PICTURE THIS
MIRROR, MIRROR
Las Vegas, the city of adventurers, is not the only place that lights up the desert. 60 kilometers to the southwest on the Californian side of the Mojave Desert, lies Ivanpah. In 2014 it went online as the worlds largest solar thermal power plant. 173,500 individually adjustable mirror units, known as heliostats, direct the sunlight to a tower that contains a heat absorber, which is used to drive a steam turbine. According to official figures, the three neighboring fields generate a total of 1079.2 GWh of electrical energy per year – enough to power 140,000 households. Critics of this type of power plant cite the large amount of space required, high construction costs and a severe impact on animals, especially birds.
Photo: Tom Hegen