Situated 45 miles (75 km) outside Las Vegas and taking up five square miles (13 square km) is the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System. This region of the Mojave has virtually unbroken sunshine and the plant is able to generate solar power through 350,000 computer-controlled mirrors called heliostats.
The $2.2 billion facility consists of three power plants.
The mirrors focus sunlight onto boilers atop the towers, creating steam, which drives turbines that generate enough electricity to power 140,000 California homes.
The facility, owned by NRG Energy, Google and BrightSource Energy formally opened on February 17 and has a capacity of 392 megawatts.
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