The plant, which is on the California-Nevada border, uses mirrors to focus sunlight on boilers at the top of three 459-foot towers, creating steam that drive turbines to produce electricity.
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The fire is believed to have been caused by misaligned mirrors which reflected the sun’s rays onto electrical wires, said Capt. Mike McClintock from San Bernardino County, California.
The fire at the two-year-old plant was just “smouldering” by the time the fire crew arrived on Thursday morning as staff had handled the flames with a fire extinguisher.
An NRG spokesman said it’s too early to say exactly what caused the failure, but it’s likely due to misaligned heliostats, according to Gizmodo. As the plant dealt with engineering hiccups, Ivanpah initially struggled to fulfill its electricity contract, and it would have had to shut down if the California Public Utilities Commission didn’t throw it a bone this past March. “The sheer size of these plants make it easy to overlook one little flaw”, says Tyler Ogden, an analyst at Lux Research. This caused electrical cables to catch fire, melting and scorching steam ducts and water pipes on the tower. The heat boils the water, and the steam turns the turbines. Plant personnel had the fire out by the time firefighters on site.
The $2.2 billion station – $1.6 billion in taxpayer-guaranteed loans – is run by a consortium that includes BrightSource Energy, NRG Energy and Google.
Ivanpah Solar Power Facility can usually generate enough energy for 140,000 California homes, but a second tower has also been shut down for maintenance, leaving only one running.
Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System with all three towers under load.
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The incident highlights the importance of properly positioning the mirrors of high concentrated solar power. By contrast, solar power sold from traditional plants in 2015 went for about $57 per megawatt hour. It’s now under probation with the Pacific Gas & Electric company for not reaching the output levels agreed upon in the original power purchase agreement. The plant is near Primm, Nevada.
