The Ivanpah Solar Debacle: How Taxpayers Were Fleeced for Fun

 The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, a $2.2 billion monument to corporate greed and governmental negligence, stands as one of the most egregious taxpayer-funded boondoggles in modern energy history. From its inception, this Mojave Desert eyesore—backed by a cabal of profit-hungry corporations and complicit bureaucrats—was less about “clean energy” and more about lining the pockets of executives, investors, and contractors while leaving the public holding the bag. Let’s name names and expose the rot.

The Players: Who Got Rich on Your Dime?

  1. BrightSource Energy
  • Arnold Goldman, founder of BrightSource, peddled the plant’s unproven concentrated solar power (CSP) technology as revolutionary, despite glaring inefficiencies. His company secured a staggering $1.6 billion federal loan guarantee in 2011 under the Obama administration’s DOE program, spearheaded by then-Energy Secretary Steven Chu. Goldman’s net worth ballooned while taxpayers bore the risk.
  1. NRG Energya
  • Former CEO David Crane aggressively pushed NRG’s investment in Ivanpah, branding it a “moonshot” for renewables. NRG contributed $300 million but later wrote off its entire stake as losses, admitting the plant was “underperforming.” Yet Crane walked away with $29.4 million in compensation in 2014 alone, even as Ivanpah floundered.
  1. Google
  • The tech giant invested $168 million in Ivanpah, leveraging its “green” image for PR while quietly writing off the project as a tax loss. Executives like Larry Page and Sergey Brin dodged accountability, hiding behind their “Climate Savior” branding.
  1. Bechtel Corporation
  • The construction behemoth, notorious for cost overruns, raked in billions to build Ivanpah. Bechtel’s then-CEO Riley Bechtel (net worth: $3.2 billion) laughed all the way to the bank as delays and budget blowouts plagued the project.

  • The Federal Government

  • The DOE’s loan program, overseen by Chu, rubber-stamped Ivanpah’s risky financing. Meanwhile, taxpayers footed the bill for $600 million in federal tax credits, subsidizing a plant that produced less than half its promised energy output.

The Scam: Broken Promises and Ecological Carnage

  • Performance Fraud: Ivanpah’s 392 MW capacity was a lie. By 2016, it generated only 45% of its target (a very high estimate given the natural gas component), forcing California to extend its deadline to meet output requirements. Its CSP technology—dependent on cloudless skies—proved hopelessly unreliable.
  • Natural Gas “Greenwashing”: Ivanpah burned enough natural gas annually to power 17,000 homes, emitting 58,000 tons of CO2 yearly. This fossil fuel reliance was buried in fine print while politicians touted it as “renewable.”
  • Wildlife Slaughter: Over 6,000 birds were incinerated by Ivanpah’s “solar flux,” earning it the nickname “The Avian Death Ray.” The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service documented carcasses of protected species, including golden eagles, while BrightSource shrugged.
  • Desert Destruction: The plant bulldozed 5.6 square miles of pristine Mojave habitat, displacing endangered desert tortoises. Federal agencies fast-tracked permits, ignoring biologists’ warnings.

The Exit Scam: How the Rich Cut and Ran

By 2019, the original investors had already begun offloading their toxic asset. NRG and BrightSource sold Ivanpah to Brookfield Renewable Partners for pennies on the dollar, leaving Brookfield to lobby for even more public subsidies to keep the plant alive. In 2023, Brookfield finally pulled the plug, abandoning the site after extracting every possible dollar from ratepayers and taxpayers.

Meanwhile, the architects of this disaster faced zero consequences:

  • Arnold Goldman retired comfortably, leaving BrightSource to pivot to smaller projects.
  • David Crane resigned from NRG in 2015 with a golden parachute, later joining a private equity firm.
  • Steven Chu returned to academia, his DOE legacy tarnished by Solyndra and Ivanpah’s failures.

The Bottom Line: A Theft of Public Trust

Ivanpah was never about saving the planet—it was a cash grab disguised as climate action. The plant’s closure after just 11 years (far short of its 30-year lifespan) proves that the real “renewable” energy here was the endless recycling of taxpayer dollars into corporate coffers.

We must never forget:

  • $2.2 billion in public funds vanished into a mirage.
  • Executives and contractors profited; wildlife and taxpayers paid the price.
  • This is not an anomaly—it’s a blueprint for how corporate cronyism hijacks the green energy transition.

The Mojave Desert now bears the scars of this hubris. Let Ivanpah’s ruins stand as a warning: No more blank checks for the wealthy elite. The next time a politician or CEO promises a “green revolution,” remember who truly gets burned.

Ronald Pelosi, the brother-in-law of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, served as an independent director at PCG Asset Management, a subsidiary of Pacific Corporate Group (PCG). PCG held a 2% equity stake in SolarReserve, the parent company of Tonopah Solar Energy. In September 2011, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) finalized a $737 million loan guarantee to Tonopah Solar Energy for the development of the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project in Nevada.

The Crescent Dunes project, intended to be a 110-megawatt concentrating solar power facility, faced significant operational challenges. By 2020, Tonopah Solar Energy LLC filed for bankruptcy, still owing $425 million on its DOE loan. A settlement was reached in which the DOE agreed to recover at least $200 million.

Same scam, different day?

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