A fire at the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in California shut down one of its three towers on Thursday, May 9, leaving the Mojave Desert plant operating on a single unit because a second tower was already offline for maintenance.
The fire began around 9:30 a.m. Plant personnel climbed roughly 300 feet up the tower and extinguished the blaze within 20 minutes, before firefighters reached the scene, according to San Bernardino County Fire Department captain Mike McClintock. Officials declined to comment pending completion of an investigation, but McClintock said he believes misaligned mirrors were to blame.
Ivanpah produces electricity by using computer-controlled mirrors to reflect sunlight onto boilers, which generate steam that drives turbines. Firefighters believe some mirrors were mistakenly aligned to direct sunlight onto a different level of the third unit, and the resulting intense heat caused electrical cables to catch fire.
Why One Tower Matters
The plant sits on federal land in the Mojave Desert about 45 miles southwest of Las Vegas. It opened two years ago and has the capacity to power 140,000 homes in California. The fire-damaged tower and the tower already down for maintenance leave only one of the three units in service.
It has not been made clear how the reduced operation will affect California's power supply, or for how long. No public information is available yet on the cost of damage to the $2.2 billion facility.
An Existing Deadline
The California Public Utilities Commission has given Ivanpah until the end of July to deliver the output required under its power purchase agreement. NRG, an energy company and part owner of Ivanpah, says the plant is not likely to meet that deadline.
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