Pilots Say Glare from Newly-Opened Ivanpah Solar Farm Is Blindingly Dangerous

A pilot flying over the newly-completed Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in the Mojave Desert, near the Nevada border, complained to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that he was “nearly blinded” by reflections from the huge mirrors used to harness the sun’s rays. He is apparently not alone, according to federal documents reviewed by the Riverside Press-Enterprise. An anonymous Los Angeles air traffic controller told the FAA that pilots had complained to him about the blinding light and that he himself had experienced it as a passenger flying over. “I have no idea what can be done about this situation, but being a passenger on an aircraft that flew through this airspace and saw it for myself, I would say that something needs to be done. It is extremely bright and distracting,” the controller wrote. The complaints were reportedly made to the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) last August, relayed to the FAA in November, passed along to Nevada’s Clark County Department of Aviation in January and sent to NRG Energy and Bright Source Energy, co-owners and operators of the plant, last week. The companies were asked to respond within 10 days to the ASRS, the California Energy Commission (CEC) and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Ivanpah sits on public land leased from the BLM. Ivanpah is reputed to be the world’s largest solar energy project in the world, with 170,000 heliostat mirrors focusing the sun’s rays on 459-foot-high tanks of water, producing steam to run a conventional turbine that produces electricity. It began producing electricity last year and came online in December...more

The reports went to the gov't last August.  So it took them 7 months to send them to the companies involved, yet they expect a response in 10 days.  That pretty well describes the shape we are in today.