WATCH/READ: The Ivanpah Boondoggle
[Credit to X user The Rickster for posting the video below. A transcript follows for those who prefer to read.]
Transcript:
Fifteen years ago, operators of the Ivanpah thermal solar facility - NRG Energy, Google, and BrightSource Energy - got a $1.6 billion loan from the Department of Energy. Now 11 years later, the facility is closing.
Why did the government fund a five-square-mile laser death rate that kills 6,000 birds a year?
That is Ivanpah, a solar farm in the Mojave Desert. And the birdpocalypse isn't even the biggest part of this boondoggle.
15 years ago, Google, NRG Energy, and Bright Source Energy got together for this idea. They would sell solar power to PG&E and California Edison until 2039. But they needed funding.
Bechtel, who's a big government contractor, helped them get a $1.6 billion loan from the Department of Energy. See all those mirrors? Yeah, there's 350,000 of them, and each one is the size of a garage door. They reflect sunlight onto boilers 450 feet high as part of the solar thermal process.
The project promised to create 1,000 construction jobs and power 140,000 homes. And that— didn't happen. In theory, everyone would benefit, from workers and local communities to politicians pushing green energy.
Now, the facility opened in 2014, and it didn't take long to realize that mirrors attract bugs and birds eat bugs, and the mirrors themselves get really hot. The reflected rays at Ivanpah literally singed birds to death midair, leaving clouds of smoke called streamers.
The project was also terrible for desert tortoises and destroyed irreplaceable, pristine desert habitat.
But the real problem was about power. Ivanpah only operated at half capacity. Apparently officials hadn't considered things like weather or equipment challenges impacting energy production. You know, like they should have.
NRG said it could take years for Ivanpuh to hit its annual energy goals. In the meantime, they'd use natural gas to operate the boilers. So much so that they even needed state approval to increase the gas limit. Turns out the sun didn't shine as much as everyone hoped, and the facility could no longer compete with newer, more efficient technology.
Today, Ivanpah employs 61 people, but soon it will be zero. PG&E ended their contract 15 years early, and Ivanpah will close two of its three units by 2026. For the American taxpayers, it's Solyndra 2.0.
So, I guess this is good news for the birds. What do you think?
[End]
That is all.
Great for birds and all wildlife but who will take the mirrors down and restore the land that was destroyed ! I think it is obvious that solar and wind equipment will be in place until it falls apart. Then just junk laying around. You put this stuff up, go broke, walk away leaving your failed equipment in place. Someone should have thought about that. World full of fools especially relating to green projects. Nothing green about any of this.
Nice piece David. This spectacular failure and boondoggle needs as much press as it can get.
I have seen a bird catch fire flying through the beams. It is horrible.
All those mirrors are computer controlled to focus on the boiler at the top of the tower. What could go wrong? One day a computer malfunction focused the beams 100 feet below the boiler on the tower which caught fire and closed the unit for a year.
So glad this abomination is gone.