The Mojave Desert is blooming.
Construction crews are erecting mirrors, each measuring 70 square feet at a rate of 500 per day across some 3,500 acres.
The project has a partnership of NRG, BrightSource, Google and Bechtel.
Unlike photovoltaic technology, which converts solar radiation directly into electricity, the Ivanpah facility generates heat. More than 170,000 mirrors will gather tremendous amounts of sunlight and focus it on three towers filled with water, raising temperatures to more than 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit and producing steam that spins turbines that generate electricity. The Bechtel corporation, says that using sunlight instead of fossil fuels to power the turbines will reduce carbon emissions by more than 400,000 tons annually.
The world's largest solar thermal is now comprises the GOOGLE logo which is spell out in heliostats(mirrors reflect sunlight onto a central receiving point).
