A $2 billion solar farm project to combat climate change has ended in disaster, after officials were forced to pull the plug on the experiment.
After splashing $2.2 billion on the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, which is located in California’s Mojave Desert, it was hoped that the state would be able to cash in on the money it saved that would have been spent on fossil fuels.
But, what it has delivered since it opened in 2014 has been in stark contrast to what was anticipated.
The solar farm features three 459-foot towers and nearly 174,000 computer-controlled mirrors called heliostats. Together, they were meant to capture sunlight and turn it into electricity.
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Construction started back in 2010, and four years later it was complete, but now 12 years on, it is earmarked for closure next year, in 2026.
In 2011, the US Department of Energy, during President Barack Obama's second-term, provided $1.6 billion in three federal loan guarantees for the project.
Despite its ambition, Ivanpah never produced the energy it promised, and quite incredibly, it also relied on natural gas to stay running - hardly the green solution it claimed to be.
“Ivanpah stands as a testament to the waste and inefficiency of government subsidized energy schemes,” Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute, told Fox News.
“It never lived up to its promises, producing less electricity than expected, while relying on natural gas to stay operational,” he added.
When it launched, Ivanpah was the world’s largest solar plant and a symbol of California’s renewable energy dreams, but the shine quickly faded.
Located near the California-Nevada border - a 50-minute drive southwest of Las Vegas - the plant’s glowing towers are as dazzling as some casinos on the strip.
The heliostats reflect sunlight onto receivers at the top of the towers, heating fluid then generates steam to turn turbines.
“It’s complicated,” explained energy consultant Edward Smeloff.
“It simply did not scale up,” Smeloff added. “It’s kind of an obsolete technology [that’s] been outpaced by solar photovoltaic technology.”
Photovoltaic panels - aka solar panels you find on on rooftops - convert sunlight into electricity much more efficiently and cheaply than Ivanpah’s mirrors.
What's even worse, the technology is also deadly to wildlife, with experts estimating that at least 6,000 birds die each year after flying into the concentrated sunlight.
“They get fried if they fly in the area where the reflection is going up to the tower,” Smeloff explained.
Has there ever been a bigger waste of taxpayers money? Probably, yeah.
Topics: Climate Change, California, Technology, Environment
Joe Yates