Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System Review

This thing may be large, but compared to the valley it is in this is a drop in the bucket. This is the wave of the future and it is awesome in every good way.

Falsely described "to produce 450,000 megawatts" It actually produces about 45000 megawatts,it varies from 35 to 65 mwh. each month, about a tenth of what a typical power plant produces. The method used was to multiply the the 45000 megawatt hours produced by 12 or about i years output. .Proponents are using a lack of understanding of the difference between a megawatt and a megawatt hour. Also, if it was built with 2.5 billion in federal funds how is it privately owned?

Was better when the BoS was in charge, but I guess the NCR is doing a good enough job.

Absolutely amazing. The rest of the world could take a leaf out of this book.

Curiosity about this place: Several birds die charred at specific points in the ultra hot sky! When traveling to Las Vegas or Los Angeles, don't miss the opportunity to take some pictures of this solar plant. It is gigantic. According to wikipedia it is one of the largest in the world (it is always renewing itself, so every so often it's first).

Many here are making negative remarks about this power station without seeking the history of the facility. The facility is private funded with a Federal loan backup in the event of default. It was ok'ed by the 2010 GOP Governor of California. Yes, birds can get cooked in mid-air, but this is desert and there are not that many birds flying around this site; there is far more environmental and human damage being done in the Coal Industry as they plow mountain tops into the river valleys below.

Visited a few years ago in February I think and it is an impressive place. Someone else here says it blinds you -- NONSENSE! I'm not a big fan of CSP solar as they are useless on cloudy days and incinerate migratory birds -- with the developments in PV cells going PV is the only way to go. For storage use pumped storage for grid scale and batteries for home or small business.

Excellent is under the control of the NCR used to provide power to Camp McCarran, Elijah disappeared during the attack on the Brotherhood of Steel

So. Shiny. I wish they had these on both north and south side of the freeway so that the northbound traffic can stare into the beautiful solar panels like southbound.

Invest in solar panel technology. This is a massive bait and switch.

It's awesome!

No energy system is perfect, take your pick Coal, Nuclear, Solar, Wind, Hydro....They all have issues, but we all like electricity!

Looks Awesome! They should do trips to visit the plant

I love seeing a major solar power plant using the sun for energy.

Massive desecration of open desert land. Birds fried in mid-air. What's not to like? At least it's not as visible at a distance as the other "clean" energy, wind power. They're building plenty of that in the desert as well.

People really need to examine the sprawl of so-called renewable energy and the large fossil fuel component in its construction. It's really just business as usual, spun with environment-friendly rhetoric.

Renewable Energy is the future it is impressive seeing Solar Power on such a grand scale

It looks gorgeous from the road. But very hard to look at

Saw this from the air when heading back home to Scotland, amazing sight to see

Great Idea! I love the molten salt reactor particularly if used in with nuclear power. But this SOLAR Molten Salt Reactor kills your eyes when you are driving past it! California state should look into TerraPower, instead. Its a great idea and much safer/smarter than this plant is.

If you actually read the data, you can see that this has become yet another glut on our dwindling resources.

it was fun watching birds get shot down by super concentrated sun rays.

I used their electricity, and then my Dryer stopped working. Poor quality electricity. I will just switch back to Edison thank you! How are people leaving reviews on here?

While this place is pretty cool to look at, it's another example of government wasted spending of my tax dollars!! So thanks for showing me where my money is going!

My home is powered by the tears and anger in these reviews. Gotta love solar.

Interesting side trip off the interstate. Looks like the wires come straight out of the generating building onto the grid, Wish they had a visitors center or at least a sign describing the technology.

Didn t go but drove by on the I15, so bright! Would love to stop one day. We need more renewable energy! Thanks sun. Thumbs up!

I cannot believe people are complaining about birds dying. Do you eat chicken people? Duck perhaps?

Great to see solar energy at use, but wow, those pillars are bright. I have to wear sunglasses looking out the window on flights from Las Vegas to the LA area.

For all you people concerned about it killing birds...more birds are killed by cars than ever will be killed by the field of solar panels. So you're saying that we should get rid of cars too, right?

Impressive construction in the middle of the nowhere. Would visit.

Blindingly bright for freeway travelers. Renewable energy is a good thing, precautions should be taken to ensure safety of those driving nearby.

Imposing, really huge. Three towers to head on a solar power plant. Perfect for the environment. Clearly visible from the highway towards Las Vegas

The world desperately needs a renewable even infinite power source more than birds and desert tortoises, all of the animals will die of pollution without power plants like this.

From the day my older sister told me these towers were for a Submarine base, to the day I met the engineer who almost got the bid to build them, these shining pearls of the desert have always had my attention. I would love to see more of the United States deserts being used for these facilities and love that they serve as a reminder to thousands every week end that renewable power is a daily reality.

3 movable stages, 1 under construction. Concentrate sunlight on a single point with tens of thousands of mirrors to achieve ultra high temperatures. So water is evaporated and the turbine is turned to generate electricity. When in operation, the concentrator becomes incandescent and dazzling.

I would like to know where the power goes for this facility

Would not shop here again. More expensive than a new nuclear reactor, less reliable output and kills a lot more wildlife. Will not be recommending to my friends. Buyer beware!

You need a theoretical degree in physics to work here.

It's super cool and innovative there should be tons more all over the world otherwise the sun is largely going to waste! Plus it looks super cool!

I drove by this over Memorial Day Weekend. I love that this project is doing the "helmets to hard hats" program to get our vets to work. I also was simply blown away by the scale and beauty of this project.

If you have been to the Hoover Dam, or the Empire State Building, Trade Centers, etc. you understand what a massive scale engineering project is, and this one ranks up there with the best of those. It is impressive, bold, and the kind of thing we need to do more in this world.

Ironically, my son's just flew over the area and thought that they might be some kind of UFO, but when I showed them the Google Maps areal view, they were like "oh, wow!"

Majestic is how I will describe this power plant! The collection towers cast beams of light that are even brighter than the sun! Noticed no cooked birds though.

Have been here so many times and always feel this is so awesome

Killing tens of thousands of birds unlucky enough to fly in its path each year sort of defeats the purpose of this so-called "green energy", doesn't it? Why didn't the engineers factor in the wildlife around this facility when designing it?

As opposed to photovoltaics, this concept is really clean (in production), durable and efficient. It would be great to see more installations of this type.

I remember visiting this enterprise ... it was cool !!!!

Uses more fossil fuel to keep the plant running then clean energy it produces

It was an awesome sight. In the middle of the day, I could see the ray of light coming from one of the collection towers beaming horizontally.
What I thought was the most interesting, which I had heard about before I ever got to see this place, were the "Streamers".
Streamers were named by the plant employees that see streams of smoke trailing birds as they come crashing into the ground, which had been ignited while flying overhead and into the path of the focused sun rays.

We need more solar and renewables. Doesn't ruin landscape any more than the state line casinos

Thank the heavens for intergalactic beings like Russellgoffs from the planet Russgoffria, who can inform us humans about what is best for our biological profile. Since we have so many insatiable lusts for energy consumption, I guess we are in hock to the super rich solar barons. Come to Pennsylvania, and you can snort coal ash from a coal burning power plant. My treat.

Looks amazing. Great project. Hopefully more to come.

Fails every single metric for a viable energy source. Do not recommend.

It's ridiculous that this project is again trying to dip into public funds. Don't put good money after bad. The investors should man up and take their losses rather than ask for a grant to pay back loans.

The place has been dismantled. It's now a solar dead zone. Look at it on Google Earth. !

The 3 bright towers are an amazing sight to see. Not your typical solar power plant. This one uses mirrors to reflect light to the towers filled with water. The intense magnification of the solar rays by focusing thousands of mirrors onto one point heats the water to generate steam powered electricity via special turbines. The magnified sun rays can reach degrees in the thousands which is amazing. There are traditional solar panel farms near the towers but they lay flat and are not near as noticeable as the 3 towers.

no bailout needed. The investors took a chance. the plant is built so it matter little if the investors get money. If they default on the loads, the plant will continue, just under someone else ownership.

Blinding light gave me s migraine. Couldn't they have built this on the other side of the hills that are right next to it. Very distracting to drivers in both direction. Grrrrr

Saw it from the air and it was like looking down into a welding arc. Amazing tech

Blinding light , dead birds and cost to operate coming from our tax dollars. California's screwed us again america. Shut them down and build a wall around the state with 50 cal machine guns on the wall to keep the people of California in their own country. They need to pull their heads out and wake up.
Their solar plants dont work right and their dangerous to everything and everyone

Fantastic! Wow! I have studied these but never saw one before. A great use of the sun and heat in the Mohave dessert.

Horrifying and destructive to the extreme. Solar belongs on our rooftops.