![]() The mirrors focus the sun’s rays on boilers in the 460-foot-tall towers, heating water to 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit in order to create the steam needed to spin turbines that can generate enough electricity for 140,000 homes. All those mirrors are spread across 5 square miles at the California-Nevada border alongside the freeway that connects Las Vegas with Los Angeles. The numbers cited by the Ivanpah plant operator are impressive. For those of us who treasure the desert as wild and seemingly limitless, the effect is much like transplanting crowded refineries from New Jersey to the Mojave. Like gigantic watchtowers, the supports for the boilers loom some 40 stories over the desert, looking out over the sprawling lake of reflecting mirrors. I have looked at those mirrors and towers while conducting research for the Turtle Conservancy. “Just look at the 170,000 shining heliostat mirrors and the three towers that would dwarf the Statue of Liberty.” “This project speaks for itself,” said Secretary Moniz as he dedicated the facility. In February, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz flipped the on-switch at what’s now the largest solar farm in the world, the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System. The Obama administration and global players in the solar power industry have chosen electricity, and in order to so they are defiling the Mojave Desert with a massive project that turns the sun’s rays into juice for air conditioners in Los Angeles. Which should come first: protecting the threatened desert tortoise or creating expensive electricity for an already overpopulated California? Like Tweet Email Print Subscribe Donate Now
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