A 41-Year First: POWER Magazine Plant of the Year for Ivanpah Solar

For the first time in its 131-year history, POWER Magazine has conferred its prestigious “Plant of the Year” award on a renewable energy electricity plant.  That would be the Ivanpah concentrating solar power plant in California, which just went online as one in a set of five such utility scale power plants supported partly by the US Department of Energy.  Ivanpah also had a substantial investment from Google, so it looks like the company’s bet on concentrating solar power has paid off.

In addition to $168 million investment by Google and a $1.6 billion loan guarantee from the Department of Energy, the project involved NRG, BrightSource Energy, and the global engineering firm Bechtel.

Our focus has been mainly on the concentrating solar technology.  For a fascinating look into the nitty gritty of the plant’s construction and the reasons why it garnered Plant of the Year, check out Thomas W. Overton’s article on the Ivanpah award at PowerMag.com.

The Plant of the Year award has been called Power Magazine’s most prestigious award. In addition to numerous firsts in terms of construction and the numerous obstacles in the plant’s way, Overton also lists some of the obvious factors that came into consideration in granting the award to Ivanpah:

The largest solar thermal plant in the world, the first large-scale concentrating solar power (CSP) project in the U.S. to employ power tower technology, and the biggest project funded to date by the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Loan Projects Office (LPO).

That’s nothing compared to the detailed rundown Overton provides in the article.  Go check it out for an in-depth look at what went into building the plant, including changes in design that were made to accommodate environmental concerns.

A 41-Year First:  POWER Magazine Plant of the Year for Ivanpah Solar