Major Mike | Year of 2017

042117

The Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project near Tonopah, Nevada

File this one under ‘Massive industrial sites that become unintentional public art when seen from the right perspective.’ That perspective comes via a single-engine plane flying over the southwestern edge of Nevada, near the town of Tonopah. This is where the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project harvests the bountiful sunshine in the region, converting and storing it as energy that is distributed to homes through the Nevada Power Company. The power plant has been operating since September 2015.

The Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project is a 110 megawatt net solar thermal power project with 1.1 gigawatt-hours of energy storage, located near Tonopah, about 190 miles northwest of Las Vegas. It is the first utility-scale concentrating solar power plant with a central receiver tower and advanced molten salt energy storage technology from SolarReserve. The project, developed by SolarReserve and owned by Tonopah Solar Energy, LLC. was anticipated to cost less than $1 billion. EPC Contractor was ACS Cobra, which carried out the engineering design, procured the equipment and materials necessary, and then constructed and delivered the facility to Tonopah Solar Energy.
Website: www.solarreserve.com/en/global-projects/csp/crescent-dunes
Construction started: 2011