I can honestly say we had never heard of the word Ivanpah before our drive into Nevada, much less did we know we would be discovering it along the way!
But for both of us, finding things we never knew about is one of the best things about this trip.
As we drove across Interstate 15, just a few miles before the Nevada border, something massive and bright caught our attention.
A Desert Mystery…
At first glance, neither of us had a clue what it was we were looking at. And that goes for our second and third glances as well.
But it was absolutely huge! And quite honestly, looked like something straight out of a Sci-Fi movie.
There to our left, sprawled across nearly 3500 acres across the desert floor, was a conglomeration of what appeared to be thousands of mirrors.
And adding to the mystery, there were three glassy glowing towers sprouting up in the middle of it all.
Discovering Ivanpah
So we did what we always do in these situations. We pulled over and asked our friend Mr. Google. And were amazed to find out we were looking at the world’s largest solar thermal power station.
And the more we read, the more fascinated we became.
It turns out the shiny objects in the fields were indeed mirrors. And they are trained to direct the power of the sun right into those three towers.
That in turn heats them up and generates steam that then drives huge turbines to produce electricity. To the tune of 377 megawatts that actually produces enough electricity to power 140,000 homes.
I can’t describe how incredible it is to see something like this, and
And we still have area 51 in Nevada to go to! LOL.
It has been in operation now since 2014, an
And just one more thing we have dsicoverd on this incredible journey!
CURRENT TRIP STATS
- Day 93 of 365
- States : 12 / 50
- National Parks / Monuments : 12
- Stayed In : Las Vegas, Nevada
- Miles Driven : 314.2
- Total Trip Miles To Date : 9740.8
- Total Gallons Used : 726.93
- Biking Miles : 0.0
- Biking Miles To Date : 142.5
- Hiking Miles : 0.0
- Hiking Miles To Date : 189.5
About Our Living Simple Tour
On September 9th, 2019, we set out in our NuCamp T@B 400 Teardrop Camper to travel to every state. You can check out all of our dates here : Dates for the States
You can follow along by signing up for our twice weekly email updates at the bottom of the page. You can also follow us on Facebook : Live Simple Tour Facebook and Instagram : Live Simple Now Instagram Page.