Aerial view of Solar Field One at the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (ISEGS) on October 27, 2012. Photo shows completed tower construction and heliostat (pairs of mirrors) installation. Mojave Desert, CA.
The future site of the ISEGS prior to full commencement of construction. October 15, 2010.
Clark Mountain and ground work for future power block of Solar Field One. January 14, 2011.
Early ground preparation near existing grid transmission lines. January 14, 2011.
Fencing and ground preparation near existing grid transmission lines. January 14, 2011.
Solar Field One with Interstate 15 and the racetrack on Ivanpah Lake bed in the background. April 21, 2011.
Excavation work for future power block of Solar Field Two. January 14, 2011.
Installed heliostats in Solar Field One along with active installation crews. January 6, 2012.
Installed heliostats in Solar Field One and adjacent section of undisturbed desert terrain of the site's alluvial fan. January 6, 2012.
Detail of service and boundary roads for Solar Field Two. January 6, 2012.
Solar Field One, its respective tower, and heliostat installation. April 11, 2012.
View showing delineation of future solar fields around an existing geologic formation. April 4, 2012.
Installed heliostats in "safe" or resting position. June 2, 2012.
Circular service roads within a Solar Field prior to installation of pylons or heliostats. June 2, 2012.
Interstate 15 heads north toward Las Vegas with a distant view of Ivanpah Solar in the distance. June 2, 2012.
Workers install a heliostat on a pylon in Solar Field One. June 4, 2012.
A race track makes its mark on the Ivanpah Dry Lake Bed with Interstate 15, Primm Valley Golf Club and Ivanpah Solar in the distance. June 5, 2012.
View north of Ivanpah Solar showing all three solar fields with heliostat installation complete in Solar Field One in the foreground. October 27, 2012.
One big problem with renewable energy projects is that they have to go somewhere. They have to occupy a part of the very environment that their proponents are often trying to save.
Photographer Jamey Stillings beautifully captures this tension in his images of the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (ISEGS). Located in Southern California’s Mojave Desert, the plant aims to eventually be the largest solar thermal power plant in the world – making enough electricity to run 140,000 homes all by focusing the sun’s energy to create steam.
Problem is, the system is located smack in the middle of the threatened desert tortoise habitat and the companies that built the system have already had to allocate $56 million to care for and relocate these ground dwellers. At least one major environmental group has argued the plant should have never been built on its current location.
“What I’ve discovered along the way is the issue of building renewable energy is a lot more complicated than one what might assume from afar,” says Stillings, who has been photographing Ivanpah since 2010.
Known for his photos of other large-scale industrial engineering projects at the intersection of nature and human activity, Stillings hopes the Ivanpah photos provide a way for people on opposite sides of the issue to find common ground for negotiations.
Kristin Hunter, a spokesperson for BrightSource Energy, which is one of three owners of the project along with Google and NRG Energy, says the project did take into consideration the environmental impact of the solar plant and purposely placed it in an area that already saw some human traffic. She says the area where Ivanpah sits is close to a major highway and a golf course, among other things, and is trafficked by people on all-terrain vehicles.
“[Jamey Stilling’s] photos should do a good job demonstrating the existing development at the site,” she says.
Barbara Boyle, a senior representative at the Sierra Club’s regional field office in Sacramento, disagrees with Hunter’s assessment and says Ivanpah could have been located at any number of other locations where it would have had less impact on the environment and the tortoises that live there.
“As soon as this proposal was on the ground we went out there and looked at the site and came to the conclusion as many other people did that this was an amazingly intact area and that it should not be disturbed,” she says.
Boyle says there are multiple areas in Southern California, including old dried-up agricultural lands and mining areas, that would have been more suitable. The existing infrastructure in the area mentioned by Hunter has already contributed to a decline in the number of tortoises, Boyle says. She and others worry about how the population will be affected as the Ivanpah project is completed.
“It is a species that has been here for many, many millennia and in the last century the populations have declined radically,” she says. “Like the Northern Spotted Owl [the tortoise] has really become a bellwether of the health of the ecosystem.”
Hunter says BrightSource Engery and all the other companies involved have done everything they can to protect the animals and ensure they thrive. Among other things they’ve been working with dozens of biologists to relocate the animals in nearby habitat and have started a “head start” program for juveniles of the species that protects them until they are big enough to protect themselves. To date Hunter says 144 tortoises (77 adults, 67 juveniles) have been found on site and all 77 adults have been relocated.
“Caring for the tortoise is something we take very seriously,” she says.
Before starting the project Stillings says he was a proponent of renewable energy. After being exposed to the multiple sides of the Ivanpah project he says he still is but realizes that finding a way forward is a complicated balance. He was back photographing Ivanpah just last month and says he plans to follow it all the way through completion, which is scheduled to happen at the end of 2013.
Denied the access he wanted on the ground, Stilling was forced to shoot most of his photos from a helicopter. In retrospect, it was a blessing in disguise since the aerial photos show Ivanpah’s size and how much impact the project has had on the surrounding landscape.
His photos from the project have already begun to stir up dialogue and have been published in and exhibited at several important venues including The New York Times Magazine and the photo-eye Gallery. With the backing of the Blue Earth Alliance, a non-profit created to support documentary photographers, he’s also started a project called “Changing Perspectives” that he hopes will follow other large-scale renewable energy developments across the world in an effort to continue stoking the conversation.
“Obviously this is a complicated issue, there are a lot of shades of gray,” he says. “I’ve been learning at the same time everyone else is learning. I anticipate that my perceptions will continue to evolve and others’ should as well.”
All Photos: Jamey Stillings
Jakob Schiller is a writer and photographer at Raw File.
Read more by Jakob Schiller
Follow @jakobschiller on Twitter.
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