February 23, 2025
The Ivanpah death ray dies with a whimper--and our cash
By Mike McDaniel“Renewable,” “sustainable” energy was supposed to be the salvation of mankind. It promised cheap, unlimited energy more than sufficient to meet all mankind’s present and future needs, and to successfully address the existential threat of global cooling,,,oops. I mean global warming…darn! I mean climate change, yeah, that’s the ticket.
Even before Donald Trump won reelection, however, it was becoming increasingly clear climate change was perhaps history’s most profitable scam—for the scammers—and renewable energy like wind and solar couldn’t meet our current needs, to say nothing of future needs, and was far less reliable and far more expensive than fossil fuels. It was also clear these miraculous sources of energy couldn’t exist without massive government subsidies, which, with electric vehicles, have all been part of the “Green New Deal” climate change scam.
Among the most obvious monuments to the scam and scammers has been the Ivanpah solar plant in California’s Mojave Desert. Consisting of some 350,000 mirrors and three collection towers, the site resembles a science fiction B movie death ray, which, for birds, it turns out to have been. Any bird venturing into the energy reflected from the mirrors to the towers was flash fried with an efficiency that would impress Col. Sanders. One might imagine Democrats/socialists/communists (D/s/cs) would be aghast at the deaths of thousands of members of endangered species, but enormous amounts of money were fed to them, which dampened their conservationist fervor and earned government exemptions from endangered species laws. The D/s/c media obliged by avoiding mentioning the avian slaughter or publishing photos of the truck loads of crispy critters littering the area. The beams weren’t quite hot enough to instantly cremate them.
And now, at least a decade before it was supposed to close—yes, solar power installations of all kinds only last a short time—Ivanpah is closing:
A major solar power plant project that was granted over a billion dollars in federal loans is on the road to closure, with energy experts blasting the project as a “boondoggle” that harmed the environment.
In 2011, the US Department of Energy (DOE) under former President Barack Obama issued $1.6 billion in loan guarantees to finance the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, a green energy project that consists of three solar concentrating thermal power plants in California.
That’s $1.6 billion about which we know. Perhaps DOGE will find much more. But why is this science fiction wonder closing?
“Ivanpah is yet another failed green energy boondoggle, much like Solyndra,” Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute, an American energy advocacy group, told Fox News Digital in a statement.
“Despite receiving $1.6 billion in federal loan guarantees, it never lived up to its promises, producing less electricity than expected while still relying on natural gas to stay operational.”“Now, with its power contracts canceled, Ivanpah stands as a testament to the waste and inefficiency of government-subsidized energy schemes,” Isaac said.
Imagine that. A green energy wonder source cost more than it was supposed to, produced far less and far more costly energy than was advertised, used fossil fuel backup to operate at all and only lasted a fraction of the time advertised. Amazingly, even the Sierra Club is willing to admit the blindingly obvious:
“The Ivanpah plant was a financial boondoggle and environmental disaster,” Julia Dowell of the Sierra Club, an environmental activism group, said of the power plant.
“Along with killing thousands of birds and tortoises, the project’s construction destroyed irreplaceable pristine desert habitat along with numerous rare plant species,” Dowell said. “While the Sierra Club strongly supports innovative clean energy solutions and recognizes the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels, Ivanpah demonstrated that not all renewable technologies are created equal.”
Unsurprisingly, none of them are created equal, sustainable, reliable or economical. Wind energy projects across the nation and world are being cancelled, which is going to leave thousands of virtually unrecyclable windmills idle across America’s wide-open spaces. Archeologists of the distant future will likely conclude they were monuments erected by some bizarre, demonic religious cult lost to history and they’ll be right. They’ll likely conclude the same about acres of solar panels, most shattered by hail and melted and blackened by the sun. They’ll likely conclude those had something to do with human sacrifice to angry climate gods and they’ll be equally right. Ivanpah’s steel frameworks will likely be worth something, though God only knows what they’re going to do with a third of a million enormous mirrors.
Narcissistic D/s/c politicians and greenie cracktivists have more than enough mirrors already.
As always, D/s/c government promises free stuff and technological marvels but delivers bankruptcy and fraud. And as always, Californians are screwed by the corrupt politicians they never cease to elect.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/02/the_ivanpah_death_ray_dies_with_a_whimper_and_our_cash.html
