Ivanpah Solar Power Plant Owners Don't Deserver Bailout
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The $2.2 billion Invanpah project was built using a $1.6 billion federal construction loan. Pictured is a portion of the 300,000 computer-controlled mirrors at the solar generating plant in Primm, Nev. AP
Government Failure: Another Obama green energy project is looking like it was wired up wrong. This time it's a giant mirror in the California desert. Its owners are now looking for a federal bailout to pay off their federal loan.
The Ivanpah solar power facility in the Mojave Desert southwest of Las Vegas covers 4,000 acres and has 173,500 heliostats used to turn the sun's energy into electricity.
It has the distinction of being the world's largest solar thermal power station, a headache for pilots who have been blinded by its bright reflective power, and an executioner of birds that have been scorched by the 1,000-degree heat it sends back toward the sky.
Ivanpah also has the honor of being an enormous pain in the backside of taxpayers.
The $2.2 billion project was built using a $1.6 billion federal construction loan. Supporters bragged that it would provide electricity to 140,000 California homes when working at full capacity. Its largest investor, NRG Energy, promoted Ivanpah as a source of "clean energy" that will remove "400,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year" from the atmosphere, the equivalent of taking 72,000 vehicles off the road.
The facility opened earlier this year to great praise, naturally, because we've been told over and again that green energy, such as solar power, is the future.
But now its owners — NRG, Web giant Google and BrightSource Energy in Oakland, Calif. — are hoping to secure a $539 million federal grant to help pay off their $1.6 billion federal loan. That shows these moneyed companies have more brass than they do dollars.
It shouldn't be too much to expect the owners to pay back their crony loan with the profits they make from their glorious project.
But maybe that's the problem. They know it's a losing proposition, a toy with Solyndra-esque troubles, and there won't be enough revenue to repay the taxpayers.
Simply put, Ivanpah has not delivered.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, it's produced only a quarter of the power it was promised to generate.
This is the profound flaw with solar power. The sun doesn't always shine, and the electricity that is produced can't be stored for a cloudy day.
Meanwhile, gas- and coal-fired power plants keep churning out cheap electricity. They don't need the sun to do their jobs. Or taxpayer subsidies.