When driving to (or from) Vegas from California along the I-15, it’s impossible to not see (unless you’re Daredevil) the 3, super bright Power Towers at the Ivanpah solar plant, which opened in 2014. These 3 towers receive a huge dose of sunlight from the surrounding heliostats (173,500 in total!), each of which track the sun and direct their 2 mirror panels to the towers. These towers store heat that is used to run steam turbines to generate electricity. Apparently, the steam turbines are powered by natural gas during times where solar is intermittent or unavailable. This $2.2 billion facility generates 392 megawatts, or 392,000,000 watts an hour at max capacity.
Originally, the capacity was set to be 440 MWh, but due to environmental concerns, such as encroaching on wild tortoise habitat, it was scaled back. Other than that, the plant has killed thousands of birds, some being burnt in flight (yikes). Has the plant paid itself off at least? Supposedly, it could have, and online sources suggest that it generated more money than it cost to build. However, its loans were never paid off in full. It has high operating costs and a great deal of complexity, especially compared to the increasingly cheaper, and much simpler solar technology known as photovoltaic, which generates electricity directly; no towers, no steam. As a result, the Ivanpah solar plant will be going dark sometime in 2026. The facility that once had bright towers may now be repurposed for photovoltaic solar panels instead.