An Obama-era California solar power facility known more for incinerating birds than helping the environment is on the road to closing down.
The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System received $1.6 billion in loan guarantees from President Barack Obama's Department of Energy in 2011.
It was built in the Mojave Desert in 2014 as the world's largest solar thermal power plant. The facility was touted by then-Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz as an “example of how America is becoming a world leader in solar energy.”
In January, Pacific Gas & Energy announced plans to cancel its agreement with Ivanpah 14 years early, determining that “ending the agreements at this time will save customers money compared to the cost of keeping them through 2039” – ultimately putting Ivanpah on notice for closure.
“Ivanpah is yet another failed green energy boondoggle, much like Solyndra,” Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute, an American energy advocacy group, told Fox News Digital in a statement. “Despite receiving $1.6 billion in federal loan guarantees, it never lived up to its promises, producing less electricity than expected while still relying on natural gas to stay operational.”
“Now, with its power contracts canceled, Ivanpah stands as a testament to the waste and inefficiency of government-subsidized energy schemes,” Isaac said.
More than 100,000 heliostats are installed around 140-meter-tall power towers at Ivanpah. A heliostat is a device that reflects sunlight in a specific direction, and by concentrating solar energy from a large number of heliostats on the boiler in the power tower, water is boiled and a steam turbine is driven.
Animal welfare activists estimate that 28,000 birds die annually due to reflected sunlight from the facility.
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Ivanpah plant is very bright because it reflects and collects sunlight, attracting insects that are attracted to the light. When the insects are attracted, it attracts birds that feed on the insects.
The facility is located in an area along the Pacific Flyway, a major north-south flight route for migratory birds, including protected species.
Julia Dowell of the Sierra Club said the Ivanpah facility "has been a financial waste and an environmental disaster. Not only has the project killed thousands of birds and turtles, it has cleared untouched desert and destroyed many rare plant species. The Sierra Club is a strong supporter of innovative clean energy solutions to transition away from fossil fuels, but the Ivanpah Solar Power Plant demonstrates that not all renewable energy is desirable."
Solyndra, another Obama-era Department of Energy-funded project, went bankrupt in 2011 after receiving $535 million in federal loan guarantees.
“Soon we will be looking at failures of larger magnitude than Green New Deal spending. No green project relying on taxpayer subsidies has ever made any economic or environmental sense,” said Steve Milloy, senior fellow at the Energy & Environmental Legal Institute and former Trump EPA transition team member. “It’s important that President Trump stop the taxpayer bleeding by ending what he accurately calls the Green New Scam.”
World's largest barbecue at Ivanpah pic.twitter.com/xFDnsT6FrW
— Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) April 26, 2015
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