The future - at least, one potential solution to our energy and climate problems - is here now.
As reported by Gizmodo, the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System - the world's largest solar plant, comprising 300,000 computer-controlled mirrors and 450-foot centralized solar power towers powering turbines with steam - started generating electricity today in the Mojave Desert on the California-Nevada border.
Dedicated today by Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, and jointly owned by US-based NRG Energy, US-Israeli BrightSource Energy and Google (which put up $168 million to help build it), Ivanpah is the world's biggest solar power plant.
The remarkable photographs tell some of the story, but essentially - according to the official news release - Ivanpah (located on the site of a silver mining ghost town from the mid-1880s) is capable of generating sufficient electricity to power 140,000 California homes with clean energy, and avoid 400,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year - or the equivalent of removing 72,000 vehicles from the road.
Read more about the remarkable Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System at Gizmodo, on Wikipedia, at CleanTechnica and SiliconBeat.
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