The Ivanpah Thermal Solar Power Plant, Once a Marvel of Technology, Has Become an Expensive Boondoggle: Some Want it Shuttered, but California Says It is Still Needed

     The Ivanpah Thermal Solar Power Plant in the Mojave Desert in California near the Nevada border has been operational since 2014. Once the U.S. flagship for thermal solar power, the project has become obsolete, some argue, since solar PV technology has improved to the point where it is more economical than Ivanpah. Basically, the project has become a stranded asset, more expensive to operate than deploying and operating existing solar PV tech. The current debate about closing it down or not is basically a debate about who pays the $1.6 billion government loan payments, taxpayers if it is closed, or electricity ratepayers if it remains open. It also shows the irony that all the hoopla about fossil fuel assets becoming stranded assets can be applied to some clean energy projects as well. In this case, it is a very expensive project with $2.2 billion in government funding.

     Ivanpah’s land footprint is quite large at 4000 acres. It contains 350,000 mirrors on 170,000 heliostats. The mirrors blinded aircraft with the glare, so plane routes had to be diverted around them. While its capacity is nearly 400 MW, since it is a solar plant only operational during the day, its actual output was likely closer to 100 MW. A 400 MW natural gas plant would have an output closer to 250 MW.

     Michael Dorgan of Fox News wrote a detailed article about the issues facing the plant. He noted some of the environmental issues that the plant has triggered, including significant wildlife impacts:

“The project has also faced scrutiny over its environmental impact, with thousands of birds killed after flying through the plant’s concentrated solar beams — along with the destruction of large areas of desert land and displacement of desert tortoises.”

     Thus, while its environmental benefits compared to a comparable 100-200 MW natural gas unit are great in terms of air pollutants and carbon emissions, its large land footprint, desert impacts, and hot concentrated solar beams that are deadly for birds make it not so great for the local environment.  

     Dorgan notes that between $730 million and $780 million of the $1.6 billion government loan is left to be paid. The project also received a $539 million government grant that funded 30% of its construction. Keeping the plant open may require up to $100 million per year from ratepayers compared to currently available solar alternatives.

“Officials under both the Trump and Biden administrations, along with Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) — which buys electricity from the plant — have supported shutting it down. PG&E has described the contracts as part of an effort to reduce "uneconomic resources" in its energy portfolio, according to regulatory filings.”

     The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) rejected efforts to break the power contracts that the plant has with buyers. Shutting down the plant could create another stranded asset, that being the $300 million sunk into transmission to deliver its power, which was funded by ratepayers. CPUC also cites potential threats to grid reliability in light of increasing demand due to AI data centers as reasons to keep it open.

     Severin Borenstein, an energy economist at the University of California, Berkeley, told Fox News Digital that:

“…the project reflects the risks of investing in emerging energy technologies at scale.”

Mark Jacobson, a Stanford University energy systems expert (and an avid anti-fossil fuel advocate – I add),

“…contended the technology itself is not inherently flawed but lacks key features used in newer systems.”

"There’s no role for a concentrated solar plant without storage," Jacobson told Fox News Digital, noting that modern systems typically store energy for use at night — something Ivanpah cannot do.

“Jacobson added that while the plant may no longer be competitive with new projects, that does not necessarily mean it should be shut down.”

"It’s already built," he said. "So the question is whether it’s cheaper to keep it running than to replace it."

     Ivanpah has also suffered operational issues, which have further degraded its output. In 2023, the plant had a capacity factor, or utilization rate, of just 17%, making it comparable to a 68 MW power plant working 24 hours. When it was built, it was hoped that its capacity factor would be steady between 25 and 30%.

     The plant is about 50 miles from the nearest town, and people there say their own power bills are very high.     

     It was an interesting project in its time, but I am guessing it will be shuttered before too long, although nobody knows when. I wonder what they will do with all those mirrors when the plant is decommissioned. It doesn’t seem likely that the stranded transmission will be useful or fully powered except for other solar projects and perhaps geothermal projects. It was an early experiment that sort of worked but had issues and then succumbed to better tech, namely PV solar plus storage.

     Dorgan published another article a week later detailing the wildlife impacts of the plant, including evidence that the concentrated solar beams scorched birds. The final environmental impact statement for the project noted that there would be bird deaths and that they would be monitored. No penalties or fines are issued for the deaths as they are considered to be incidental. However, if someone were to intentionally kill some of those bird species, they could be heavily fined, up to $15,000 per bird. There have been some mitigation attempts, but mostly, there is just monitoring. It is estimated that over one thousand birds are killed annually.

 

    

 

References:

Obama-backed $2.2B green energy boondoggle leaves taxpayers on the hook. Michael Dorgan. Fox News. May 2, 2026. Obama-backed $2.2B green energy boondoggle leaves taxpayers on the hook

Regulators allow Obama-era solar plant to kill thousands of birds annually, investigation finds. Michael Dorgan. Fox News. May 9, 2026. Regulators allow Obama-era solar plant to kill thousands of birds annually, investigation finds