Regulators are allowing an Obama-era “clean energy” solar plant to continue operating even as its reflected solar beams kill thousands of each year, with no fines or enforcement action taken since it opened, a Fox News Digital investigation has found.
The Ivanpah Solar Power Plant, a sprawling facility built with taxpayer support in the Mojave Desert near the CaliforniaâNevada border, remains in compliance under existing regulations, even as birds are burned, injured or killed after flying through the beams which reflect sunlight onto the plant’s three central towers.
Regulators were aware of those risks before approving the project as part of a broader push to expand renewable energy. Today, it remains in compliance, meaning the wildlife deaths documented at the site fall within limits set under its environmental approvals. That framework allows the plant to continue operating even as thousands of birds are killed each year.
“Staff is not aware of any formal enforcement actions or fines issued by either the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the California Department of Fish and Wildlife related to avian or wildlife mortality at the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System,” the California Energy Commission, which oversees large energy projects in the state, told Fox News Digital.
The commission also said it knows of no special regulatory exemptions for renewable energy projects related to wildlife impacts. Instead, the project was approved as long as monitoring and mitigation requirements would be carried out, meaning some level of wildlife mortality was anticipated.
The futuristic-looking facility, known for its three large towers that glow brightly when powered on, was approved during the Obama-era push to rapidly expand renewable energy following the 2008 financial crisis â part of a broader effort to cut emissions and reduce reliance on fossil fuels in the name of .
At the time, it was hailed as the future of “clean energy” technology, and the federal government provided a $539 million grant for its construction, along with a separate $1.6 billion loan.
But its technology quickly became outdated by conventional solar panels that absorb sunlight directly and convert it into electricity, making Ivanpah’s energy more expensive to produce. The plant also relies on natural gas to start up each day â producing tens of thousands of metric tons of carbon dioxide annually.
Researchers say birds are drawn to the bright towers, then fly through the plants concentrated solar beams â known as solar flux â where they can be injured or killed. Researchers dubbed the phenomenon “streamers,” and a video released by the U.S. shows a bird trailing smoke as its feathers burn. Songbirds, doves, warblers and other migratory species have been found dead at the plant.
Environmental reviews examined by Fox News Digital show that regulators were aware before construction that the project could kill birds, either by being burned by the plants concentrated sunlight or colliding with the tens of thousands of mirrors that surround the three towers like lakes. They also raised concerns about damage to the 4,000-acre physical desert habitat it was going to occupy, as well as to protected species that roam the barren terrain, such as the endangered desert tortoise, dozens of which went unaccounted for during early operations.
The projects Final Statement warned that climate efforts could come “at the expense of reducing the native biodiversity.”
Even with those warnings, regulators approved the project, allowing it to move forward on the basis that ongoing monitoring and mitigation requirements would be carried out, rather than requiring those risks to be resolved.
A 2016 congressional review raised similar concerns, finding no clear evidence that federal agencies had pursued penalties for bird deaths at Ivanpah â a pattern that appears to have continued.
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