Roughly $730M to $780M remains on a $1.6B federal loan, and one critic calls the Ivanpah facility a ‘boondoggle’
By Michael Dorgan Fox News
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – Federal taxpayers helped build a $2.2 billion solar plant — now electricity customers are on the hook to keep it running.
The Ivanpah Solar Power Plant, a sprawling facility near the California-Nevada border built with billions in federal support during the Obama-era economic stimulus program, is stuck in a costly dilemma.
Both the Trump and Biden administrations — along with the utility company that buys its power — have sought to shut it down, saying it underperforms, produces expensive electricity and has been overtaken by cheaper energy sources. But California regulators have refused to allow it to close, warning that closing the plant could strain the power grid.
The result is a costly standoff rooted in years of government decisions: shutting it down could leave taxpayers responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars tied to a $1.6 billion federal loan, while keeping it open means higher electricity costs for consumers.
“This project makes no economic sense to keep afloat, and the market itself has shown that,” Daniel Turner, founder of the energy advocacy group Power The Future, told Fox News Digital.
“This is a boondoggle, like most of California’s large projects are a boondoggle,” he said, arguing it is being kept alive for political reasons, with costs ultimately passed on to customers.
Rising out of the Mojave Desert, the more than 4,000-acre facility still looks like the future. It has roughly 350,000 mirrors — mounted on more than 170,000 heliostats — which stretch for miles and reflect blinding sunlight into three towering structures that glow eerily white against the barren terrain.
