$2.2 billion solar plant in California turned off after years of wasted money: ‘Never lived up to its promises’

NY Post ^ | 9-23-25 | Michael Kaplan

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Seen from the sky, the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility in California’s Mojave Desert resembles a futuristic dream.

Viewed from the bottom line, however, Ivanpah is anything but.

The solar power plant, which features three 459-foot towers and thousands of computer-controlled mirrors known as heliostats, cost some $2.2 billion to build.

Construction began in 2010 and was completed in 2014. Now, it’s set to close in 2026 after failing to efficiently generate solar energy.

In 2011, the US Department of Energy under former President Barack Obama issued $1.6 billion in three federal loan guarantees for the project and the Secretary of Energy, Ernest Moniz, hailed it as “an example of how America is becoming a world leader in solar energy.”

But ultimately, it’s been more emblematic of profligate government spending and unwise bets on poorly conceived, quickly outdated technologies.

“Ivanpah stands as a testament to the waste and inefficiency of government subsidized energy schemes,”Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute, an American energy advocacy group, told Fox News via statement this past February. It “never lived up to its promises, producing less electricity than expected, while relying on natural gas to stay operational.”

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Fraud by the usual suspects.

[China Clipper]

Might be able to pick up some good used solar panels- real cheap yeah?

[dynachrome]

Not in newscums’s ‘paradise’.

[China Clipper]

Oh wait, They’re just expensive MIRRORS!!!

Nevermind….

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Yes, fraud.

When the Obamabucks ran out, so did the "amazing technology" (cough, cough).

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Ivanpah has no solar panels. Those are big mirror that reflect the sunlight to a boiler at the top of the tower.

Maybe all those mirror could be repurposed into bathroom mirrors.

[Organic Panic]

As long as the politically connected “green” scammers got paid and the money laundered back to the DNC the project was a wild success.l

[Texas resident]

Shovel ready = Graft.

Kenyan thug tactics at work.

[noiseman]

Even if everything the left believes about “climate change” were true, all of the “renewable” alternatives to conventional power generation are ridiculously complex and inefficient. Taking a single-site conventional power plant, with huge generators located at ground level, and replacing it with hundreds of wind turbines spread over miles and with hundreds of much smaller generators placed hundreds of feet off the ground, presents a maintenance nightmare and tosses the advantage of economy of scale out the window. The same goes for large-scale photovoltaic solar plants, and even more so for the few solar tower plants like those at the California/Nevada border.

These are Rube Goldberg-type “solutions” for a problem that doesn’t exist.

[Celtic Conservative]

The only thing it was good at was french frying birds in midair.

CC

[ckilmer]

the solar panels are getting steadily cheaper even without trump administration support—because every time volume doubles the price declines by about 20%.

I’m reading that Musk is making early plans to make a huge gigawatt solar farm. It could be ten gigawatts.I don’t know where. But gigawatt of power would mean square mile size areas in desert. The most logical places for that are west texas or somewhere in nevada. I’d go for nevada because the land is flatter and a federal deal to use the land on the cheap,

Musk will figure out a way to make solar for .01@kwh. The batteries will add another penny or two to costs.

[Paladin2]

"...Might be able to pick up some good used solar panels- real cheap..."

Mirrors...

Build your own fun-house...

[Sell to the CIA for their crazy in-house uses...]

[EERinOK]

That and blinding aircraft pilots

[waterhill]

Is this the ‘bird fryer’ I’ve heard about?

Cooks a bird in under a minute on the wing?

[Bobbyvotes]

I would like a mirrored ceiling in bedroom and mirrored wall in living room to make it look double size.

[Bullish]

It’s not like the sun hasn’t been out every day doing it’s job. It’s always hot as hell out there. Lots and lots of that money was stolen. Theft and money laundering is one thing the democrats excel at. Creating anything useful, not at all.

[Myrddin]

Incinerated birds and blinded pilots. Not a great story of success. Good to see it go.

[Bullish]

The one's on the ground aren't solar panels. They're mirrors that focus the sunlight on the towers to heat water to make steam to turn generator turbines, right? At least the ones by Barstow were like that.

[Scrambler Bob]

They failed to harvest the roasted birds.

Would have made up the financial deficit.

[going hot]

Maybe all those mirror could be repurposed into bathroom mirrors.

Well, if the are curved, they might make the butt look bigger, a big no no.