Reports of Ivanpah’s Execution Appear to Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

Ah, that great, towering edifice rising above the sea of glittering solar mirrors in the Mojave Desert. Where the reflected heat of the sun’s rays between tower and mirror would catch up to 6,000 unsuspecting little avian friends a year unawares, causing them to spontaneously burst into flames from the excessive BTUs so often every day, hurtling to earth with a comet-like blazing trail of flaming, smoking feathers that locals took to calling them ‘streamers.’

Poor, wee, innocent, horrifically incinerated sacrificial victims strewn across the altar of man’s ingenuity in his quest for a greener world.

Ironic, no?

Ivanpah, yes.

You almost want to spit the name out.

When you realize it costs $1.6B to build and wreak its destructive power, you simply want to spit in disgust.

…The plant, developed by Oakland-based BrightSource Energy, was approved in 2010 amid questions about its cost to taxpayers and the facility’s impact on the desert environment.

The U.S. Department of Energy granted Ivanpah $1.6 billion in loan guarantees. As a green-energy project, it also qualified for more than $600 million in federal tax credits.

Just before the project broke ground, President Barack Obama praised it in his weekly radio address.

“With projects like this one, and others across this country, we are staking our claim to continued leadership in the new global economy,” Obama said. “And we’re putting Americans to work producing clean, home-grown American energy that will help lower our reliance on foreign oil and protect our planet for future generations.”

Then-Interior Secretary Ken Salazar freed up large expanses of public land for the plant despite environmentalists’ concerns about wildlife habitat and the loss of open space.

Ivanpah was built on 5.6 square miles of mostly undisturbed public land that was home to desert tortoises, a species threatened with extinction, and other species.

It was never up to the hype or the cash outlay. 

…Also, almost as immediately, the drawbacks and shortcomings became glaringly apparent. In fact, so much so that only a year after this renewable wonder was full-scale ahead – 2015 – people were wondering if it hadn’t been subjected to what’s commonly known as a ‘bait and switch.’

For one thing, ‘green’ it was not. The ‘solar’ plant used natural gas to run the boilers, not to mention those awkward times when pesky things called ‘clouds’ blocked the sunlight completely, and they were finding out it needed even more than it was allowed by the agreement. 

The carbon-friendly solar array was generating twice as much carbon dioxide as the level power plants in California were authorized to operate at.

OOPS

And in September of last year, they announced that their billion-dollar boondoggle was shutting down and had never been all it was cracked up to be. But those things known as ‘bait and switches‘ rarely are.

As Gavin Newsom takes a taxpayer funded vacation at Climate Week in New York City, the environmental catastrophe that is the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility in California is shutting down.

The 2 BILLION dollar blight built on 3,500 pristine acres of Mojave desert has been… pic.twitter.com/8IlLXxNjXe

— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) September 23, 2025

…The 2 BILLION dollar blight built on 3,500 pristine acres of Mojave desert has been responsible for incinerating more than 60,000 birds, created TWICE the pollution of a typical power plant, created 86 jobs instead of the promised 2000, and will abandon 173,500 thermal collectors in the environment they were trying to save.

But much to everyone’s surprise, in January came a shock announcement – a stay of execution. A reprieve for the ‘bird broiler.’

As John posted at the time, the state had come to the sudden realization that, as hinky as Ivanpah was, they couldn’t afford to lose any of the electricity it was producing – the state public utilities commission blocked the deal for Pacific Gas & Electric (PG & E) to end their deal with the facility’s owners, which include NRG Energy, Google and BrightSource. That’s how desperate the situation is in Newsom’s California.

Sorry birdies. It’s only 13 more years at 6K birds a year = 78,000+ flaming corpses.

LAY MORE EGGS, SLACKERS

Only it turns out that’s not going to happen after all. The California Public Utilities Commission decided Ivanpah needs to remain open because the state doesn’t have enough electricity to replace it at the moment.

The electricity it makes is expensive, its technology has been superseded, and it’s incinerating thousands of birds mid-flight each year. The Trump administration wants to see this unusual power plant closed, and in a rare instance of alignment, the Biden administration did, too.

But the state of California is insisting the Ivanpah power plant in the Mojave Desert stay open for at least 13 more years. It’s an indication of just how much electricity artificial intelligence and data centers are demanding.

The reason I am revisiting this is that there has been a sudden burst of joy online about the facility shutting down at last.

This solar facility kiIIed over 6,000 birds a year. It’s finally shutting down! https://t.co/QhEI84zCGH

— Tom Slocum for Texas 🇺🇸 (@slocumfortexas) April 30, 2026

And I hate to be the wet blanket, but I can find nothing indicating that is so.

There has been no reversal of the CPUC’s decision.

And, in point of fact, what I found while researching was that the commission is working on permits for something called the Ivanpah Control Project (ICP). While separate from the Ivanpah Solar Project, the ICP will upgrade, remediate, or replace all Southern California Edison transmission lines and structures in the area.

The Ivanpah-Control Project will enhance the safety of Southern California Edison’s (SCE’s) sub-transmission system, controlled by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO). The project is now in the initial planning phase. SCE filed a project application with the California Publics Utilities Commission (CPUC) in 2019, and subsequently amended applications were filed in 2020 and 2024. If approved by the CPUC, the project is anticipated to begin construction in mid-2027.

The project will follow CPUC safety standards and include remediation activities such as replacing existing structures with taller structures and increasing conductor (wire) ground clearances. Most of the construction will take place in the existing transmission line rights-of-way to minimize environmental impacts. The estimated project completion date is late-2030.

That includes the section directly connecting to the Ivanpah solar installation substation.

Yes, the Ivanpah-Control Project transmission lines connect to the Ivanpah Substation, which is located immediately adjacent to the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System. 

…The project involves rebuilding and upgrading over 350 miles of existing 115-kilovolt transmission lines, including the segment terminating at the Ivanpah solar site, to improve safety and meet California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) standards.

If Ivanpah were shutting down in the near future, I don’t think they’d be spending the time and tremendous amount of money to upgrade the 115-KW lines from the site.

Sorry, birdies. I hate to see get hopes get up and be the one to crush them, but it looks like the disastrous sizzle is still on, and PG&E’s customers are still on the hook.

…Despite these issues, the CPUC determined the facility must stay online to help the state meet “tight electricity conditions” expected in the coming years, including surging demand from data centers and artificial intelligence, building and transportation electrification, and hydrogen production. Ivanpah qualifies as clean energy and California has committed to 100% clean energy by 2045.

The state’s most recent Integrated Resources Plan, which looks ahead at how it will meet energy needs, “would dictate that Ivanpah should remain online in light of the current uncertainty regarding reliability,” the CPUC wrote in its December resolution.

The five-member decision came despite PG&E’s assertion ratepayers will save money if it closes, a conclusion generally supported by an independent review.

It also came despite support for Ivanpah’s closure from both the Biden and Trump administrations, which rarely converge on the issue of energy. Construction of the $2.2-billion plant was backed by a $1.6-billion federal loan guarantee that has not yet been fully repaid.

How much remains on that loan has not been made public, but an internal audit reviewed by The Times indicates it may be as much as $780 million.

Sometimes what seems too good to be true turns out to be exactly that.

Especially in California.

Bummer.

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