Such plants have consequences for local wildilfe (Image: BrightSource) Turning up the heat on power companies (Image: ZSSD/Minden Pictures/FLPA) The Ivanpah valley solar power plant, being built by BrightSource (Image: BrightSource)
IT IS almost high noon in California’s Mojave desert. Two biologists clad in fluorescent vest-jackets carry tortoises in plastic boxes through the creosote bushes, away from a 15-square-kilometre construction site that the animals once called home. Against a pastel mountain backdrop stand three towers (pictured). When the plant is completed, each will rise above a sea of mirrors. Together they will generate enough electricity to power 140,000 homes.…
