https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/13/climate/ivanpah-desert-solar-closing/index.ht...This alien-like field of mirrors in the desert was once the future of solar energy.
It’s closing after just 11 years.
Ivanpah was the largest concentrated solar power facility in the world when it opened in 2014, just over a decade, it's slated to close.
David McNew/Getty Images
CNN
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From a distance, the Ivanpah solar plant looks like a shimmering lake in the Mojave Desert. Up close, it’s a vast alien-like installation of hundreds of thousand of mirrors pointed at three towers, each taller than the Statue of Liberty.
When this plant opened near the California-Nevada border in early 2014, it was pitched as the future of solar power. Just over a decade later, it’s closing.
The plant’s co-owner NRG Energy announced in January it was unwinding contracts with power companies and, subject to regulatory approval, would begin closing the plant in early 2026, readying the site to potentially be repurposed for a new kind of solar energy.
For some, Ivanpah now stands as a huge, shiny monument to wasted tax dollars and environmental damage — campaign groups long criticized the plant for its impact on desert wildlife. For others, failures like this are a natural part of the race to find the winning solutions for the clean energy transition.
When Ivanpah was conceived, its technology, called concentrated solar or thermal solar, was considered a potential breakthrough.
It works like this: Hundreds of thousands of computer-controlled mirrors called “heliostats” track the sun and concentrate its rays onto three towers, each around 450 feet tall and topped with water-filled boilers. The sun’s hyper-concentrated energy turns this water to steam, which drives a turbine to create electricity.
One of the key selling points of this solar technology is the ability to store heat, allowing the production of electricity at night or when the sun isn’t shining without needing batteries.
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