the world with a cost of $2.2 billion. It won several awards in 2014 and was published extensively with great fanfare.
However, the story is not entirely sunny. The plant burns natural gas every morning when it begins operation, consuming 328 million cubic feet of natural gas annually. Early reports indicated that the plant failed to meet its 976 GWH/year contracted output, producing less than half its estimate. In 2016 two of the towers were shut down due to mirror misalignment. In 2017, after technical improvements and a renegotiation, the plant reportedly began meeting its contractual obligations—I assume at lower levels of production.
The facility also destroyed 3,500 acres of mature desert habitat. The land was scraped and leveled to place the mirrors, and a fence was erected around the perimeter to keep wildlife and unwanted visitors at a distance. Thankfully, the original plan for the facility was scaled back 500 acres to help protect the habitat of the endangered desert tortoise. Airplane pilots can be visually impaired by the towers, and birds risk getting roasted in the solar flux as the light intensifies around the boilers. Biologists charged with monitoring the facility estimate the rays kill between 3,500-6,000 birds and bats every year.
I have always viewed the facility as a symbol of hope for a better, smarter future and after probing a bit deeper it still is—though its luster has diminished. Lowering our carbon footprint and “saving the planet” is a complicated endeavor and like most efforts requires tradeoffs and produces unintended consequences. Most look at the desert as a useless wasteland—an ideal location for such facilities. However, those of us who cherish this harsh, mystifying environment understand the price that was paid for this facility, and it is far more than its expensive price tag.