I've driven past this place many times and I always wonder who got all the money.
California's $2.2 billion solar plant is shutting down.
Once hailed as a breakthrough, the Ivanpah Solar Facility in the Mojave Desert is now a case study in failed technology and environmental risk.
Built with $1.6 billion in federal loans in 2014, the plant was hailed as a symbol of America's clean energy future. It used 173,000 mirrors to focus sunlight onto three massive towers heating fluid to drive steam turbines.
Complicated.
Expensive.
And it never delivered on its promise.
After just 11 years, the technology is now obsolete.
On top of that, the facility became notorious for its environmental toll, with estimates of at least 6,000 birds incinerated each year by the concentrated beams.
The promise was affordable, reliable, green power. The reality was high costs, technical failures and ecological damage.
I know the Ivanpah project well. It was a political boondoggle scam from the beginning.
I was developing a competing traditional solar project not far from it back when it was developed.
It was never able to perform to the PPA. In a Power Purchase Agreement, usually with a utility, you have to guarantee to deliver a contracted amount of energy. It was never able to deliver what they were contractually obligated to deliver. To do so they had to fire up an old coal fire plant on the same property or face massive fines.
So the green energy promises from that plant weren’t so green. It was all a tax dollar sucking lie from the beginning. Just like Solyndra. Another Obama/Democrat farce.
Ivanpah was concentrated solar power (CSP) with mirrors/towers: overly complex, expensive to build/run, lower output than promised, plus bird deaths from heat flux. PV panel tech leapfrogged it on cost and simplicity.
Solar PV is solid for future Earth grids—scale it with batteries/storage for intermittency and better transmission.
On the Moon: Great for daytime (no atmosphere boosts efficiency), but 14-day nights demand massive storage or nuclear hybrids. Dust is the big hurdle—needs robotic cleaning or elevated panels.
Space X experiences an explosion that destroys the launch pad and rocked. Space X suffers the financial consequences.
Whimsical solar project fails. Tax payers suffer the financial consequences.
Liberal politicians hate Musk.
