We've received several similar inquiries stretching back over the past few months, but confess we've not had reason to drive that route recently, so we can only go on the strength of our remote research, but we're pretty sure that what you're referring to are three 459-foot heliostat towers of the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (ISEGS).
Located just inside the California state line, southwest of Las Vegas, the towers have been described as looking more like NASA rocket pads than heliostat receiving towers. Surrounding all three towers is a growing field of 340,000 7-foot by 10-foot mirrors that are being manufactured on site and arranged in arcs, asymmetrically, around the solar boiler towers. Each mirror tracks the sun throughout the day and reflects the solar energy to its receiver boiler.
It was back in 2007 that a company called Solar Partners LLC submitted an Application for Certification to the California Energy Commission to develop three solar thermal power plants and shared facilities close to the Ivanpah Dry Lake, in San Bernardino County. The two-phase project, which began in 2010 and in which Google is also an investor, is being built on 3,600 acres of public land and will eventually generate 392 megawatts, or enough to power 140,000 homes. It's currently the largest solar plant under construction in the world. ISEGS is scheduled for completion in 2013. It's just one of several solar projects in the area planned by Oakland-based BrightSource LPT, which is under contract with PG&E and Southern California Edison and has plans for two, 250-megawatt solar plants on the Tecopa Road near Pahrump, too.
