The $2.2 billion Ivanpah solar facility in California’s Mojave Desert is set to close, after never living up to its touted potential. The NY Post reports:
Construction began in 2010 and was completed in 2014. Now it’s set to close in 2026 after failing to efficiently generate solar energy.
In 2011, the US Department of Energy under President Barack Obama issued $1.6 billion in three federal loan guarantees for the project and the secretary of energy, Ernest Moniz, hailed it as “an example of how America is becoming a world leader in solar energy.”
But ultimately, it’s been more emblematic of profligate government spending and unwise bets on poorly conceived, quickly outdated technologies.
“Ivanpah stands as a testament to the waste and inefficiency of government subsidized energy schemes,” Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute, an American energy advocacy group, told Fox News via statement this past February. It “never lived up to its promises, producing less electricity than expected, while relying on natural gas to stay operational.”
In the face of the limitations of solar, and wind, it’s no wonder big tech firms are looking at nuclear power for their data centers. Companies like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft want to keep their carbon emissions low, but need massive amounts of power for artificial intelligence computing. Nuclear is the obvious choice given their self-imposed restraints. Read more about their push for nuclear here:
- Is Google Pioneering the Future of Nuclear Power?
- The Push for Small Nuclear Reactors
- Is a Wave of Nuclear Development About to Hit?
- AI Data Centers Could Consume 25% of U.S. Power
- The Grid Pushed to Its Limits
- How Will America Fill Its Data Center Power Gap?
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